Everything you need to know about zippy dogs
These famous 4-inch hot dogs hail from a lunch counter in Troy, NY
This Thanksgiving, my family took a road trip to visit my uncle in Stratton, VT. On the way back, we stopped by Troy, NY to pay homage to my grandparents, who met when attending colleges in the town. While there, we had a sacred mission: To eat our first famous zippy dogs.
These world-renowned mini hot dogs are served up at a lunch counter called Famous Lunch. You can tell this place is historic the second you step in. The lunch counter is low to the ground, painted red with green and white tiling, and clearly hasn’t seen a redecoration in the past century. While we were in the restaurant, a loud, insistent ringing started to issue from the corner — it was a real telephone, in a real telephone booth, and someone was calling it. (I know my shock betrays my age, but this was a new experience for me. Why would you ever call the phone booth in a public place?) The prices are also unmistakably old-school: A singular world-famous hot dog retails here for just $1.40, and you can get four and a bottle of soda or water for $7.50.
When we entered, we sat at a booth. After a minute, a random guy sitting nearby spun around in his chair and asked us what we thought we wanted. Turns out he was the waiter, but it seemed like everyone else in the restaurant was a waiter, too; they all chimed in to help us figure out how many dogs to order.
Originally, Famous Lunch was just called Quick Lunch. The rebrand happened in 1958, 20 years after the place opened, and according to the menu, it was prompted by real-life fame. Apparently, a corporal marine named Gordon Gundrum was stationed in Moscow and wanted to serve the Troy specialty on his 54th birthday, so he had some hot dogs flown out to Russia, and for some reason, this made national news. The menu charmingly concludes, “Today, Famous Lunch sends hot dogs via FedEx to states throughout the U.S.A. and around the world. Some people will go to any length to satisfy their hunger for a ‘Famous Hot Dog.’”
So, what makes these hot dogs so good that you might want to FedEx them across the ocean? The answer is a combination of their weirdly-truncated length and the signature zippy sauce served on top. The size of these dogs renders them more of a snack than a lunch, leaving you wanting more with each subsequent mini dog. Then there’s the zippy sauce, a tomato-based meat sauce, something like a very poor man’s Bolognese. For the most classic zippy preparation, the sauce is slathered onto the four-inch hot dogs with a generous helping of mustard and some diced onions.
The result is a tangy, crunchy, meaty bite that lasts just a moment on your tongue. For a hot dog any larger, the dressing might be overwhelming, but on the little guys served up here it’s totally palatable. Note that you will likely end up wanting more than two if you’re at all hungry. (The menu claims that the individual record for famous hot dogs eaten was set in 2018 by “Mark Gdd,” who ate 50 dogs in 19 minutes and 34 seconds. I don’t think I could hit 50 in under 20 min, but I could probably get to 20 in an hour.)
Overall, operation zippy dog was a success — the zippy dogs were every bit as enchanting as their supposedly-worldwide reputation made them out to be. I strongly recommend, and think that Famous Lunch is well worth planning a road trip around. For a true escape from the city, head to Troy, NY.
Also! While I have you, here are two recent stories I loved writing:
What happened to all of NYC’s community fridges? – Possibly my favorite story I’ve ever written, and my first for Hell Gate. Community fridges, where anyone can access food without barriers, started popping up all over NYC and other big cities in 2020. Since then, the hype has largely died down. For this piece, I interviewed nine former and current fridge organizers about why that might be, and visited ten fridges.
Local Brooklyn pastry chef featured on Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship – Chef Jennifer Carey started baking after surviving 9/11. I’ve never met anyone who was actually in one of the twin towers when they were struck; this was a fascinating interview.
Sending love! I hope you, too, were eating recently.
Hannah