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The other night, Conan O’Brien recruited Georgia boy Jack McBrayer (the page on 30 Rock) to join Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Chicago’s famed Wieners Circle, a hot dog stand with an attitude.  No doubt, Triumph is my favorite member of Conan’s entourage.  So it stands as no surprise that this bit turned out fan-freaking-tastic.  The Robert Smigel voiced puppet is as bad as they come; and, when paired with the softly presented McBrayer, we are treated to comic gold.  Check it out!

If you haven’t heard of the Wieners Circle, I strongly suggest you listen to This American Life’s episode on the NSFW eatery.  Meanwhile, if you don’t have an hour, and really just want some laughs … stick to the video containing the sweet piece of comic genius.

There’s something incredibly LA about Wurstküche, which is German for sausage kitchen.  Situated in a revitalized section of Downtown Los Angeles, Wurstküche’s neighborhood has become gentrified in so much as its residents all live in true loft spaces, its many working artists breath life into every corner of its intermingled warehouses, and its visitors are there, at least in part, to see where “real art” is made.

This sausage house is the restaurant realization of Joseph Pitruzzelli and Tyler Wilson.  For Wurstküche, like so many other popular LA eateries, something magical must have happened during this most recent Year of the Rat.  Several of the restaurants I visited during my 2011 West Coast hoedown opened in 2008, Wurstküche included.

In the three-years since, this young duo has built a cash money machine that churns through customers seemingly as fast as their sausage makers churn through rattlesnake.  Obsessively popular, it’s a place whose food did not impress, regardless of how many people say otherwise with their wallets.

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While New York may be considered the hot dog capital of the world and while Chicago may have a hot dog that bears its name, West Coast megaplex Los Angeles is the true champ.  Sure enough, there’s some council that keeps track of this stuff and LA supposedly consumes more weenies than either Chi-town or Nu Yok Citay.   In fact, the city of Angels has several hot dog institutions.  So it should not be all that surprising that I made a point to visit a trio of those institutions during my West Coast soiree.

Between Oki-Dog, Papaya King, and Pink’s, there’s about as much name recognition as there is with most any hot dog dispensary in the country.  So with a good bit of anticipation, I squeezed in a visit to each establishment during my six-days in sunny LA.

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The tiny little building at 4441 Roswell Rd on the edge of Sandy Springs and Buckhead has gone through a few changes in the past year+.  What was first a Wolf Camera and then a little yogurt shop is now Ringside Franks & Shakes.  With a simple personality and a linear menu of traditional hot dogs and classic milkshake flavors, Ringside Franks seems settled in its own skin as a neighborhood restaurant.

Conceptually, Ringside is a mashup of the old reliable wiener stand meets modern American sensibilities.  In the case of the latter, those sensibilities translate into a de rigueur menu full of au naturel products.  Using both buns and links harnessed from nearby purveyors, Ringside is attempting to give people a “feel good” hot dog experience without getting caught up in the trend to reinvent the wheel.

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 Hot dogs have long been an important part of America’s food culture.  Like the burger, they seem ripe for a rebirth as America’s next food trend.  That was of course, until Asif Mandvi, the hard hitting investigative journalist from The Daily Show, discovered the dangers of a hot dog-a-day diet.

Most people who visit HD1, Atlanta’s newest hot dog concept, will not have any misgivings as to the type of things they will see, touch, and taste while inside.  Few, if any, will expect a classic American meal as by now, proprietor Barry Mills and celeb chef Richard Blais are well known for their culinary riffs.  This expectation of contemporary interpretations is further attributed to the Blais celebrity.  He is, in and of himself, a draw.  And thus people have a common understanding for any project to which his name is attached.  That is, quite simply, to expect something well left of center.

This type of thinking extends to that the quasi-monolithic entrance.  Though beautiful, it is somewhat out of place amongst its more mundane surroundings.  That’s not a criticism, just an explanation as to why you’ll have a hard time missing HD1 as you drive down N. Highland in the Poncey-Highland ‘hood.  Beyond the visual introduction, what follows inside is a pacifistic assault on the senses.

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Time may be running out for that blue and red neon sign at LeRoy’s Fried Chicken; rumor has it that there’s trouble in fried chicken land for chef Julia LeRoy and her Westside chicken hut.  According to a a few people very close to the situation, Clay Harper and Mike Nelson, the La Fonda/Fellini’s duo who backed LeRoy, are considering shutting down LFC.

Thanks in part to fried chicken that has never been good, the food stand is struggling to draw crowds.  Word around the campfire is that Harper and Nelson are looking close down LFC and replace it with a second Ringside Franks & Shakes, their recently opened Roswell Road hot dog stand.

Hot dogs are super trendy right now, so the rumor certainly makes sense in that respect.  However, the space doesn’t seem to have much in the way of indoor seating (not without some remodeling), so we are left to wonder exactly how a concept change would come to fruition.  Keep in mind that this is simply a rumor (albeit one with some real teeth), so until something official gets released… it’s business as usual for the troubled food stand.

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I’m Left Coasting it for a little bit longer and time doesn’t stop for those of us kicking back.  Meanwhile in Atlanta, HD1, the hot dog experiment with a heavy hand from Richard Blais, opened late last week in Poncey-Highland.  So while you all wait patiently for my return and initial visit, I thought I’d point you to a few posts on the fresh off the grill hot dog joint.

Savory Exposure did a magnificent job of providing us with some food porn … so much so that I, with his permission, lifted that great shot of his of the hot dog lineup.  The Food Abides put out his thoughts about his opening night visit.  And thanks to catlike curiosity, so too did the AJC’s Jon Watson.

The burger’s answer to the Rice Krispie just landed in Atlanta.  While Snap, Crackle, and Pop serve as tripped out figments of my imagination, Buckhead’s Smashburger insists that we are all witness to smash, sizzle, and savor their flat-topped burger offerings.

Already at two metro locations with a third one on the way (though still short of the announced five), Smashburger is an upper echelon fast casual joint with an eye on your waistline.  A stylistically predictable brand job (and a logo design eerily similar to that of next-door gamer haven GameStop) is a quintessential example of chi-chi.  But there’s more to a restaurant than MEATS the eye!

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Updated: 6.23 @ 8:00am

After years and years of being Atlanta’s premier dive bar (sorry Clermont), Northside Tavern is finally getting in on the food game … sort of.  I say sort of because the Westside’s newest food adventure is coming in the form of a new food stand named Muncheez.  A lot of details are up in the air, but here’s what I know.

The launch date for Muncheez is Sunday, July 10th.  They’re going to have a little shindig where a handful of bands, including the Swamp Funk Quartet, are scheduled to play and the trailer will start pumping out food.  There’s a chance Muncheez might get going sooner, but that is the official date.

It’s a 20’ long trailer, so I’m not exactly sure where or how it will be configured, that currently sits in the parking lot, still wrapped and facing Brady Ave.  The menu is eerily similar to another nearby food stand, albeit much more expansive.  Scheduled to be in the included offerings are wings, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, buffalo calamari and fried snickers.  The man, or at least one of the people, behind Muncheez is a dude by the name of Rommel Chatman.  I don’t have a lot of info on Mr. Chatman, but from what I have been told, he doesn’t come from the restaurant industry  was a waiter at Fox and Hounds and Mr. C’s.

Anyway, that’s about all.  There is no mention of this on the NT website but Muncheez does have a twitter handle and a facebook page that includes a few videos related to said trailer.