Finding Dawgs in Georgia......

While I was in Georgia, I actually passed by the Varsity 6 times without stopping. Of course, I did have a couple of other hot dog joints in mind.

First was the Dawg House, a nicely remodeled, former fast food joint, that reopened in January 2009. The theme is the Georgia Bulldog and it is really cute. Dining is outside at the picnic tables under the umbrellas.

The sign says they are famous for their foot-longs but Logan and I had the regular size dogs with chili and slaw. Oddly enough, the 'buns' were hoagie rolls which was way too much bread for the skinny foot long dog, cut in half, inserted in the roll. The chili was also lost in the roll and the slaw was not exceptional. I saved the menu but can't find it now. I just remember that the $5.99 price for the regular dog was too much.

The owners obviously spent a lot of money on the remodeling and the desired look - they should spend more on developing a killer Dawg. We won't be back.

Logan looking like "one mean Dawg!"
Next was our long time favorite, Mickey's, in old downtown Buford just across the railroad tracks. Their chili slaw dogs are to die for and we took home a sackful! We weren't disappointed!

Project 365 Day 30

Us at Tom's Hot Dogs, Panama City, FL, July 2008

~ Project 365 Day 12 ~

Couldn't resist one more chili dog!

~ In search of one fantastic dog ~

We like to find favorite local eateries when we visit a new area. Word of mouth is always a good way to do this. We talked to several locals about where we might find a good hot dog in Panama City. Guess we didn’t ask the right locals. The only answer we got was the new Dairy Queen down off Hwy. 98. Being from Atlanta, we feel like we know good hot dogs, i.e. the Varsity, and DQ is not near the top of our list (although for a chain, not bad). We’re talking about dog dives that would be on Food Network’s "Best of….” series.

Not being ones to give up, we turned to the next best source of info….the internet. It only took one search to find Tom’s Hot Dogs in Panama City. Although they don’t have their own website, they turned up on CitySearch. We checked them out the next day and have been back four times since. It’s a wonderful 20’ x 40’ hole in the wall in the downtown area. They do the cooking behind a counter on one side of the room and stools line a counter on the other side. In between, there is room for a single file line to place your order and pay up. At the back of the room are 4 tables seating 4 customers each and out front, on the sidewalk, are two more tables. They are open from 9:00 to 3:00 and around lunch hour the line is out the door.

The menu lists 11 types of dogs in three sizes. They also serve up half-pound burgers, chicken salad, smoked sausage and a few other delicacies, all topped with Tom’s special sauce. The chili dogs don’t quite match up to The Varsity’s, but do rate very high on our search for one fantastic dog.