Hot Dog Charlie's - Rensselaer, New York

In July 2023 Kate and I spent a week traveling to Niagara Falls, Canada and back for our 10th Anniversary.  On the way back through we spent time in Albany, New York and while we were there we ate at Hot Dog Charlie's.

You can read all about your trip here: Spectacular 10th Anniversary Vacation Extravaganza!!!

Hot Dog Charlie's first opened in 1922 they specialize in mini natural casing hotdogs made by Sabrett frankfurters.  They have three locations around Albany we ate at the Rensselaer spot.

Check out their website for more: https://hotdogcharlies.com/

While the mini dogs are their specialty, they also have regular size skinless frank, but why would you order those if the mini's are what they are known for.  The rest of the menu consists of cheeseburgers, fish strips, popcorn chicken, onion rings, curly fries and more.

You order at one window and pick up at the other side.  The dinning area isn't that large at this location and consists of several booths.  If I recall they had a couple picnic tables outside as well.

We both got two mini dogs, Kate got the chili sauce, onion rings, and curly fries with a cheese sauce. 

Everything was fantastic! The buns were steamed, the onions were crispy, the cheese sauce was solid.  You can even bar jars of their chili meat sauce. 

I would stop in again at any of the locations if I was in the area. 

Later Readers!

George's Coney Island - Worcester, Massachusetts

George's Coney Island has been a Worcester institute since 1918.  You can read all about their history on their website here: Coney Island Lunch

I had been here before years ago with my buddy Jay, however Kate and I rolled through on September 15, 2025 coming back from Albany, NY after dropping her Dad off at the Amtrak station and watching Kathleen Edwards perform at Lark Hall.  

You can read about that here: Albany Adventure for Kathleen Edwards

Similar to Tony's Texas Hots their specialty dog is the Coney Dog, chili sauce, raw onion, & yellow mustard.  They use Kayem natural casing hot dogs and their chili sauce is a secret recipe.  Kate got two coney dogs, I got 1 with no onion and one with mustard. 

The ordering system is fast, get in line, quickly tell them you want and move down the line for quick service.  The meat sauce is delicious, the buns perfectly steamed, and prices very reasonable.  They serve Wachusett brand chips, based out of Fitchburg, Mass they were founded in 1937 before being bought by UTZ chips in 2011.  They also serve Polar brand soda which is also based in Worcester.

There is plentiful seating, and I'm sure at lunch time it's extremely busy.  I should have gotten both of my dogs with the coney sauce.  I will next time.

Later Readers!

Rosie's Hot Dog Stand - Eastport, Maine

Back in August 2021 Katie and I spent a weekend in Eastport just to get away.  We were still coming out of Covid and crossing the border to Canada was not an option still.  We hadn't been to this area a few years so it was time to comeback. 

Eastport is the eastern most point in the United States, which makes Rosie's the eastern most hot dog stand in the United States.  Located near the docks for over 50 years it's a walk up place with a few picnic tables.

The menu is extremely basic but really what more do you need at a hot dog stand?  Anything more than hot dog is a bonus really.

We got a couple dogs, French fries and onion rings.  The dogs were natural casing, not sure who made them, and buns were steamed which is really the sign of a top notch place.  And of course, they use Raye's Mustard located just down the road in Eastport.  Onion ring and shoestring fries were frozen, of course, but they were solid. 

Later Readers!

Tony's Texas Hot - Johnson City, New York

Saturday July 12, 2025 we were on vacation and in Binghamton, New York so we could check out Rod Serling's hometown and the memorials to him.  You can read all about those adventures here:

New York & Pennsylvania Weekend with Rod & Al

Rod Serling's Binghamton

After viewing all that Serling that Binghamton had to offer it was lunch time.  Kate had done a quick search for some hot dog joints and found Tony's Texas Hots, in Johnson City, and another joint called Pinkies.  After looking at photo's we decided on Tony's because it looked like a fantastic old hot dog place, and it was.  Turns out Pinkies was closed down, so it wouldn't have even been an option anyhow.

Texas Hots is a regional name for a pork or beef hot dog topped with a bean less meat sauce or chili, raw onions, and yellow mustard.  Even though it's called a Texas Hot, you won't find them in Texas.

Kate, Wesley, and I put our order for dogs in and some French fries. The man working the counter was a bit standoff-ish at first, but he did warm up to us by the time we left.  His wife was working there as well, and she was very friendly.  

We chatted about "Weird" Al, and going to the Woodstock grounds to watch him.  They talked about concerts they had been to there as well.

What I thought was cool was in mid conversation the mailman stuck his head in the door, they made hand signals to each other, no words at all, and the mailman left.  The guy grabbed a soda an started putting his order together.  I love stuff like this.

Everything was terrific, the prices were reasonable and the atmosphere of the old diner was very cool.  More just a stand there is counter stools and booths for people to sit in.  The meat sauce was very good!

It's well worth your time to stop in if you are in the area.

Later Readers!

Rusty's Market

The one with Ketchup is for my son who was 10 at the time.

I started writing this blog post over a decade ago and didn't post it at that time, however since then there has been some significant changes to Rusty's Market.  

The original Rusty's Market opened in Topsham in the early 1970's and my Nana still lives just down the road from Rusty's.  I have been stopping there and getting a Rusty Dog or Italian sandwich since I was a kid.  As I got older I rarely left Nana's without stopping at Rusty's.  I really like the atmosphere of the older store.  You walked in and on the left was the register and big old awesome steamer was right there as well.  To the right in the corner was an old fashion slush puppie machine were you pumped one of various flavors into the cup and then added the ice stirring the mixture, not like the pre-mix machines that exist today.

In 2012 Rusty Rancourt sold his store to the Priority Real Estate Group.  The old store was torn down in 2012 to make room for the new and much bigger Rusty's Market that opened in November 2013.  The lunch counter options expanded tremendously, however they still had the classic steamer with natural casing hot dogs and perfectly steamed rolls that were baked at a local bakery in Brunswick.  In fact they were Italian sandwich rolls cut in half and not New England style top split hot dogs buns. 

Getting my hot dogs from the classic steamer.

In 2015 Rusty's Market was sold to John Koch and was rebranded as the first Rusty Lantern Market, a chain that now has over 30 locations in 4 New England States.  I had no idea the Topsham location was the first!

You can read about it here: Shining a light on Rusty Lantern Markets – the New England fueling station giant with big ambition

As much as I miss the original Rusty's Market and the the Rusty Dog, it is kind of cool to see what it has become.  To bad the original store doesn't even offer a steamed hot dog of any kind anymore.

Rusty passed away in 2017 at the age of 75. 

Later Readers!

Old Store Sign 

Old Rusty's

Rusty's 2012

Long Time No Update

It has been an EXTREMELY long 9.5 years since I last updated this blog, and I think it's time I start posting here again.  The only reason why I didn't delete this blog a long time ago is because of the number of comments on these two post:

Maine's Hot Dog History

Jordan's, Kirschner, and more!

I didn't want to lose the history of these posts so I just left it up.  Over the last few years I have been to some cool hot dog joints and I took some pictures and I'm going to post those on here.  I also have a couple draft posts that I will update and post as well. 

If you know of a hot dog joint that I should check out, please let me know.

Later Readers!

Oscar Mayer Wienermobile

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile debuted in 1936 when Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl Mayer built it.

Since I was a little kid I have always wanted to see the Wienermobile in person, the closest I have ever come was two years ago when I saw it driving north on 95 in Freeport while I was heading South to pick up my Dad.

On Friday October 28, 2016 I took Canaan & Addison to the Gardiner Main Street Trick or Treating.  I almost didn't because the weather was sketchy, cold and it had been raining that morning.  I picked the kids up early from school, had them throw together costumes in case it started raining again I didn't want them to ruin the ones that got for Halloween.

We got downtown and parked behind the old Camden National Bank.  As we were walking to the one way section I was telling the kids that they didn't need to hurry, there was no rush, take their time, ect, ect.

As we rounded the corner I saw it halfway down the street, the elusive Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.  I wanted to run down the street, but knew I couldn't because of the talk I just gave the kids.  I was super anxious to get down to it before the crowd showed up.

When we finally got down to it I tried to play it all cool, but I was jealous that the kids got to go in and sit in the seats, so I slowly made my way in.  Then when they gave the kids wienermobile whistles and stickers I couldn't resist and asked for my own, which the hotdogger happily obliged.

I then told her that I was trying to be cool, but I was actually really excited, to which the responded that normally the adults were more excited than the kids.  The hotdoggers, it's what they call the operators of the wienermobiles, told me that they have six driving around the country.

I took a bunch of pictures, they took a picture of the kids and I in and out of it, and Canaan took a picture of me with it.  This was legitimately and bucket list check off for me!

Next up is the Planters Nutmobile

Thanks for reading, check out my other posts and please leave a comment.

Later Readers!