The last time someone tried to make hot dogs a culinary star in the District, it didn’t take.

Amsterdam Falafelshop owners Scott and Arianne Bennett thought they had another hit when they opened M’Dawg Haute Dogs in 2007 on 18th Street NW across from their popular chick pea–and–frites place. Foodies were talking about it, and the early reviews were good. The plan, however, soured quickly. A focus on “haute” dogs—like a $20 Kobe beef sausage—and premium toppings had diners wondering why they were spending so much on something you can buy from a cart on the corner.

Seven months after opening, the Bennetts sold their share of the restaurant, citing differences with their investors. The business wasn’t hitting budget projections. A year later, the shop closed.

There’s not much history with hot dogs here. So far, Ben’s Chili Bowl and the Vienna Inn are the only notable brick-and-mortar restaurants in the area able to turn a sustainable long-term profit on a hot dog–heavy menu. And both of those establishments leverage their history and neighborhood tradition more than the quality of their food. As a stand-alone menu item, hot dogs are tricky for restaurateurs, says Erik Bruner-Yang, co-creator of U Street Music Hall’s pho dog, and chef/partner in the upcoming Toki Underground restaurant slated to open this January on H Street NE. Ingredients are expensive, but customers tend to think dogs should be cheap.

Still, a handful of D.C. restaurants are giving hot dogs another shot, setting up sausage-heavy menus. Pizza and burger joints have boomed as the economy has stagnated by taking advantage of quality ingredients, clever marketing, and the occasional celebrity chef. The restaurants provided customers value and a side of nostalgia, while creating a void for upscale hot dogs—one that looks like it’s about to be filled.

On Barracks Row last month, the restaurant group behind Matchbox and Ted’s Bulletin opened a new hot dog business, DC-3, with a cool and sleek façade. A fresh coat of gray paint cloaks the storefront, as well as the interior walls, and a giant propeller salvaged from a 1940s passenger plane sets a theme that continues everywhere. Take-out menus resemble airline ticket sleeves. Tabletops bound in rivets resemble faux airplane skin. Along one wall, a giant red map doubles as a menu describing regional hot dog offerings.

A flight to Illinois via the “Chicago 7” and a root beer set me back seven bucks and change. The soft bun, heavily studded with poppy seeds, nearly collapsed under its toppings as I tried to maneuver a hot dog “dragged through the garden” to my mouth. The peppers were snappy and hot, and the pickle stood up on its own with a healthy dusting of celery salt. Sweet relish, a shade of green that would make Peter Venkman’s nemesis Slimer blush, gave the dog an almost festive look. It’s obvious these guys have been doing their homework on Chicago-style dogs.

Still, some of DC-3’s offerings leave me feeling a little lost. The “Arkansas razorback red” tastes of cheese and bacon but resembles neither, sporting an artificially colored pinkish red casing. The “Bay Bridge dog” boasts a Heidelberg pretzel roll, crab dip, and a dusting of Old Bay seasoning. While I love the salty chew of the pretzel roll, the crab dip–meets–beef frank is a surf-and-turf combination I don’t find compelling. The vegetarian option, a “California left winger” boasting a tube of falafel, doesn’t work at all.

DC-3 does hedge with a few other offerings. The most notable is an Italian beef sandwich, packed with half a pound of shaved rib-eye and topped with an oily heap of peppers and a ladling of au jus. My first bite caused a torrent of oil and juices to pour from the back of my sandwich: A bite packed with beef, salt, and briny, bright pickle flavors.

The classic dogs, however, have become popular over time for a reason and resonate with my childhood memories. At DC-3 these more simple links are irrefutably delicious. Rochester’s “snappy griller,” featuring a Zweigle’s white, is by far my favorite, and all the items featuring Nathan’s links satisfy. Crinkle-cut fries, fried pickles, and a collection of throwback sodas also help this vintage hot dog shop leave a lasting impression that could bolster a hot dog trend in the area.

***

After teasing the U Street NW corridor with professionally designed banners and signage for months, ChiDogO’s finally opened this November on 14th Street. The storefront, painted bright red, has a “multiple-locations-coming-soon” feel; carefully crafted logos dot the walls and staff T-shirts. The menu simply offers hot dogs, Italian beef, a few beverages, and a story about ChiDogO’s beginnings.

According to legend, a mysterious “Bob H.” was unable to find the authentic Chicago-style meals here in the District. On frequent visits to his hometown, he brought Chicago classics back to share with friends in the area, and the dogs were so well received, the new business enterprise was warranted. By phone, Bob H. reveals himself as Robert Hisaoka, a longtime D.C. area resident with family in Chicago. Perhaps striving to keep the mystery of the menu alive, Hisaoka tells me he owns and runs a number of other local businesses besides the restaurant, but he won’t say what—or where—they are.

On my first visit to ChiDogO’s, my foot-long was warm but not hot, and lapped with spicy full grain mustard. The link itself (from Vienna Beef Ltd., based in Chicago) was a mildly flavored steamed dog devoid of smoke or personality that would distinguish it from other hot dog suppliers. A pair of bright, vinegary peppers packed heat, but the tomatoes were unripe and flavorless. Onions and a pickle spear were bright and crunchy, and muddied with the expected, and much appreciated, dusting of celery salt.

The relish, however, left me confused. After talking to a number of Chicago natives and eating at DC-3, I was expecting a distinctively sweet, bright green number with a radioactive appeal. ChiDogO’s relish was grayish and tasted flat, as likely to come from a plastic Hunt’s packet as a specialty Chicago provider.

According to Hisaoka, all of his toppings hail from Chi-town except the onions, tomatoes, and other fresh condiments. When I badger him on the relish matter, he concedes the neon green varieties’ popularity, but says he decided on his chosen relish after a number of recipe tests. He won’t tell me what brand he’s using, citing competitive concerns.

But Hisaoka confirms my hunch that he’s already looking into additional ChiDogO’s locations. He’s not alone. Andrew Kim tells me his partners are aggressively evaluating real estate for expanding DC-3. The endeavor might seem gutsy considering how poorly M’Dawg fared, but the environment has changed significantly since then. At U Street Music Hall, Bruner-Yang’s pho dogs have become popular—a grilled dog previously simmered in Vietnamese beef soup broth with a spicy cabbage slaw and hoisin sauce. On busy nights at the club, he sells five or six dozen dogs. They’re not a serious profit-maker, but it lets Bruner-Yang play with new flavor combinations while waiting for Toki Underground’s permits to come through, and it gives his friend, club owner Jesse Tittsworth, a hell of a snack to sell patrons. Bruner-Yang recently added a Monte Cristo dog, complete with strawberry preserves, to the club’s hot dog counter.

At The Passenger, brothers Derek and Tom Brown also feature gourmet dogs for their neighborhood speakeasy. The tube steaks, handcrafted at Red Apron Butchery in Alexandria, come topped with a loose chili sauce and cheese, or spicy kimchi, and an $8 price tag. Stoney’s Bar & Grill, Bar Pilar and many other restaurants sell a few hot dogs too, though all of these businesses have one major thing in common: They rely heavily on sales revenues generated from other menu items.

It may just be the nitrates talking, but some of the chefs behind the hot dog boom say the District might yet turn into a sausage town, no matter how dim the history is.

“This city wasn’t a hamburger town years ago, and Five Guys changed that,” Bruner-Yang says. “Two years ago it wasn’t a food truck town, either.”

DC-3, 423 8th Street SE, (202) 546-1935

ChiDogO’s, 1934-C 14th Street NW, (202) 332-3647

U Street Music Hall, 1115-A U Street NW, (202) 588-1880

Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

After waiting in a line that extended out the door, I'm now surrounded by an army of parents with their baby strollers, who are waging a noise offensive. My eggs aren’t warm, and my distracted server looks as hungover as me. My cocktail may be bottomless, but what's the point if it's merely a horrible flute of champagne and re-constituted OJ or a glass of bloody Mary that tastes of jarred salsa?

Yeah, I’m ready to repeat what others have said before me – most brunches suck.

It could be that I’m biased. I often prefer paddling around at home, playing jazz records and waiting on my pot of hand-pressed coffee, but sometimes I want to let someone else do the dishes. So after poking around the city a few weekends, I’ve finally found two brunch offerings that warrant attention.

Birch and Barley’s “Boozy Brunch” on Sunday is as much an economic salve as a hangover cure.  For $30, you get a plate of doughnut holes, all the coffee (or iced tea) you can drink, an entrée,  and a choice of two cocktails that pack serious punch.  The "Michelada" matches a savory tomato puree with the cool effervescence of a pilsner beer.  The champagne cocktails boast fresh fruit purees and decent bubbles, and the doughnut holes — well, they’re topped with bacon.

Those who want to focus more attention on the sweets can order three full-sized doughnuts for $6.

Near Mount Vernon Square, the Passenger offers another hangover counter-offensive.  Enough has been written about the cocktail prowess of the Brown brothers, but their brunch menu deserves attention, too. The chilaquiles pair fried tortilla strips tossed in a smoky mole with a fried egg, avocado, and hot sauce. The biscuits and gravy sampled on one visit may be the best I’ve encountered.

Menu aside, the Passenger has set up a brunch joint for those of us without the parental obligation to stay sober on Sunday. Running 'til midnight, the brunch here attracts a decidedly stroller-less crowd, and the customers come to booze.

Am I wrong to think brunch is the bastard child of the restaurant world? Birch & Barley and the Passenger are making me rethink my stance, but what do you think? What other brunch offerings do you think are worth venturing out on a Sunday with a headache? Or should I just stay home?

From across the street, you can almost peer through the glass storefront at The Passenger and imagine a dimly lit Nighthawks. I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit of a stewing loner myself as Tom Brown keeps his hands busy at the bar.  The cocktail I ordered has left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m pining for a beer.

Some visits to The Passenger make me miss the days when Tom used to man the bar at Cork Wine Bar. Back then, it seemed he had more time to devote to each of his custom cocktails, and when you have Tom's attention, he has a way of making you feel like the only person at the bar.

Still, I've enjoyed many of the drinks here, and the canned beer menu requires little hand holding. Order. Pop the top. Enjoy. It also goes well with the kimchi hot dog, which is the reason I stopped here in the first place.

While U Hall’s pho dog is still my favorite, the Asian hot dog at The Passenger was the first one I had ever sampled in the District. Perched on a bed of spicy fermented cabbage and topped with a toned-down Sriracha, the smoky link set me back $10 and came with pickles and chips.

The price seems steep, but the links are handcrafted by Red Apron’s Nate Anda.  I’ve personally watched Nate and other area chefs bang out small-batch hot dog varieties.  Believe me, the cost is warranted.

The Passenger also offers a half-smoke crowned in chili, but the topping is heavy and redundant with a link that already bears a higher than usual fat content.  The acidic kimchi on this dog, however, cuts the richness that might otherwise blanket my palate. It's a marriage of ingredients worthy of a toast. With beer.

The Passenger, 1021 7th St. NW, (202) 393-0220

Bon Appétit's August issue includes a breakdown of the "Top 10 Best New Cocktail Bars" in America, and right there at the bottom of the page is the Brown brothers' punk-like exercise in personalized drinking, The Passenger, as well as its nerdy, science-obsessed sibling, the Columbia Room.

Author Andrew Knowlton wrote this about Tom and Derek Brown's operation next to the Convention Center:

One could happily spend an evening ensconced in the up-front booths, sipping a Moscow Mule at brothers Derek and Tom Brown's Chinatown-area bar. But in terms of speakeasy appeal, you can't beat the reservation-only Columbia Room in the back.

Y&H sends out congratulations to the Brown brothers for the well-deserved honor. You can read the full list of honorees here.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

This weekend while walking the streets of Chinatown, I ran into Tom Brown standing outside the Passenger. He was trying to absorb the last few rays of  sunshine before taking his turn behind the bar. We got to talking, and he mentioned the latest madness among bar drinkers: those who ask for a shot of Jameson chased by a shot of pickle juice.

It's known as the "pickleback," and it's become a hit in bars across the country.

I made a face.

Brown personally disdains the combination but, more problematic, the combo drains the juice from the pricey pickles that he and brother, Derek Brown, buy to accompany their sandwiches, like that wonderfully pungent link known as the kimchi hot dog. Tom has already made his feelings public about the Jameson/pickle juice combo.

He thinks the trend started in Philadelphia and trickled its way down to D.C.  (Though the New York Times credits a Brooklyn bar.) Now before you start dissing on our brothers and sisters up North, you might consider this: They may be onto something (though a little off-course).

When I stopped at the Sidebar last week to bid farewell to Tiffany Short, she told me about the latest trend among bartenders: concocting your own "shrub," which is a vinegar infused with fruit. Short had her own shrub right there at the bar.

On its own, the shrub is a big puckering wallop of sour, unfit for human consumption. I know: I sneaked a straw from the bar and tried it straight. But when mixed into the right cocktail, it can add an extra level of complexity to a drink, an added layer of sour underneath all the other flavors.

Short, for example, mixed me one of her latest creations: a drink made with Rittenhouse rye, egg whites, her homemade shrub, and ice. When shaken thoroughly and topped with a little soda, it made for a frothy, slightly spicy but mellow libation — with this excellent undercurrent of tang. If you're  a fan of sour margaritas prepared with a quart of fresh lime juice, you'd love this shrub-based cocktail. The puckerish properties are there, but in far better balance.

I'm working on Short to see if she'll share the recipe. More later.

I'm not sure if it's residual relief, or just another excuse to party, that continues to fuel our fascination with Repeal Day, but 76 years later, we still celebrate that day when Americans could, once again, get shitfaced without breaking the law.

Parties are scheduled across the land tomorrow, including the black-tie Repeal Day Ball at PS 7's, hosted by the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild.  The ball will feature cocktails from the area's best mixologists as well as food by chef Peter Smith, '30s-era music by the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs, and special guests including bartending legend Dale Degroff. General admission tickets are $100 each; VIP tickets are $150. You can buy them here.

Y&H put the question to Derek Brown, the proud owner of a new watering hole and one of the prime movers behind the Craft Bartenders Guild: Why continue to celebrate Repeal Day so long after the fact?

His response via G-chat:

"Because, as [brother] Tom Brown says, without alcohol I wouldn't have a job, hobby or friends."

Fair enough, but I still think we ought to celebrate the 22nd Amendment instead, which may have prevented us from suffering another four years under a former drunk. That's an amendment whose impact feels much more immediate.

But back to the point: The Craft Bartenders Guild party isn't the only one around. Urbana off Dupont Circle is also celebrating Repeal Day with both drink specials  and chef Alex Bollinger's $33 prix-fixe menu. A press release offers more details:

An actual bathtub bar that will serve the Urbana Gin Fizz, available for $8. All of Urbana’s classic cocktails will also be available for $8, including:

• Classic Martini: ketel one or belvedere vodka, noilly prat dry vermouth, shaken or stirred
• Chapala: partida blanco, lillet blanc, orange juice, housemade grenadine, fresh lemon
• Sazerac: woodford reserve, lucid absinthe, peychaud’s and angostura bitters, simple syrup
• Dark and Stormy: gosling’s black seal rum, ten cane rum, ginger beer, fresh lemon
• Bensonhurst: maker’s mark, noilly prat dry vermouth, maraschino, cynar
• Bebbo: plymouth gin, honey, fresh lemon, orange juice

The first Urbana Gin Fizz or classic cocktail purchased by guests in 1920’s attire will be 25 cents. All drinks thereafter will be available for $8.

Music from the ‘roaring 20’s’ will be enjoyed throughout the evening.

Urbana Facebook fans can use a prohibition-era password (only available from the Facebook fan page) to receive an additional gift from the house. The Urbana Facebook fan page can be accessed at: www.facebook.com/urbana

$33 three-course tasting menu featuring items from Chef Bollinger’s late fall/early winter menu, with a selection of appetizer, entrée and dessert.

Photo by Sarah Deer via Flickr Creative Commons, Attribution License

As if you needed any more proof that we're mired in a recession, just check out the top posts from this week: They're focused on good, old-fashioned drinkin'. Here's to better times, y'all...

In the meantime, the most-read posts from the week:

1. Women of Craft Beer: A Quick List (*)
2. Paste Names Best 25 American Breweries
3. The Passenger Set to Open Tomorrow
4. D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Leaderboard: Same As It Ever Was
5. Yaku to Close and Turn into a Rock 'n' Roll/Sushi Concept

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, the most-read item, but we've stopped counting it.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Take some of D.C.'s best-known cocktail and wine bartenders and you get...a good neighborhood beer bar, obviously.

Well, not quite; I have selective vision that turns pretty much all bars into beer bars. But The Passenger, which opens tonight at 5 p.m., is nay Cork nor Gibson, the wine and cocktail pedestals that the Brown brothers are known for. It's a relaxed bar with a neighborhood drinking-room feel and some tasty beers, wines, and even cocktails if you ask nice.

The space at 1021 7th St. NW, which was formerly the bar space at the Warehouse and home to Punch Club, still has all its best parts: unfinished walls, old wood floor, and sweet wrought-iron tables. (Disclosure: I organized/bartended a non-beer event there once.) (Disclosure pt. 2: I really, really like this space.) The bar top is bigger and more comfortable, and what was once dead space in the back is being rebuilt to mimic a dining car.

The four-beer draft list is well-curated, with good a stout, pilsner, hoppy American beer, and Belgian all represented — and nothing shitty. If you're looking to slum it, the menu digs deep in that direction too, with cans of Steel Reserve for $4. And taking some direction from Room 11, they're offering punch and cocktails by the pitcher. I sampled a lovely sherry flip, with two types of sherry, brandy, falernum, nutmeg, and raw egg whites (yes!) beaten into a light, frothy mix. In fact, I sampled several of them.

The menu also features several wines by the glass, all three Dolin vermouths, and some fancified bar snacks, including a $7 kimchi hot dog you couldn't pay me to eat. (Note to staff: It's just that brand of kimchi, I can't do it.) Fortunately there's other options — see the whole menu here.

And if my photo leaves you wanting despite all its frontal-flash glory, ReadysetDC has the sights, as usual.

If there's anything that grips Y&H readers, it's tragedy, and it doesn't get much more tragic than the homicide of Nori Amaya, the co-owner of Coppi's Organic on U Street. People were obviously desperate for information on the strangulation. Even our negligible little item was widely visited.

Here's how the week shook out:

1. Nori Amaya's Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page
2. A Certain Goddamn Budweiser Beer That People Can't Stop Reading About
   
3. Birch & Barley Opens Today. What's Inside? (This item is quickly entering Select 55 territory.)
   
4. Tom and Derek Brown to Channel Spirits and Iggy Pop at the Passenger
   
5. D'Acqua Shutters, Ping Pong Dim Sum Set to Open Next Month
   

Tom and Derek Brown have pour, mixed, and stirred drinks at some of the best spots in the District: Komi, Citronelle, Palena, the Gibson, Corduroy, and Cork. But when the brothers decided to open their own joint, The Passenger, they didn't want anything as formal as their former places of employment.

"I wanted a place where I could drink wine and play Motörhead," says Derek Brown, the younger of the two siblings who grew up in Olney. "I've grown in my tastes. I haven't grown in my want for a laid-back environment."

True to their word, the brothers Brown are building a watering hole high on quirkiness — and low on pretension. It begins with the very building in which the Passenger is housed: the former bar/cafe space at the Warehouse at 1021 7th St. NW.  The space, co-owned by Paul Ruppert (who's also a partner in the Passenger), dates back to 1890 and once was home to Ruppert Hardware, a fixture in D.C. for nearly 100 years.

The partners plan to let the building speak on its own terms. The old hardwood floor, much of which dates back to the late 19th century, will remain as is. The distressed concrete and exposed brick walls will go untouched, too. Even the old hunter-green booths, which date back to God knows when, will stay in place.

The main additions are few, but significant. The partners have built booths in the front window nooks, which will be perfect for larger parties. They have also redesigned the bar. But the biggest change will occur in the least-trafficked area of the place — at the back, near the entrance to the Warehouse theater itself. In that space, the guys have hired architect Brie Husted to design a room to look like an antique dining-car, complete with arched ceilings, hardwood floors, and old mirrors to look like windows.

So why a dining car?

Patrons "don't hang out here," says Tom Brown about the back of the bar. "We wanted to create something interesting..."

"More alluring," Derek Brown chimes in.

"...to entice people back here," Tom Brown finishes his sentence.

As far as the beverages, the brothers are striving for the personal on all fronts. By that, I mean that the brothers are, for example, stocking their wine list with a few offbeat labels, from a few off-the-beaten-track places, such as the L. Mawby Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine from Michigan or the Chateau Musar Cinsault rosé from Lebanon.  In all, there will be 25 wines available by the glass, ranging in price from $5 to $15.

In terms of cocktails, for which the brothers have earned a reputation for mixing the most inventive in town, the siblings plan to just wing it. They will not offer a cocktail menu, says Tom Brown, which, to him, can create the wrong impression with drinkers. He tells me about a cocktail he once designed for Corduroy; the menu listed its ingredients as tequila, green chartreuse, and sparkling wine.  Few, as you might suspect, ordered it.

When Tom Brown changed the language to read, "a blend of rare liqueurs," the drink was "flying off the shelves," he says.

He offers this anecdote as evidence that it's better to try to understand his customers' palates then to merely shove a prescribed list of cocktails at them. He plans to learn his patrons' preferences — sweet or bitter, vodka or rye, for example — and then mix a cocktail based on them. It will require more work, yes, but "it helps cut down on disappointments," Tom Brown says.

The last bit of personalization will be the most exclusive: the Columbia Room, located in a space near the dining car in the back of the bar. This is where Derek Brown will host his intimate "cocktail club and laboratory." Though still in the formative stages, the Columbia Room will likely be a reservation-only space in which Derek Brown offers an omakase-like selection of cocktails, along with some background and history on each drink.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people will not enjoy it," Derek Brown argues. I suspect he's joking.

But will the Passenger really play hardcore music? Well, consider this: The name of the place is derived from the Iggy Pop song, "The Passenger." "I've always loved this song," Derek Brown says. "It always had great energy."

There's no real explanation for why the brothers chose to name their place after a Pop song — though, in retrospect, Derek Brown acknowledges that it could be read as a commentary on how "everybody is always passing through" the District. But the tune does reflect the siblings' punk spirit, which will filter down to the music they plan to pump throughout the Passenger.

The music is "going to go all over the place," Tom Brown says. "You might hear Bad Brains and hear Simple Minds right behind it."  If you don't like the song, just wait a minute, he adds. Something completely different will follow it.

The Passenger's opening date is still up in the air. Derek Brown tells a reporter this afternoon that the bar should be finished in a "few weeks," a remark to which his older brother immediately takes umbrage. It's sibling rivalry right there at the construction site!

"Why did you say a 'few weeks'?" Tom Brown carps. "I think we'll be open much sooner than that."