THE CULT OF HOT DOUG’S
Book celebrates fab frankfurters as well as shop’s fanatics
Happy dogs run in packs. And a frolicsome sense of community defines “Hot Doug’s The Book” (Midway, $24.95), written by hot dog store owner Doug Sohn with Kate DeVivo. The coffeetable book is like the popular Hot Doug’s, in that is dressed up with a little bit of everything: history, humor and memorable images.
But the book gets its bite from the contributions of more than 200regular patrons.
The shop at 3324 N. California has attracted a loyal following by raising the bar on the Chicago hot dog — dressed with relish, tomato, pickle, celery salt and mustard.
The current menu features the Steve Swisher, named for the former Cubs catcher and featuring chicken sausage, (Italian- or Santa Fe-style, $3.50); the Brigitte Bardot, a hot Andouille sausage ($4), and the veggie Joe Strummer (formerly the Pete Shelley, $3). Sohn will discuss the book at “The Interview Show” with Mark Bazer at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia. The lure of Hot Doug’s is remarkable. Louise Ahrendt is the restaurant’s “staff artist” and painted the Grant Wood- and Rene Magritte-influenced murals in the bathrooms. Pete and Shannon Rullo got engaged at Hot Doug’s, and Sohn officiated their wedding at the Metro. Nick Markos wrote the restaurant’s theme song with a nod to the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.” All these characters are in the book. “Community is what I’m most honored by,” Sohn said during a recent conversation before he opened Hot Doug’s to the sounds of early Elvis Costello. “All the accolades are great — Zagat ratings, Anthony Bourdain — but the best is that people come in monthly without fail. We have a group of guys who comes in every Friday. I’m incredibly humbled. It’s kind of how the book came about. That’s why I only want one restaurant. I don’t want to go to meetings. I don’t want spreadsheets.
“And I would miss this.” Sohn glanced at his customers who became friends.
Pete Rullo, box office manager at Metro, said, “It’s cliche, but it’s my Cheers. When Doug’s is closed on a Monday, it is a very moral struggle.”
Ahrendt, who owns a West Loop creative design company, used to live near the original Hot Doug’s The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium in Roscoe Village, which was gutted by a 2004 fire. Sohn hosted a “gallery opening” for Ahrendt’s bathroom art in the summer of 2006. He even ordered cookies and flowers. Ahrendt also designed and painted the pink fiberglass pigs in the back of the restaurant.
Sohn was born in Deerfield and moved to the Gold Coast when he was 12. He went to Latin School of Chicago and majored in philosophy at Columbia College in New York City. He dropped out his junior year and obtained a culinary arts degree from Kendall College in Chicago.
“My dad [Dr. Herb Sohn] is still a urologist at Weiss Hospital, so yes, we’re both in the weiner business,” Sohn said. “That’s my joke. He’s tried to appropriate it.” Sohn, 51, opened his current store in January 2005 in a former hamburger stand called Papa George’s. Hot Doug’s seats about 45 people in the restaurant and another 20 people outside in good weather.
Sometimes the legendary lines along Hot Doug’s north brick wall exceed capacity.
Sohn said the lines began after a nice review from the late Sun-Times food critic Pat Bruno. “He used to do an annual article for hot dog month,” Sohn said. “He picked us as the best. We started getting Saturday lines. There [have been] one or two times someone has been in line with a lawn chair before I got here [at 8:45 a.m.].”
Hairdresser Shannon Rullo has waited in line as long as an hour for the veggie dog. “There’s something about how he does the fixings,” she said. “The dogs he uses [from Yves in Canada] are so good, sometimes I think I’m eating meat.”
Sohn was a foodie pioneer in the industrial Avondale neighborhood. “After me, Kuma’s opened,” he said. “Urban Belly opened. Pork Shoppe. I love it. I can get stuff on the way home. Now you see Honey Butter Fried Chicken is opening in the next month or so [at 3361 N. Elston].”
Hot Doug’s is a case of a great tale wagging the dog.
Pete Rullo said, “People go, ‘You wait in line for sausages?’ No, it’s not just the sausages. It’s Doug, it’s the staff. This place feels like home.”