Found Treasure: ScoopDog and Monterey Bay’s Top 6 Hot Dog Spots

December 1, 2023 – A University of Michigan study has shown hot dogs take minutes off your life.

But what’s harder to measure is how much life hot dogs have brought to your minutes. 

They’ve given me great joy, transporting me to historic places (I see you Portillo’s in downtown Chicago), nostalgic places (ball game with the fam) and crazy places (driving around in Oscar Mayer’s Weinermobile).

They’ve also brought me to the very best hot dog spots around the Monterey Bay (more on that in a minute). 

First up: The latest place hot dogs teleported met was The Hangar in Watsonville. 

I came across the shiny new gourmet ice cream and fancy hot dog concept called ScoopDog while reporting a different food tale (the excellent Tacos Al Fuego, which sits opposite ScoopDog). 

The menu leans creative with some regional inspiration.

The classic Chicago dog was familiar (mustard, onions, neon relish, dill spear, tomato, sport peppers, celery salt, and poppy seed buns shipped from Rotello’s in Chicago twice a week). 

The others, not so much.  

Note the LA Dog loaded with bacon, pico de gallo, Tapatio ketchup, fresh jalapeños, cilantro, mayo and cotija cheese. 

And the Elote Dog repping Mexico, perhaps, piled with chopped corn, cotija cheese, mayo, cilantro, tajin and a lime wedge to squirt.

And the Texas Dog draped in chili, cheddar, crispy onions, raw onions and bacon. 

I was dumbfounded at what to get—or maybe thrown by how many options include ketchup, like The Original, with ketchup, mustard, onions, relish, $7. (All others are $7.25-$8.25; ScoopDog also does fries and onion rings.)

I was also distracted, and seduced, by seeing arugula on a hot dog. Purists probably aren’t feeling that, if they’ve gotten past the ketchup problem, which is part of what makes hot dogs fun: people take them personally.

The eager and earnest manager behind the register, who called me “boss” at least eight times, told me the LA and Texas are the best-sellers.

Emboldened by his repeated endorsement of my leadership vibe, I made an executive decision to get the Cali Dog. 

Gimme all the tomato, avocado, crispy onions, pesto aioli and, yes, arugula. 

The dog itself was simply outstanding. 

The all-beef frank is sizable. (You can also swap in a chicken sausage, Beyond Bratwurst sausage and/or a gluten-free bun.) 

The bun works nicely, squooshy but substantial to hold up to the complex interior life. 

The complementary textures of the crispy onions and soft avocado and freshness of the produce, with the pesto playing harmonizer delivers a salty, crunchy, cohesive victory. 

To hit both sides of the aisle—the ice cream is iconic Marianne’s out of Santa Cruz, in a dozen flavors by way of cup, cone, milkshake, root beer float or sundae expressions, with 12 different topping choices in play—I grabbed a butter pecan shake. 

Even sweeter than it sounds, so that took some pacing.

In short I’m stoked The Hangar has a new player on its roster. (It debuted in July.) 

I should admit bias, in that I love hot dogs enough that my editor threatened to slap a moratorium on hot dog stories on me. And I don’t think there are enough quality installments around the Monterey Bay. 

ScoopDog owner, Watsonville resident and self-described serial entrepreneur Rocky Patel, who also owns The Hangar’s Mr. Z’s Crêpes and Teas, gets that.

“I felt like something like ScoopDog was kinda missing in the area, and I wanted to do ice cream for The Hangar,” he says. “I’m a big big hot dog fanatic and nobody was doing them like I enjoy them.”

In that spirit, and for the love of franks, here I rank my top half dozen, which include four Found Treasures. (I welcome your responsible and irresponsible feedback at mark@ediblemontereybay.com or @MontereyMCA on Instagram.)

One thing that struck me about the list after I compiled it was how good the vibes are at each place (#6 aside).

I have a theory why: Hot dogs equal joy. 

6. Costco By self-assigned spirituality, I don’t write about chains. But Costco earns an exemption because their dogs are delish. In fact, ScoopDog sources its dogs from Costco, Kirkland Signature style. The C dog is also 1) an academic exercise (how many people can explain what a “loss leader” is as succinctly as Mama Costco does by keeping a big old dog and a drink $1.50 when adjusted-for-inflation it would be at least $4.25?); 2) Many people my vintage gain so much—yes—joy from going to Costco it’s fun to include a curveball.

5. Caballus Food Truck (at the Marina Dump) This is a flat-out excellent dog, delivered by two of the sweetest food world people I know. They’re basically guardian angels/lucky charms of the entire Monterey Peninsula Landfill community. The choice of Nathan’s dog and crispy bacon help big. The only demerit: Packets of mustard turn out to be very hard to wrangle. But you can’t beat $7 for a frank and fries.

4. ScoopDog Life is better with dogs, yes (see above). And the ice cream side deserves recognition too. “They go great together,” Patel says. 

3. Cali Glizzy This home-spun and family-run tiny spot in Oldtown Salinas gets rambunctious with aircraft carrier dogs like the Da’ Glizzy Gobbler (bacon, nacho cheese, grilled onions and jalapeños, waffle fries, bacon bits and a bunch of sauces) and top-selling So Salinas Glizzy (nacho cheese, onions and jalapeños, with a crowning layer of crushed Hot Cheetos). Bonus: You can order them to your stool at XL Public House on Main Street.  

2. Lucy’s on Lighthouse The inventions here border on the absurd. Hello, Peeks dog with pulled pork, kimchee, pimento cream cheese, tangy slaw and special sauce. But with a chef co-owner it’s among the many aggressive combos that play great together, and complement the surf/skate vibe, patio and fun ice cream treats.

1. Taylor Brothers Simplicity done well is easy to preach and hard to provide. But because of it happening so eloquently here, I’m going with the oldest in the area—with the uniforms, neon sign and secret recipe chili—as my top dog. Also, there’s no ketchup allowed on the premises and the modest size (and modest $2.15 price) means you can eat two without taking too many minutes off life while doubling the jump in joy.