Travelling down the Blue Line I stopped off at Damen to see what was around there, being Wicker Park there are a whole load of food options. However, by now you may well have clocked that I have a prediliction for the good old hot dog, and when I saw a sign “Gourmet Dogs, Burgers & Sausages” well there was only ever going to be one outcome.

This place is in the basement below another food joint “Flash Taco” and when I got down there the place was empty and the guy behind the counter almost seemed surprised that I had found my way in.

On first inspection of the menu I was quite excited, there were quite a few things that I fancied and even the prospect of the “Heat Burger” topped with fried egg, cheese and bacon could not distract me from the task in hand which was to get my hands on one of the game sausages. The options included “Pheasant & Cognac”, “Elk & Pear”, “Wild Boar”, “Duck & Orange”, and “Bavarian”, off course in true typical fashion they had everything available except for my first choice the Wild Boar, so I spun the wheel and the ball dropped on “Duck and Orange” topped with caramelized onions and herbs of provence, this came with truffle fries all in for $7, seemed fair enough to me.

To be fair for $7 this was pretty good, it was not quite what I expected, the sausage was solid, meaty and had quite a subtle flavour almost herby. I think I was expecting a play on Duck a l’orange, but I was pleasantly surprised. The onions were quite tasty, sweet and tender.  The fries were freshly cooked, with a hint of rosemary and seemed a bit greasy but that was probably the truffle oil, they had a nice bite texture, not soggy, and not floury.

I liked this place and what I had. It cannot light a flame to somewhere like “Frank n Dawgs” but it doesn’t try to aspire to that. While I was eating my dog, I made the cardinal sin of checking out this place on Yelp, and saw that it had pretty much terrible reviews, I know that’s why I pay no attention to sites like that and I am so happy that I am my own man and make my own opinions. Nearly all the places I have blogged about I haven’t researched I just turned up at a station on a prayer and a whim, and mostly I have been happy enough, sometimes surprised, sometimes delighted, when I find somewhere I really don’t like i just don’t blog about it. I have  always thought that if you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all. When it comes to food, it is after all just about taste and we each have our own.

I will probably come back here, but there are also quite a few places nearby that I have my eye on, so it may be a while. But I will return, of that there is little doubt

located at 1570 1/2 N Damen Avenue, 2mins from the Damen Blue Line stop, and on the CTA 50 bus route