How many ways can you dress up a hot dog?
At The DawgFather Grill, a new CenPho spot that grew out of a food cart business, there are eight variations inspired by different regional specialties.
There's a Chicago Dawg on a poppy seed bun topped with relish, onion, tomato, pickle, peppers, and celery salt; a bacon-wrapped Sonoran Dawg with pinto beans, onions, tomato, cheddar, and seasoned salt; a Philly Cheese Steak Dawg that combines a weenie with that iconic sandwich, a chili-topped Coney Island Dawg; and even a deep-fried New Jersey Dawg.
You can also upgrade to a quarter-pound Big Dawg, or try The Dawgski (a Polish sausage) instead of the usual frank.
Burgers are big and bigger (a third-pound or a half-pound), and the restaurant serves Philly cheese steaks and Italian beef sandwiches as well.
It sounds like any one of these dishes -- with the exception of the Caesar salad -- would fill your gut pretty handily, but the over-the-top option is The DawgFather Grill's "King of Dawgs Food Challenge." It's five pounds of food that you have to shovel down your gullet in 30 minutes, all for the glory of getting your name and photo on the wall. I suspect that Feasts of Fury's Zach Fowle will be up for this one . . .
The restaurant, located next to St. Francis Cathedral and Brophy Prep, at 4727 N. Central Ave., is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Catering is also available. Call 602-234-4777 for details.
