Hot Dog!

The web site of the Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan, just north of Grand Rapids, helpfully informs readers that the establishment has "sold over 14 million hot dogs since 1965. Stretched end-to-end, that would reach Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, the birthplace of the hot dog."

I'm skeptical of its claim about the birthplace of the "hot dog," as important as Frankfurt must surely be in the evolution of the frankfurter. My guess is that the American variation dates to either the Columbian Exposition in 1893 or the 1904 "Meet Me in St. Louis" World's Fair -- who can count all the things that started with those events?

Whatever their origin, the Corner Bar does a brisk business in hot dogs these days. I added two chili dogs to the total the night before my nephew's wedding -- because the Corner Bar was the site of the rehearsal dinner. A really fine idea for a rehearsal dinner, if you asked me. An informal place that not only specializes in hot dogs, but which also has the names of thousands of people written on little signs all over the walls -- each sign commemorating someone who ate a dozen or more Corner Bar hot dogs at one sitting, their names along with their hometowns. I neglected to take notes, but I do remember that while locals were well represented (local meaning Michigan towns), other people had traveled far before they ingested their dozen: one name near my table, clearly Japanese, claimed Hiroshima as his home.

I stopped at two hot dogs. Along with the fries, it was enough. The dogs and buns were tasty and fresh, as you'd expect. The chili wasn't gung-ho with chili pepper or meat, but it wasn't bad.

The Corner Bar is actually at a corner on Main Street -- that seems right out of Sherwood Anderson, "the Corner Bar on Main Street, site of a freak accident some years ago..." -- but it was cold and the light was fading when we got there, so I didn't get to look around the neighborhood as much as I wanted. Still, Main Street looked like a collection of older buildings reformulated for new purposes, such as the Corner Bar: a good ol' 19th-century brick structure, serving the 21st-century purpose of hot doggery.