I don’t mind eating at a chain restaurant every once in a while, but given the choice, I like the one-of-a-kind spot. If Hillbilly Hot Dogs is not one-of-a-kind, I don’t know what the term means.
On the drive home with Mike after attending Mayberry Days 2010, we stopped at a restaurant I had read about and felt sure I would never be able to convince my wife to frequent. Hillbilly Hot Dogs is on Ohio River Road near Lesage, West Virginia, about 20 minutes up the river from Huntington. As the name of the road implies, the restaurant sits right across the road from the Ohio River pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
I can sum up why my wife would never be overly interested in going there by sharing the comment my dear friend Ann made when she saw a picture of it I posted on Facebook at the time. Ann said something along the line of: “Randy, tell me you got a tetanus shot before you went in there.”
The main seating was in two hollowed-out buses attached to the kitchen. The owners encourage graffiti so I made sure to leave a Mayberry message while standing in line. They have 28 different types of hot dogs with names such as the Snuffy Dog, UK Wildcat, Stacy’s Flu Shot (lots of jalapeños), Egg Dog (yes, it does have scrambled eggs on it), Strickly Business Dog (not a typo), and the Coal Miner.
My favorite is the Ala Cheesy Beefy Weenie. You start with something I have usually only encountered in the Northeast: a deep-fried hot dog. (In New Jersey and other spots, they sometimes fry them long enough that the casing bursts and call them “rippers.”) Add to that American cheese, nacho cheese, bacon, a wedge of fried mac-n-cheese, Hillbilly Hot Dogs’ own hot dog sauce, and shredded cheese and you have some good eatin’. I didn’t say it was healthy. In fact, at a lot of fun restaurants, I often say it was a treat but if you ate like that all the time, you’d be dead within a week.
Mike and I were not men enough to try it, but someone did order their most famous dog while we were there. Behold the world famous Homewrecker!
A 15-inch-long deep-fried one pound weenie piled high with peppers, onions, nacho cheese, spicy chili sauce, jalapeños, mustard, slaw, tomatoes, lettuce, and shredded cheese (I guess because the nacho cheese was not enough)! That’s 3 1/2 pounds loaded. Eat it in under 12 minutes and you get a free t-shirt but you are on your own for the ride to the hospital.
If you are ever in the area, I heartily recommend it.
You Win ! Beats anything I have run across yet, but if I ever pass by that way, I will surely have to stop and have one. Nothing beats a good hot dog 🙂
It’s a tradition for me on the way home from Mayberry Days.
I love it. I’ll have to try it sometime if I ever get back up that way.