Shady Dawgz Barks Up the Midtown Lunch Tree

On another jaunt through midtown, I stumbled across this truck bragging they were “Voted NYC #1 Gourmet Dawg” – I was born & raised in NYC, but the only time I say “dawg” is with extreme sarcasm, or when I’m extremely inebriated. Regardless, pictures of the menu and why ML readers probably aren’t too interested in this truck, after the jump…

I was pretty surprised to see no less than 5 people interested/ordering from this truck. When I approached to take a photo of the menu, the guy in the front/cab portion of the truck shoved open the window and leaned out, appearing ready/willing to talk to me. I quickly snapped it and ran away; I actually thought I took pics and posted about this when I spoke with a girl in the truck a few months ago, but I can’t find the pics nor the post so I must’ve imagined it.

Yup – each hot dog costs you $6.50 ($4.50 if you want it ‘naked’), and they have a “lunch special” for $15.50 that includes 2 ‘dawgs’, a fry and a drink. If you find a friend, you can drop that price pretty drastically to $23.50 and get 2 ‘dawgz’, 1 fry and a drink each. Still over the ML “limit” though unfortunately.

When I visited months ago (and declined to sample anything), I recall asking the girl the origins of the Frito dog in particular – was the chef southern at all? Frito Pie is a THING OF BEAUTY (and I won’t take guff about that!), and I could totally see it being amazing on top of a hot dog. Shredded cheese, chili and Fritos on top of a hot dog? Umm, yeah!! (At its basic form, of course you can add all your accoutrements!) So my question was why the FLIP is there COLE SLAW added to that?! That actually takes it from sounding really good to just sounding goopy…

Don’t even get me started on the “Brotherly Love” dawg that presumes to be a wink at the Philly cheesesteak (personal preference on cheese type).

In any case, I AM curious and want to try some of the dawgz – lucky me, I am sure one of these ‘dawgz’ would be enough for me for lunch. I’m not sure about the bigger eaters among y’all, though – that may require the ‘dawgy bag’…

Has anyone tried them? Let us know in comments what you had and what you thought!

Shady Dawg – location varies, check their Twitter for up to date info (and deals for free fries occasionally!) – unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like they update their Twitter frequently and I know they change location daily; I’ve seen them at the northwest corner of 51st and Park usually Thursdays or Fridays, and a friend reports he’s seen them on Park between 32nd and 33rd.

16 Comments

  • New winner of most overpriced dog in NY, surpassing even the baseball stadiums where dogs are $6 and at least come with unlimited toppings

    Screw this pooch … shady like Madoff

  • The cost of the “Dawgy Bag” is just ridiculous.

  • They got the name right 16 bucks for two hot dogs is pretty shady.

  • I’m really sad that no one commented on my excellent review yesterday. I mean, that was actual content, too – with pictures and food I ate, instead of just “here’s this truck I don’t want to pay to eat.”

  • I just watched the Shady Dawg trucked smack a parked car – twice – as it tried to pull out of its spot on 46th, as one of their employees and the car’s owner stood by in shame/incredulity.

    Hahahahaha!

  • Hard to see in the blurry menu photo but they cook their fries in duck fat.

    One of the tragedies of NYC is the disappearance of hot dog joints. Shady Dawg is literally putting lipstick on a pig and does nothing to fix the problem.

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    Crif Dogs, a B&M, rolled out a similar truck a few years ago…it didn’t last very long.

    • This one’s been around since at least November, I believe… and I’ll be posting shortly some newish trucks I found today.

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    Walked by yesterday. Everything looked good but the price point is crazy. $15 for 2 dogs, fries and a drink? No thanks. I don’t care what kind of exotic toppings you put on it, that is absurd for hot dogs. If it was $10 for the two dogs, fries and a drink, that would be fine. Staying away as long as they are charging like that.

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    Ok, I took one for the team. I ordered the 2 dogs, fries and a drink. I went with the Frito Dog and the BLT&E dog(Bacon Lettuce Tomato & 64F Egg). With tax, it came to $17.96. I think their math machines are broken. Or they charge more for “specialty” dogs in the combo? Either way, stupidly expensive, and I will never go back here unless I hear that they’ve fixed their pricing.

    That being said, I got back to the office, complained to some coworkers about how stupidly expensive my lunch was, then got down to business. Despite *really* wanting to hate everything I ordered (except the grape soda, because I KNEW that would be good), I actually really enjoyed the dogs. The fritos and chili was really tasty. Not sure why there were carrots on top, though. And the BLT was good, the bacon was diced on top, with tomatoes, mayo and lettuce. However, that 64F egg? Either non-existant, or it was squeezed out of a plastic bottle and was just yolk spread on top. Very strange. Despite the missing egg, it was also really tasty. I think I prefer the BLT dog at Crif Dogs though. I like my dogs wrapped in bacon and deep-fried.

    Oh, but the real star of the show? These fries. My god. These fries. Perfectly salted, cripsy, duckfat-y goodness. It seemed like a tiny portion, but it’s in a huge box. Anyway, I liked everything I got, and it’s a meal and a half, but it’s still definitely not worth $18. Or $15. Maybe $12 though.

    Oh, and the grape soda is heavenly, as predicted.

    • Yeah, there’s an extra dollar in your order. But thanks for taking the hit. I wonder if the fries can be chili-fied, and then the Dawgs themselves can be thought of no more.

  • Have these guys gone under? They disappeared right after this post.

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