Skooby's Street Dog

Skooby's Street Dog, originally uploaded by ~db~.

Tucked in a small shop under what was once the marquee for a Pussycat Theater, Skooby's is famous. As in hot dog shop on Hollywood Blvd famous. There are photos of Beck hanging out and Tenacious D manning the grill which attest to this. Still, for the dozens of times I've walked by, I've never stopped. Yesterday, hungry for a hot dog after a long day, I decided it was time.

The first thing that struck me was the variety of the menu. Where I expected the only options to be whether to add cheese and/or chili, there was actually a nice selection of dogs, whether served naked (you add the condiments), or with non-standard toppings like bleu cheese or aoli. The second thing I noticed is that all the dogs are served in King's Hawaiian rolls. Not hot dog buns, but their original sweet dinner rolls. Things looked promising.

It was Tuesday, when Skooby's has a special: $2 for the regular dog, $3 for the street dog. I couldn't pass that up and chose the latter.

First the good. For a regular dog, it was massive. Sure, a lot of that was the sponge of the buns, but still, for 3 bucks this thing was a meal and then some. The veggies were cooked perfect, which is to say they weren't overcooked, but rather just enough to bring out the flavor of the peppers and onions, while keeping their snap. The bun was toasted very nicely with a liberal amount of butter. A little bit of a bite but really it's just a warm pillow..

Now the bad. You notice I haven't mentioned the hot dog itself. Simply put, deep frying the dog destroyed it. Or rather it rendered it into a dense mass of overcooked protein. Even with the bacon wrap, the fat had all been drawn out. It felt like I was chewing on a pet's chew toy. To be clear, I'm talking about texture, not taste, because it is, after all, a deep-fried bacon-wrapped hot dog. So, lots of flavor, but not so enjoyable to eat.

But I don't want to leave a bad impression. It was good overall, especially for the price. It's also a cheap ticket to sit on Hollywood Blvd for an hour and watch the show. I'll surely be back to try out some of the other offerings. About $3 for the dog.