By Daniel Hale

All hail the hotdog! For some people, it’s an affordable staple. For others, it’s a rite of summer—along with baseball and backyard barbecues. For yet others, it’s the barbecue equivalent of a blank canvas—awaiting embellishments ranging from green pickle relish and chopped onions (Chicago) to beef chili (Detroit) to bacon and pinto beans (the Sonoran hotdog from Arizona).

Few foods are as regional as the humble hot dog. Nearly every part of the country has its version, and everyone has a favorite they’ll insist is the best.

Since July is National Hot Dog Month, I decided to make six different American hotdogs. Some are classics, some are personal favorites, and all of them prove there’s more than one way to build a great dog.

Setting Up the Grill

One of the things I wanted to take advantage of for this cook was the versatility of the Denali 605 Pro from Monument Grills. Besides its spacious cooking surface, the grill features a removable center cooking grate that can be swapped out for accessories. For this cook, I replaced it with Monument’s Round Cast Iron Cooking Plate.

That gave me the best of both worlds. The hot dogs cooked over the main grill grates while the cast iron plate handled everything else. Onions and peppers caramelized, and the plancha was perfect for cooking the bacon-wrapped hot dogs without worrying about flare-ups. Having both cooking surfaces going at the same time made preparing six different hot dogs much easier than trying to juggle multiple pans indoors.

6 Regional American Hot Dogs

Frankie Frankk’s “Lou Dog”

This one is special for me because it’s local. If you live in the Raleigh area, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Frankie Frankk’s, a popular hot dog cart that’s developed a loyal following over the years. One of their signature creations is the Lou Dog, and while this isn’t an exact copy, it’s definitely inspired by it.

Chili, pimento cheese, and a drizzle of hot honey works surprisingly well. The rich chili and creamy pimento cheese create a classic Southern flavor, while the hot honey adds just enough sweetness and heat.

The Barbecue Dog

This one may not belong to any particular city, but it absolutely belongs on this list. I wrapped the hot dog in bacon, seasoned it with barbecue rub, and cooked it on the cast iron cooking plate until the bacon was crisp. After that came a brush of barbecue sauce and a handful of pickle chips.

Smoky bacon, sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, a little extra seasoning, and crunchy pickles turn an ordinary hot dog into something that eats more like barbecue.

Kansas City Dog

The Kansas City Dog keeps things relatively simple, but sometimes simple is exactly what works. Melted Swiss cheese and tangy sauerkraut are served on a sesame seed bun, creating a balanced combination.

The sauerkraut cuts through the richness of the hot dog while the Swiss adds a mild, nutty flavor. It’s one of those combinations you probably wouldn’t think to make, but after one bite you’ll understand why it’s become a regional favorite.

Coney Dog

No list of iconic American hot dogs would feel complete without a Coney Dog. Not to be confused with Coney Island in Brooklyn, the Coney Dog is most closely associated with Detroit. Piled high with chili, chopped raw onions, yellow mustard, and shredded cheddar cheese, it’s messy, hearty, and worth every napkin you’ll need afterward.

LA Street Dog

Speaking of messy, this one might be my favorite simply because of the memories it brings back. I grew up in Los Angeles, and bacon-wrapped street dogs were everywhere after concerts, sporting events, and nights out. You could smell them cooking from half a block away.

Wrapped in bacon and topped with grilled onions, peppers, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and a whole jalapeño, this is definitely the biggest hot dog of the bunch. Cooking it on the cast iron plate made it easy to crisp the bacon while caramelizing the vegetables right beside it. One bite immediately transported me back to SoCal.

Southern Slaw Dog

Sometimes less really is more. The Southern Slaw Dog skips all the extra toppings and lets creamy coleslaw do the work.

Cool, crunchy slaw adds freshness and texture while complementing the smoky flavor of the grilled hot dog. Around the Carolinas, this combination has been a favorite for decades, and after one bite it’s easy to understand why.

Which One Will You Try First?

One of the best things about hot dogs is how personal they are. Every region has its own version, and every griller eventually finds a favorite combination. That’s what made this cook so much fun. It was simple, messy, and a good reminder that sometimes the best grilling ideas start with something as familiar as a hot dog.

The Denali 605 Pro made this cook especially enjoyable. I was able to grill the hot dogs on the main grates while cooking the vegetables and bacon-wrapped dogs on the Round Cast Iron Cooking Plate. It kept everything moving and made it easy to build six different hot dogs without juggling pans indoors. Thanks to Monument Grills for sponsoring this post.

The post Grilling Across America: <br />6 Regional Hot Dogs I Love appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.

Amish Patel knows his neighbors by their dogs’ names before he knows their own. It’s a pattern he noticed in his Seattle neighborhood — and one he’s now built an app around.

Patel’s newest pet project — born out of his Conduit Venture Labs startup studio, is Sniff, an iOS app that turns the everyday moment two dogs greet each other on a walk into a lasting connection between their humans.

The idea traces back to Patel’s own block in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood, where he moved with his standard poodle, Chewie, right before the pandemic. With no kids and limited ways to meet people, the neighborhood park became the default hangout — and a group text thread became, in Patel’s words, a real sense of community. The catch: most of those contacts were saved under names like “Glory’s mom” or “Louie’s dad.”

“The five people in Madrona that I hang out with, more often I met through him,” Patel said of Chewie.

Beyond widening Patel’s own social circle, Sniff has a greater societal objective — taking on loneliness and isolation, an epidemic cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory on social connection.

“Younger people are having kids less, getting more isolated … we’re sitting on our phones, even though we’re all next to each other,” Patel said. “One out of four people don’t know their neighbors or talk to their neighbors.”

Dogs — and Sniff — could be an answer.

Sniff verifies that users are real people who actually live in the neighborhood they claim, using address and location data, and the app is geofenced so members can only discover dogs nearby. Inside the app, users see only dog profiles and photos — no human names or personal details — until a connection is made. Patel said artificial intelligence plays a role only on the trust-and-safety side — confirming identity and location — rather than in matching people up.

Once connected, neighbors can message through the app, arrange meetups, and lean on each other for help — dog walking, sitting, or just a hand when something comes up. Patel said the trust that builds from already knowing someone’s dog often translates directly into people who are willing to help.

The pilot is open in Madrona, Leschi, Madison Park, the Central District and Capitol Hill, but pet parents anywhere in Seattle can sign up today. Each neighborhood stays geofenced until it reaches enough engaged sign-ups, at which point Sniff opens it up — Madrona, the first to launch, already has about 100 people on the platform.

To help build momentum in each neighborhood, Sniff is partnering with the Seattle Chamber of Connection — where Patel sits on the board — to recruit “Pack Leaders”: local dog owners who help organize meetups and informal introductions as their neighborhood’s user base grows.

Patel is a Microsoft vet who spent eight years on projects including Xbox Kinect and Microsoft Band, before moving into the startup world with stints at fitness wearable maker Katalyst and football helmet manufacturer Vicis. He landed an entrepreneur-in-residence role at Seattle startup studio Pioneer Square Labs in 2020, and two years later co-founded Conduit Venture Labs with Susan Paley, the former first CEO of Beats by Dre.

Conduit focuses on “hard-tech” ventures that blend hardware and software. Sniff is Conduit’s fourth in-house startup, following Fluffy — a computer vision platform for doggy daycares — and an audiobook AI venture in the loneliness space that Patel said is preparing for a public seed round this fall. A fourth project, in health tech, remains under wraps for now.

The Sniff app itself was built lean: a couple of developers, a product lead, and Patel splitting his time across the studio’s other projects. Patel said the team has since shifted to AI-assisted development to move faster, and is now searching for a CEO to take the project in-house full time as it raises capital and pursues some hardware-related features.

For all the talk of trust layers, geofencing and future hardware, Sniff’s entire premise still comes down to a dog doing what dogs do. The humans get the friendships, the favors, the group texts. The dogs, Patel said, get something simpler.

“They just get to be more social,” he said, “because we don’t keep them in our house with us while we’re doom scrolling through everything.”