Designer Dawgs, New Jersey

I'm in New Jersey attending the 2026 Atlantic APCO Conference for work and on Monday night of the conference, September 28th, we had a Monday Night Social that had a DJ, cornhole tournament and a couple food trucks, brick oven pizza and gourmet hot dogs.

The pizza was fantastic, just delicious, but we are here for the hot dogs!

Designer Dawgs was a physical store in Clinton, New Jersey, however they are now a mobile trailer that travels around to all types of events.  They have a fancy menu of gourmet hot dogs:

I went with the Cowboy: cheddar & chili, chili dogs are my jam right now.  The bun is fancier roll they split down the side, they use these to help accommodate for all the toppings.  The chili is house made from scratch and is absolutely fantastic!  They use Best Provisions natural casing hot dog that is grilled on a flat top.

A while later I got a second dog, this time a plain jane with mustard, they use a spicy brown mustard as their standard mustard.  The bread was warm and soft, and although quite delicious, it was just too much bread for me.

If you every have the chance, get that chili dog, you won't regret it!

You can read all about my trip to New Jersey for the 2026 Atlantic APCO conference here.

Until Next Time!

Russ Ayres Hot Dogs, Bordentown, New Jersey

I was in New Jersey for work attending the 2026 Atlantic APCO Conference and during some downtime before the conference I went on a day trip to explore, along the way I found a hot dog joint to stop in at.

Russ Ayres Hot Dogs, located at 680 US-206, Bordentown, NJ 08505 was founded in 1942 by Russ Ayers.  Originally it was a hot dog cart he would push around town serving his dogs, now that 100 year old cart is still how the hot dogs are cooked and served it's just located inside a building.  Chatting with Joey who was working at the shop that day, his family bought the business in 1999 and it's still going strong today!

Russ served his dogs with the Works: mustard, relish, onions and sauerkraut.  Russ didn't allow ketchup, his original sign even states: ketchup is for hamburgers.  Joey's family introduced their house made chili and they do allow ketchup if you ask for it.

I ordered a chili cheese dog and it was darn good!  They use the side split bun that is steamed to perfection, and they use Hatfield skinless franks, they same company that makes the official hot dog of the Philadelphia Phillies.

If you are ever in the area you should check them out! 

If you want, you can read all about my New Jersey work adventure here.

Until Next Time!