I used to slum it at the Varsity when I was down in the ATL for grad school. My review: “it’s ok.” Was cheap and fast but no show dog.
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Chili Dogs Only Bark at Night!
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I can’t argue with that JM. But the “ambience” is worth an occasional dog. I prefer a cheese burger with a side of potato salad at a joint on the 2nd floor of a bldg near the City-County bldg.
Whaddya have, Whaddya have, Whaddya have
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I wouldn’t go that far, but count me in as not being a huge fan of Detroit conies. However, I do enjoy Rudy’s on Alexis Rd. in Toledo.
I’m spoiled though, having grown up a dual Chicago and Cincinnati citizen. I got to enjoy Portillo’s during the school year and Skyline, Gold Star and Empress in the summer.
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When I was a kid, Skyline always ran the same corny ads featuring a lift of “It’s Twilight Time” changed to “it’s Skyline time” featuring a bunch of schlocky bite and smile visuals. But not GoldStar. Nope. They never tried to go big. The restaurants looked gross. Food was poorly shot. But they spent all their money on talent. One of the greatest regional ads of all time was Pete Rose saying “Gold Star Chili. Them dogs are good.” It looked like it was shot on a handicam for four dollars and was in a heated race with The Buy-Rite kid for the winner of worst looking adverts on tv. Just glorious.
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Rudy’s is certainly in my top 5.
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Very short walk……they’re next door! Lol
I’m old, terms like short walk mean something different to me now. 
Didn’t Pete Rose drive away in a Porsche in that Gold Star ad?
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Do not use ketchup if you are over 18.
He might of. I still recall his red 911 on a Sunday morning when he cursed out my brother and I, two kids mind you, for asking for his autograph when we were in line at Perkins for breakfast and he was at the dealership. In retrospect, strange he was there on a Sunday at that hour. Prolly placing bets on the Reds. What a tool.
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Speaking of Detroit, I went on a food crawl there last year and really enjoyed the pizza, especially Cloverleaf. Amazing stuff.
Discovered a few other completely hidden gems as well.
I came away a huge fan of the food I tried, and – although I’d been there many times before – in disbelief that miles and miles of neighborhoods are in complete shambles and no one has lifted a finger to fix the problem. I thought I was driving through Chechnya much of the time.
Bonk……it’s amazing. None of my family generation returned to Detroit after college. We all had seen enough growing up
I recall an article being run (can’t remember where) of the historic buildings falling into disrepair/abandonment to the point that trees were growing into once majestic lobbies
The Detroit style pizza is damn good though. A little doughy, imo.
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Call me young at heart
I’m going to come to Detroit’s defense since I work in the city and take people on car tours to give them the real story of what’s going on.
Detroit’s rebound will take multiple generations because of not only the auto industry leaving the city by and large, but the historical ramifications that came with the inability of African-Americans to build wealth because of discriminatory housing practices such as land contracts, restrictive covenants, blockbusting, redlining, and continued discriminatory mortgage lending practices in the city. There are still walls that divide Detroit from Grosse Pointe, the wealthy suburb to the northeast where signs are put up indicating the street ends, but looking on the other side, the street continues with no natural barrier like water preventing the street from connecting. The surrounding, majority white counties as well as the majority white state government also played a part through their refusal to work with the city for decades. The suburban counties continued refusal to vote for a regional mass transit doesn’t allow some Detroiters to enjoy gainful employment opportunities. Add in “urban renewal” and the placement of I-75 right through all-black neighborhoods such as Paradise Valley and Black Bottom and that further challenged African-American residents. The next time you’re in a big city, especially in the Midwest and wonder why there’s an awkward turn in the freeway that makes you slow down: I-75/I-375 in Detroit, the old I-70/I-65 interchange on the east side of Indianapolis, where the freeways come together just over the Mississippi in St. Louis, the Dan Ryan’s turn on the south side of Chicago, the old I-75 turn on the north side of Dayton, and I can go on, it was because that was where African-American neighborhoods were eliminated.
But in the last 10 years, Detroit has made noticeable progress. Detroit’s bankruptcy was a signal to many that it couldn’t get any worse and it was time to invest. The Grand Bargain that accelerated Detroit’s rise out of bankruptcy with money coming from automakers, Dan Gilbert, the Ilitiches, foundations like Kresge, state government, and others showed there was real seriousness to getting Detroit back on the right foot. Mayor Duggan has played the business and general population sides well, attracting investment to Midtown, Corktown, the Riverfront, Livernois/6 Mile and other well established neighborhoods through the Strategic Neighborhood Funding program while working with city council to pass community benefits agreement that allow Detroiters to work on the big projects. The blight removal program is almost complete, home renovation programs have become available, and many other programs have allowed some of the city’s population to enjoy the city’s recovery.
Now, there are still many challenges. Detroit’s poverty rate is way too high, the academic achievement rate is way too low. There are neighborhoods that are lagging in terms of investment and there isn’t enough livable, move-in ready affordable housing. But Detroit’s police, which now represents the population of the city instead of the majority white units of the 60s-80s that terrified residents, the infamous STRESS unit as an example, now has gone back to community policing with a special mental health unit that’s helped bring crime rates down. The school district has a new superintendent that raised starting teacher pay to help attract better teachers. There are programs that have been put in place that are in their beginning stages to address the rest of Detroit’s programs.
I’ve worked in the city since 2006. It was arguably the worst big city in the US until 2013 or so. It’s coming back though it has a long way to go. And there’s more to the story than just “no one has tried to fix the problem.” For a long time, residents lost enthusiasm for the city because so many forces that were supposed to work for them were actually working against them. But finally, the forces are all working in the same direction, at least for the last decade or so and it’s helped.
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Too bad MoTown bailed out back in the day.
Those are good. Vienna and Hebrew National are my favorites (imagine that), but since I contract with Meijer, I’ve taken a liking to Koegel’s.
And when they don’t dry out the buns, I really enjoy the John Morrell’s all-beef dogs that are served at Goggin and Yager.
Happy July 4th! Perfect day to grill what you like.
No ketchup shaming.