J.J.’s Coney Island

Most hot dog joints are places you likely wouldn’t take your dear old grandmother. They tend to be, shall we say, rough around the edges. Not so J.J.’s. “We don’t allow swearing,” proprietor Albano Medeiros once told a reporter. “We want families to come here…. We wanted to offer a classier place.” To that end, the large street corner restaurant is accoutered with comfortable booths and tables and even an espresso machine for leisurely sipping. There are no counter seats.

In fact, hot dogs are only part of the menu, which extends beyond weenie variations to include chourico pie, stuffed quohogs, chow mein, nachos, and bacon-and-egg breakfast.

Chris Ayers and Amy Briesch, who zeroed in on this place, said that the first time they came they assumed they should get some gaggers (localese for Coney Island hot dogs), which are indeed the featured attraction on the menu. But while waiting in line at the counter (service is tote-your-own), they noticed that a person in front of them got a chourico roll … and it was a beauty. Sure enough, this is no roll from Cheap-Eats Central. It is a lovely twisted pastry enveloping a great load of rugged, spicy sausage.

J.J.’s also is a prime source of the Fall River hot cheese sandwich, for which a hearty scoop of warm, hashed cheddar is retrieved from a steam table tureen and put into a burger bun. Harmonized by a measure of the fine-grind, meaty sauce used on Coney Island hot dogs and a sprinkle of raw onion, the sharp cheese sings a vivid dairy melody.

(Note, as of late Spring, 2020, J.J’s is open for take-out only, Monday through Thursday.)