Tucked just off of Main Street in downtown Royal Oak is the Detroit Dog Company. An attractive storefront that you’d easily find in any other big city, Detroit Dog Company seems to be well-geared for the late night nosh crowd.
Instead of having some dogs after drinking, I decided to break tradition and do it beforehand. And it was a wise choice, because not only are the dogs filling but they’re tasty and I would have missed that a few bourbons in. Let’s walk through them.
First up – the Slim Shady.
This one is for you if you’re into pickles. Topped with fried McClure’s and what they call “Shady Sauce” (yeah, I giggled at the name when I saw it – it seems to be an aioli of some sort), it’s on point.. if you like pickles. Love the local collaboration.
Second to bat – the Rock City.
My favorite of the bunch. Of course, there’s a bacon-wrapped hotdog. Pretty much everything wrapped in bacon is hard to mess up. And then they deep fried it. Which is the way to my heart, even if it’s not necessarily good for it. Love isn’t always healthy, is it?
They do a good job adding the sharp cheddar cheese and a slight dose of tangy heat with a chipotle sauce. Finished with scallions and grilled onions.
Third spot is The Mich.
So imagine if you went a coney island, got chili cheese fries and a coney dog but merged all of it together. You have The Mich. It’s solid. Note that the chili is lighter than what you’d find at one of the Pantheon Pair of coneys downtown, which isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t feel as heavy in your stomach afterward. Some people are religious about their squeeze cheese over shredded on their coneys. If that’s you, this might not be your bag as the cheese is shredded.
The fries are a thing, too. Fresh, not overly salty. Giving some room to control the salt level is nice with grab-and-go spots and not done enough by restaurants.
The buns are apparently from Avalon Bakery, and they don’t disintegrate upon meeting the filling of the dog like so many corner coneys do. No soppy buns here.
The Detroit Dog Company soon will be having a spot in the city of Detroit, as they’re part of that shipping container restaurant contraption over on Peterboro street off of Cass in Midtown along with a few others that’s breaking ground this week.
It’s a shame this place has been mostly ignored by the food press since it opened earlier this year as it’s high value for the buck, something that Detroiters are always looking for. My fellow Daily writer and I had three sizable dogs, two Faygos and fries for just over $20 and frankly we couldn’t eat all our franks.
Thumbs up, friends.