Don’s Dog House
When you think of fast-food joints today, you think of shiny glass and brick on the outside, with Formica tables and stainless-steel counters on the inside, all advertised by a giant, lexon-plastic sign. But what about the days of the corner hotdog stand or the hotdog shack on the beach? Cobbled together out of plywood, tin or whatever materials were available, these were the places that populated Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row” and Algren’s “Neon Wilderness.” Don’s Dog House is one of a vanishing breed of urban hotdog shacks, and its story would make the late Studs Terkel proud. “The place started in the 1960s,” Nathan Hoffman, the weekend shift-worker at Don’s says as he peers through a small, wooden window to take an order. “It was run by Greeks, and I guess they had problems with fires. It kept burning down and they kept repairing it with whatever they had around. Finally, they took an old school bus, cut it in half, and made it into a hotdog stand. So far it has been holding up pretty well.”
5359 W. Addison
Best of Chicago 2008
