Hawt Dawgs at GAHD

Deep in an industrial office park in Gaithersburg, there sits a tiny little store with a vinyl banner sign hanging over the door. That banner reads "Greatest American Hot Dogs".  

This is their menu.  

The hot dogs are the good quality kind that snap when you bite into them, so already they are something to go out of your way for. Lucky for me, perhaps unlucky for THE UNFATTENING, it's really close to my house.  

These are the hot dogs and half smokes and sausages I have met and/or consumed.

DC half smoke and West Virginia.  Being raised in the DC area, of course I had to try the half smoke with chili.  I was not disappointed in the least.  The WVa is apparently particularly popular.  (Though Laura says pretty much everything on the menu gets ordered evenly.  And yes, I know the proprietor's name.  And she knows mine. Shut up.)  I love slaw on a hot dog.

Boston and Florida and onion rings.

Boston has baked beans, naturally. Hot dogs and beans are good friends. Florida is bacon wrapped and topped with a fried egg and cheese. No idea if this is popular in Florida.  Makes a damn fine heart attack for a breakfast, though.

Ballston and Idaho.  The Ballston is just a Boston with a half smoke instead of a hot dog.  Idaho is topped with potato salad.  I figured if I like slaw on a hot dog, potato salad must be pretty good too. It is.

Maui has thin slices of fried Spam and a delicious sweet and spicy pineapple habanero salsa.

Seattle Grunge is sriracha spicy but balanced with cooling slices of cream cheese.  Apparently they love cream cheese on their dogs out there.  This was definitely a flavor explosion.  And it's so pretty! Like it's topped with confetti.  

Dupont slaw half smoke.  Had to have their half smoke again, it's so good.  Tasty made tastier with a side of tater tots.

495 beltway is wrapped in bacon and dressed like a sandwich.  No idea why it's called a 495 but I won't say 'no' to a bacon wrapped dog.  It's a good choice if you want to be able to really taste how great a bacon wrapped hot dog is.

Miami choripan is a spicy chorizo topped with super garlicky chimichurri nestled in a buttered and grilled roll.  Bring mints. Or just don't make out immediately after consuming this.  You've had enough oral stimulation anyway.

You can also get sides that you'd usually get at a fair.  In addition to tater tots and onion rings, I've tried these:

Fried pickle spears with angel sauce (like thousand island).  Good if you like your fried pickles this way.  I actually prefer chips to spears but I had to try these.

Whirly fry is crispy like potato chips...

But you can soften it up a bit when you cover it in chili and cheese.  Then you can die happy.  

Everything I've had at GAHD has been totally worth every bite.  Expect an update because my friends and I will get through the whole menu, even if it kills us.  Which wouldn't be too surprising.  But it'll be fun on a bun!