Sam’s Hot Dog Stand on North Front street in Wilmington was a little bit of an irresistible treat for lunch when we visited Downtown for a stroll along the Riverwalk by the Cape Fear River.
This place gives the impression that it has been here for years, but I learned that it has only just moved onto North Front Street in January of this year and that it was the second outlet of Sam’s Hot Dogs a business that has only been trading for a couple of years.
On their website they say the they ‘believe Wilmington deserves the perfect, authentic, American hotdog at a fair price’ they also say that they are “Concentrating on the hotdog and not endless “toppings” and menu choices that veer from the true hotdog stand”
I like the sound of that! It is music to my ears and salivations to my taste buds
The menu is refreshingly nice and simple, basically offering up a choice of the Carolina classic style with chili and coleslaw, or an opportunity to build your own (within reason). Nothing weird, nothing super fancy, just the sort of menu as promised that you would expect from a ‘classic hot dog stand’
We ordered quite modestly
“Straight Up” Dog
First choice was the Straight Up which is an all beef hot dog topped with a smear of Mustard, a sprinkle of chopped onions, and a large spoonful of chili. You can have this with Spicy or Mild chili, we had mild.
We also had some crinkle cut fries to share, they came with a sprinkle of some sort of spicy Cajun seasoning. They were fairly decent, but were just there for a bit of belly filling, a nice pot of mayo helped to counter the salt
“Straight Up” and “Build Your Own”
The second choice was mine and I also had a ‘Straight-up’ and I took a ‘Build your own’ just have it with mustard and onions.
I liked them both they were decent and honest just as promised
I love a good hot dog, a proper one with that lovely snap when you take a bite, and I pretty much like mine plain and simple. to be honest I just like a bit of yellow mustard and maybe some onions.
If I thought I could get away with it then I might also slide a little bit of ketchup on there, but I do know that is seriously frowned upon and I would never want to anger the hot dog gods 🙂
It was interesting to see that they do include ‘ketchup’ on the menu, so it would seem that these dogmeisters in Carolina just do whatever they want
I really enjoyed our time at Sam’s, the food was satisfying, the staff were friendly, and it had that classic feel that takes you back to simpler times
Located at
121 N Front Street, Wilmington, NC 28401
Tel: 910-251-7799
myfoodhunt.com 