Dog Daze Cafe

In this breezy summertime drive-in by the side of busy Route 7, the burgers and hot dogs are very good. Hand-cut French fries are excellent. Made-here chips for nachos are extraordinarily crunchy. And well-seasoned, grill-roasted corn on the cob, drizzled with a creamy sauce, is out-of-this-world. Yes, it looks like an ordinary hot dog stand, but just about everything here is at least one cut above.

Opened in 2013 in a spot that has seen many quick-eats shacks come and go over the years, Dog Daze makes a point of using organic produce raised at the family farm over in Ellenville, New York (farm honey and jams also are for sale). That helps explain why the onion rings here are superior – that, plus the fact that the onions are freshly cut and battered, resulting in big, thick hoops of slick allium sweetness encased in a fragile pale gold crust.

It isn’t easy choosing what to eat. This tiny place has a large menu, including seven different specialty dogs (such as a BLT dog, a Chicago dog, a Reuben dog, and a Bayou dog) and a choice of four different chicken-sausage sandwiches (maple-cinnamon sausage, Italian smoked sausage, Cajun andouille sausage, and Buffalo blue cheese sausage), plus such exotica as truffle-fried cauliflower, pulled pork nachos, and fried mac ‘n’ cheese.

All seating is outdoors at picnic tables, a few stools at a counter to the side of the shack, and scattered-about chairs.