Why Hot Dogs At Royals Games Just Got Better

Hot Dogs at Kansas City Royals games just got better. Here's why.

According to KMBC 9, the Royals are serving Vienna Beef Hot Dogs this season, that's why.

I may be a bit of a hot dog snob because I grew up in Chicago. I may be partial to Vienna Beef Hot Dogs because I grew up on them. The first hot dog I ever ate, at Premo's Drive-In, near my boyhood home was a Vienna Beef Hot Dog. When I go back to Chicago I like to go to stores that serve Vienna Beef Hot Dogs, steamed. It's just the way to eat a dog.

Here's a truth bomb for you though: that ballpark hot dog is only as good as the people making it and even more so, how they're making it.

The Royals improved their hot dog quality by serving Vienna Beef. However, if you belly up to the concession stand and want a hot dog that's been on the roller grill all game. That looks like it's a little past its prime. Good luck, you're on your own.

I'm not a big fan of roller grill ballpark hot dogs. Roller grill gas station hot dogs are OK, once again, as long as they haven't been cooking on the roller grill for hours. I love a QT Roller Grill dog or two.

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However, roller grill hot dogs at The K, Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, or Arrowhead Stadium just aren't as good as the Hot Dogs you can get from a vendor walking around, and that's something I'm not sure they're doing anymore. A lot of that went away in the aftermath of Covid.

First, the buns always seem a little hard and stale, and for whatever reason the hot dogs themselves aren't as good at the concession stand as the ones you get from the vendors walking around.

Here's why hotdogs from a vendor walking around are better: Those hot dogs are probably boiled or steamed. Then they'll probably sit in a warmer/steamer until they get placed in the metal boxes that the vendors take out and sell around the ballpark. Letting them sit in the warmer/steamer for an hour or so brings out the dog's flavor and softens up the bun. That's, in my opinion, the perfect ballpark hot dog.

I should know, as I was one of the guys who cooked those hot dogs that the vendors took around Soldier Field in Chicago in the 1988 and 1989 football seasons. We sampled our product. A little time in the wrapper in a warmer/steamer made for a tastier hot dog, than one we'd pull out of boiling water, plopped on a fresh room temperature bun, and ate.

Regardless, there's something about a Vienna Beef Hot Dog that hits a little differently than Oscar Mayer, Ball Park, Nathan's Famous, or any of the brands you can find at the store. Even if the bun is stale and the dog has been sitting on a roller grill since the stadium gates opened.