I am a huge fan of hot dogs. I am always looking for places that serve a variety of dogs and tons of toppings.
I now know of two places in St. Louis that have Chicago style dogs. One is Woofie's and it is located off of Woodson Road in Overland, MO. I ate there about 7 years ago. It was delicious, but I haven't been back. Not because it wasn't great, it is just a little out of my way.
We discovered a new place this weekend: Pam's Chicago Style Dogs & More Pam's is located in developing area east of Skinker on Delmar (6016 Delmar). It is located across the street from the Delmar Metro Link station. I believe they moved to this location in 2008. The menu at this place is extensive. Not only do they have a ton of different hot dogs, but they have a variety of sandwiches, salads and a plethora of deep fried desserts (fried Twinkies, singers, cupcakes, ding dons, muffins, oreos, snickers, cookie dough and cheesecake). I didn't see anyone order a deep fried dessert, but I would have loved to. There are at about 10 tables to sit and enjoy the food. We got there pretty early and the lunch crowd just started to file in as we were leaving. We were happy to get there when we did.
Our order consisted of a Pam's Colossal Dog (1/3 lb) 100% Vienna Beef Chicago Style dog, a regular kids dog, corn dog and a Paul's Veggie dog (their own creation 1/4lb, served Chicago style). The kids meals came with french fries or cheese fries. We had one of each. Their definition of Chicago style is yellow mustard, neon relish, onions, tomato, sport peppers, a pickle spear and a dash of celery salt on a poppy seed bun. You can also request for your dogs to be grilled instead of steamed, but they only grill at lower volume times.
We got the Colossal Dog grilled and it came on two poppy seed buns and all the toppings. It was absolutely delicious. Grilling the dog gave it a really nice crisp outer layer, so when you bit into it cracked and then they juices flowed. The celery salt was a nice addition because it was a pop of flavor.
The veggie dog wasn't your normal tofu dog, which is what I was expecting. They created a very good veggie burger mixture and shaped it like a hot dog and grilled it and put it in a poppy seed bun with all the toppings. I got brown mustard instead of yellow mustard and again, I thought it was delicious. It had tons of flavors and lots of veggies, which I was very happy with.
As I said above, we ordered a kids hot dog and kids corn dog. When he called our order, he accidentally gave us two kids hot dogs. He immediately realized his mistake and gave us the corn dog and let us keep the second kids hot dog. The corn dog was perfectly cooked. The corn meal was fried perfectly, so it was really crisp, but left the dog on the inside super juicy. My one year old loved it so much he ate the entire corn dog. My three year old son loved the regular dog and ate it for lunch and requested the leftover one for dinner. Not the healthiest meals for my three year old, but he doesn't get regular hot dog very often.
You can get so much more at this place then just hot dogs. They have a ton of sandwiches, burgers and even a Gyro Sandwich.
We felt pretty safe because a few tables over from us sat three St. Louis City police officers, which we have heard is a regular occurrence (not just that those three officers where there, but that lots of St. Louis City officers frequent the place).
We rate the restaurant as follows:
Food = A+ (if you like Chicago style hot dogs)
Service = A
Cleanliness = B+ (My husband used the restroom and he said that it wasn't super clean and it is a co-ed bathroom, so you know how dirty that can get. The tables seemed clean and the floors were clean as well).
