In Search of New York City’s Most Elusive Hot Dog

My sister sent me a TikTok in which the comedian Matt Bellassai shares his hourslong journey to New York City’s last Dairy Queen, on Staten Island, only to find that it’s closed. This week, I found myself in a similar situation: I drove to Staten Island on a Monday in search of the family-owned Skippy’s Hot Dog Truck, a local legend that has posted up on Hylan Boulevard for 61 years. After circling the block for 30 minutes and chatting with a group of locals, I had to admit defeat.

And so began my journey for what might be the city’s most elusive hot dog. Defeated but not deflated, I reached out to a Staten Island food reporter who’d covered the truck extensively. I dug through Instagram posts. I Googled and sorted through Reddit threads. Nothing. I had a hot-dog-shaped hole in my heart that needed filling, so here are the hot dogs that held me over until I finally found Skippy’s.

Smoked franks and luxury pigs in a blanket

I headed for the lower level of Chelsea Market for a highly praised hot dog at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats. It’s made with beef and pork, and smoked over hickory and apple wood. The sausage is longer than the bun, which I’ve always regarded as a good sign vis-à-vis hot dogs. The hot dog was snappy and full-bodied, still managing to shine under a layer of raw onions, jalapeños and Kewpie mayo. The bun could use work, but I’m not holding it against them.

The next day, while working sources on Staten Island, I happened upon an email about what might be the most expensive pigs in a blanket in New York City. The culprit: the Bar Room, a power-lunch offshoot of the Modern, at the Museum of Modern Art. For $32 — surpassing even the celebrated $29 hot dog at Mischa — you get two bite-size Wagyu hot dogs nestled in crispy potato rolls and topped with caviar, dill oil and fried egg mustard sauce. As far as gimmicks go, it’s worth it, especially if you consider yourself a pig-in-a-blanket aficionado.

Finding Skippy’s

In case you think I had somehow lost the proletarian hot dog thread here, I followed that up with a stop at the 110-year-old Fulton Hot Dog King, in Downtown Brooklyn. Its standard hot dog, a skinny little thing, is passable. The hot sausage, however, is glorious. The gentleman manning the grill warned me that it was spicy, but it was exactly how I like it: with a nice, gentle burn that clears the sinuses and doesn’t make you cry.

Still, I had Skippy’s on my mind. So you can imagine my excitement when a response from Pamela Silvestri, the food editor of The Staten Island Advance, popped up in my inbox. And that’s how I ended up sitting in the driver’s seat of Skippy’s Hot Dog Truck on a Saturday afternoon, breezily chatting with its third-generation owner and operator, Dawn LaVigne, who said she’d been working in the truck “since I’m 11.”

The hot dogs are floppy Sabretts pulled from hot water, standard for trucks. But it’s the toppings that have always been the draw: homemade chili and onions, recipes created by Ms. LaVigne’s grandmother. A combination of both with brown mustard will set you right. The cherry on top was watching locals, many of whom have been coming to the truck since they were children, talk with Ms. LaVigne about their families — “You get to share people’s lives,” she said — while ribbing her over whether she takes cards. (She categorically does not.) She also doesn’t show up when it’s raining or too hot, a policy that I would love to adopt. But I’ll just have to settle for a job that pays me to eat this many hot dogs.

In Other News …

• This week, Pete Wells reviews Potluck Club on the Lower East Side, which takes a younger generation’s approach to Chinatown cooking with a menu rooted in “classic Cantonese dishes like rice rolls and pot stickers, then bring in flavors from outside the neighborhood.”

• Openings: Blue Bird, a new bar and bistro with an heirloom tomato cocktail on the menu, is now open on Third Avenue and 13th Street; J.J. Johnson’s fast-casual restaurant chain Field Trip now has a location in Morningside Heights; and this weekend, Shake Shack is selling well-stocked picnic baskets featuring their veggie burgers for $60.

• Christina Morales offers a glowing portrait of Toñita’s, one of the last Puerto Rican social clubs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and its 83-year-old owner, Maria Antonia Cay.

• Priya Krishna reports on the rise of barely sweet New Zealand-style ice cream, made from real fruit. But since crossing the Pacific, Americans have added all manner of sugary toppings.

• According to an Instagram post, the fine dining restaurant Claud, in the East Village, will temporarily become a daytime bakery after losing its liquor license. (Pete Wells awarded the restaurant three stars in 2022.)

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