Forget watching planes and boats,  this weekend the festival of choice was the Hot Dog Festival in Northside. I could have fought my way through the masses along North Avenue beach or I could have eaten a hot dog sitting casually in the sunshine on Lincoln Avenue. Tough choice and I take the hot dog every time.

All along the street were some pretty cool signs that I really would have liked to have got my hands on for the kitchen wall, but instead I had to be restrained and only take a photograph, still anyway that ways I get to share with you as well.

Mrs Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro at 3905 N Lincoln Avenue, lay right in the middle of the Summerfest corridor and they had a stand right outside their resturant. Despite not being a hot dog specialist they did have some interesting items on their menu. I nearly had the French Fry corn dog as it was such a cheeky offering, a dog coated with a batter containing french fries was an artery busting temptation that I managed to resist.

I was not however able to resist Mrs Murphy’s offer of the day which was the Dublin Dog with caramelized onions and beer mustard for $4. The sausage was good and the onions were nice and soft, but I found that the beer mustard was a bit too strongly flavoured to my liking and I also got frustrated that the bread bun fell apart as soon as I started to eat it. Overall it was probably worth $4 but I wasn’t over excited and didn’t want another one, I kind of wished I had that French fry dog now instead. Still it was a good sausage, just missed on the combination front. website: http://www.irishbistro.com/

The other temptation of note was as always from Chicago’s Dog House. I have had this particular dog before and I glad to be able to recommend it to my companion on this occasion. This was the Infused Cheddar bacon sausage which is covered with a fresh creamy guacomole, some coriander (or cilantro) and some fried tortilla strips. I personally didn’t care for the tortilla strips when I had it and my companion concurred, but the sausage lived up to expectation the cheese filling is always a treat and the guacomole and cilantro make a great combination. At $7 almost twice price of the $4 Dublin Dog it is hard to say which was better value, I think the Dog House had a better combination and tastes better so I think that makes it better value.

The actual Chicago’s Dog House is nearer to Fullerton than this festival stand, but their stand seems to pop up quite regularly at the Chicago Fests so you may be lucky and catch them on the streets. http://www.chicagosdog.com/Chicagos_Dog_House/Home.html

Overall not a bad festival but not many of the big hitters in the Chicago dog scene were here so not too much to hunt about