W.Va. Hot Dog Joint Review

Family Restaurant

Wayne

While it might be seen as trespassing on Chris James' territory, I found myself in Wayne at lunchtime one day and stopped in this nice little roadside diner. The name seems to beg for another word, but on the sign and menu it says only "Family Restaurant." Inside is down-home small town charm complete with walls decorated with local high school uniforms and old newspaper clippings. A sign welcoming home the local war hero sits front and center and commands the attention of everyone who enters.

On the menu is a variety of things you would expect in a hometown diner, including hot dogs. "Everything" includes an all-beef weenie on a grilled bun, sauce, mustard, ketchup and onions with cole slaw as a 25 cent upgrade. It all adds up to a really good hot dog.

Breaking it down, we have a really excellent weenie. All-beef and grilled - it's about as good as a basic weenie gets. The grilled bun is also great and it adds both flavor and a bit of a crunch to the experience. The sauce (okay, I called it sauce - satisfied Chris?) is not at all spicy but it has a nice flavor and texture. The slaw, although served in a typical Huntington-sized stingy serving, has a great flavor and is finely chopped. If the portion size had been doubled it would have been better.

For my money this is the best hot dog I've had in the Huntington area, if it can be called that. Fourteen miles from Pullman Square might be considered out of the Huntington area but I've always thought of Wayne as a suburb of the River City, and it's my blog.

So there..