27. The Dogtown Dog Truck

After leaving the Reggae Jerk Chicken Truck, I headed west on Wilshire and spotted the Dogtown Dog truck. Woo-hoo! I whipped a U-ey and secured a parking space directly behind the truck. Score! It was about 2:30 and I was surprised to see such a cluster of folks around the truck. After my truck experience less than an hour before I decided this was a good sign. But as I sidled up to the window I realized that all of these people had already ordered and were waiting on their food. Curious.

I almost didn’t even have the chance to order as the man in the window said they were closed. But wait – no, not closed. I got the last order of the day. The menu consists of 6 different styles of hot dogs and some cute sides: tater tots, buffalo tots and fennel slaw. I would have preferred to order their California Dog ($6), but opted for their signature Dogtown Dog ($5). Gotta order the namesake, right? 

So, I turned around, walked over to a low wall to sit and wait. As I glanced around at the folks around me (about 8 people), I realized they were all still waiting for their food. Nothing had come out of the window of the truck yet. For hot dogs? I can’t imagine any other food that would come out of a truck faster than hot dogs - especially if there are only 6 varieties. This began to concern me.

The guy that took my order even came out and began to close down the truck while we were all waiting. Why wasn’t he helping the food come out faster?

So, seriously folks, I waited about 20 minutes. I ordered one (1) hot dog. Were they actually putting the meat in the casings in that truck?? Needless to say, this hot dog had a lot to live up to at this point.

Where's the beef?

Well and so. The dog was okay, but there wasn’t a whole lot of it. I liked its flavor but again, it was a pretty skimpy dog that was eclipsed by both the soft bun and the toppings – fennel slaw, roasted red peppers and Dijon mustard. I enjoyed the fennel slaw (but there was a bit too much of it) and peppers, but my mustard was nowhere to be found. The menu brags of a snap. My dog was not that snappy. Which is really not a big thing to me anyway. But for $5 and a curious wait, I want a big-ass dog. I want something more like what Let’s Be Frank is doing. Their dog was a meal. This dog was really my second lunch and I still wasn’t stuffed. And I stuff easily.

After 2 months of staying relatively truck free, today ended up being somewhat disappointing. I will say that in the past couple of months I tried Komodo, Louks and Fressers, and found them to all be quite good. I plan to return to each of them to provide a more thorough review. So keep checking in!