W.Va. Hot Dog Joint Review

Mrs. Winkles

Charleston - Plaza East

A staple of the old Plaza East shopping center was the little hot dog joint on the corner, Bowincal's. It closed many years ago but it has sat virtually unchanged through the years. You could walk by and see the tables and chairs sitting there waiting for people to fill them, and the serving counter waiting for someone to order one with everything. I was pleased when I heard that the place had reopened under a slightly different name.

Mrs. Winkle is presumably no relation to the former occupants, and her menu is definitely more diverse than the old place with things like Greek salads, hot wings and other trendy fast foods. But hot dogs still hold a place of honor on the menu, and the menu has several different versions and different toppings to work with. When I asked what "everything" was, I was greeted by an exasperated stare and so I withdrew my question and just asked for two with spicy chili (they have regular chili, but I wanted to see what "spicy" meant), slaw, mustard and onions.

My hot dogs took a long time to get to me, but I was not alone, quite literally. There must have been about 12 people waiting for their orders when I got there and another 4 or 5 came in after me. One disgruntled customer finally voiced his displeasure and left, donating his pre-paid food order in the process. I hung in there and waited almost 20 minutes. It was the heat of lunchtime, so I'll forgive them, especially because even though they were slammed I could see that they were still taking great care preparing the hot dogs instead of just throwing them together. Each bun was steamed, the mustard was carefully applied, the chili was lovingly spread and the slaw and onions were spooned into place like presentation actually mattered to them.

When I finally got my order I noticed that the two hot dogs "to go" were served in kind of a double-wide styrofoam coffin. No matter, the steamed bun and the piping hot toppings preserved themselves well on the short drive back to my office. When I opened the coffin I was greeted by a heady bouquet of really potent onions, but they didn't taste as strong as they smelled. The first thing I noticed when I bit into my dog was the unmistakable "snap" of a premium weenie: Probably either a Nathan's skinless or a Boar's Head. It was quite tasty like both of those brands and larger in size than your typical HDJ weenie.

The next thing that caught my attention was the spicy chili. It was indeed spicy; not Fairmont spicy, but pretty darned spicy for Charleston. It was really nice and complex too, with a tartness that one usually doesn't find in the spicy stuff up north. The slaw, while pretty tasty and fresh, wasn't quite up to the task of offsetting the chili. I'd imagine it would go well with the regular stuff, but the spicy just kinda burned through it. Still, this is a very good hot dog. It's a bit pricey for these parts at $1.90, but the premium ingredients are worth it.

Let's give Mrs.Winkle a 4.5 Weenie rating to leave her room for improvement. Sweeten the slaw and make it a little creamier and it would be flawless.