Just in time for National Hot Dog Month (Happy National Hot Dog Month, everybody!), America's Drive-In, Sonic, introduced its new and improved Footlong Quarter Pound Coney, a 12-inch hot dog topped with chili and cheese.
The revamped coney is a blend of beef and pork, boasts a quarter-pound weigh-in, and along with the chili and cheese, can be topped with bacon or jalapeño peppers, making the "dog ditch,"its paper serving vessel, an essential accessory.
So does the new footlong dog deserve a National Hot Dog Month welcome?
Yeah, it's tasty -- $2.99 tasty (until August 29).
While I wanted more than just an average chili topping (c'mon Sonic, you missed your chance to shine), the bun was soft and the blend of chili, cheese, and my add of jalepeño peppers, never overpowered the decent dog flavor.
The dog ditch is genius on Sonic's part, since handling a quarter-pound coney dog in the car is akin to being in the front row of a Gallagher concert. With the accompanying fork, you can tear, slice, and pick away at the footlong feast with sufficient toppings leftover for tot-dunking.
In the "duh" section, a footlong, quarter-pound coney dog is less nutritous than, say a footlong, quarter pound banana. Sporting 810 calories, 53 grams of fat, and a whopping 1,800 milligrams of sodium, this ain't no cocktail weenie, but what the hell, it is National Hot Dog Month after all.