Hotdog

We Make the Wiener; We Bake the Roll says the sign above the entrance to what is one of the nation’s great hot dog shops. Beyond elegantly seasoned, all-beef sausages made from sirloin ground on premises every morning and chewy, flavorful buns that approach Delaware Valley hoagie-roll quality, Hotdog offers what it calls baby pies. They’re single-serving cups of fragile crust holding the freshest imaginable banana cream, coconut cream, chocolate cream, or lemon capped with frothy meringue: true gourmet pies, at the cost of a donut.

Everything made at this remarkable shack is far better than price, location, and ambience suggest. In fact, the ambience is delightful, featuring a staff that is genuinely enthusiastic about the food and a semi-open kitchen where you can see master chef JoAnn McSorley baking crusts and assembling the pies, creating relish (yes, it’s from scratch, too), or checking on buns coming out of the oven.

In fact, the kitchen occupies about 80% of the floor space, with only a few counter seats at the window for indoor dining. Many people come for food packed to-go, and there’s a drive-through window, too.

Calabash is an eater’s destination famous for seafood, which can be very good. If you are a hot dog aficionado, this unique little restaurant adds immeasurable sparkle to the town’s culinary glory.