Home Depot Houses Some Of The Best Hot Dogs In Chicago

Chicago is one of America's iconic food towns, a city by the lake known for its deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, and its signature mix of cheese and caramel popcorn. One of the institutions famously embedded into the city's helix strands is the Chicago-style hot dog. Nothing screams vintage Chi Town more than enjoying a Vienna beef footlong or Maxwell Street Polish sausage while drinking an Old Style beer and watching the Cubbies play at Wrigley Field.

But a hidden gem nestled in a poppy seed bun is covertly tucked away in one of the places you might least expect to find a quality hot dog stand. Home Depot quietly offers Chicago-style frankfurters at a number of its Chicagoland locations, allowing contractors and DIY'ers to grab a pimp steak after they shop for lumber, paint, plaster, and other household repair supplies. It's part of a burgeoning partnership the home improvement retailer has with Fixin' Franks, a family-owned vendor that specializes in Windy City hot dogs. 

Fixin' Franks is a fixture at 17 different Home Depots in Chicago, serving its locally sourced brand of beef dogs topped, in true Chicago fashion, with tomato slices, diced onions, pickled relish, mustard, pickle spears, and not a drop of ketchup whatsoever. The menu also features plump Polish sausages with all the fixings and Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches dipped au jus in roast beef gravy. The secret ingredient is the hot giardiniera "Italian pickles" slathered atop the Polish and Italian beef. Served alongside chips and a soda — or pops, as Chicagoans refer to them — it makes perfect for a quick, yet satisfying lunch on the go.  

The marriage of plywood, garden supplies, and hot sandwiches is not a concept exclusive to Chicago. Home Depot has welcomed food vendors in several cities across the U.S. to set up shop near the front exits for the past 25 years. Having a full belly is one of the means for how doers get more done.

Rocco's Italian Sausages & Cheesesteaks' relationship with Home Depot dates back to 2000 when the hoagie shop opened up a stand in New York City. Nowadays, it cooks its vittles up inside multiple Philadelphia and New Jersey stores with the orange logo.

In Detroit, Bill The Hot Dog Guy was a fixture at one of the Motor City's Home Depots for 20 years until the pandemic slowed things down. The chain announced his triumphant return last year to much fanfare from loyal customers. And a Home Depot in Missouri has also made room for a hot dog stand called Dirty Dogz. It's a match that may seem counterintuitive, but somehow it makes perfect business sense — big-box stores do like it when customers find some time to eat while shopping.