Hot Dogs

Murray Morgan should be proud

I’ve now been to The Red Hot on 6th Ave a few times and it has been a treat each time. In order of appearance, I devoured a Murray Morgan Bridge Brat, a Destiny City Slaw Dog, and then another Murray Morgan Bridge Brat. Aside from having the best name of any brat I’ve encountered, it is the perfect snack when you’re on the go. I add cream cheese to my brat to complement the existing sauerkraut and mustard. The slaw dog was perfect as is. For 3 or 4 dollars you can’t beat it. They have a dozen or so different choices to suit a variety of tastes.

After many years, someone has finally done it. I’d always wondered why nobody had launched a Starbuck’s/McDonald’s calibre dog chain in the US, and I used to dream about opening a double drive-thru dog stand in Tacoma. I wanted to call mine Schwank’s and it was going to be awesome. The Red Hot has taken everything I had envisioned, moved it to a swank sit-down bar atmosphere, and added a bunch of beer. Brilliant.

THE RED HOT
2914 6th Ave
Tacoma, WA
(253) 779-0229

Hot Dog, anyone?

Last weekend, I treated myself to a new spot I’ve been eyeing in the Tacoma blog scene. Friday night I had a Murray Morgan Bridge Brat with cream cheese from the Red Hot. It was really good, but I would order at least 2 at a time in the future. I would also know how to conduct myself a little better in the environment they’ve created. We walked in and weren’t sure what to do with ourselves. There was no menu on the wall, no “order here” or “order at the bar” signs anywhere (perhaps they are still being made?) so we sat down at a table. Of course, we came to find out that there is no table service, and that we were supposed to get our own menus and order at the counter. This should be streamlined ASAP, if it hasn’t been already.

Tacoma has needed another non-downtown hot dog joint forever, and I even thought about opening a drive-thru wiener stand (I planned on calling it Shwank’s) a couple years back. If you are going to open a restaurant, it doesn’t get much easier than hot dogs as far as storage, life span, cost, keeping them warm, etc. I sincerely hope this place can make its mark and stick around. My first impression was that of a bar and not of a restaurant… hopefully they will make it go on the drinks because it didn’t seem like the kind of place that would enjoy rapid hot dog take-away.

Ben Matlock and I are more than willing to park, walk in, and wait for a hot dog or two to take home. Unfortunately, neither Ben nor myself go out drinking very often..Hopefully for The Red Hot’s sake, there are a lot of people in Tacoma who will do both quite often.