Jonathan Kauffman Takes a Bite Out of S.F.'s Extreme Hot Dog

arnold | inuyaki/Flickr

4505 Meats' zilla-style golden dog.

​Are hot dogs the new martini ― all-purpose vehicles for blinging out with gaudier theme accessories than even Gaga would cover her ladyparts with? In today's "Eat," SF Weekly food critic Jonathan Kauffman eats his way through almost a dozen of the city's most, um, creative examples of the frankfurter genre, from the three-meat epic chef's dog at Absinthe to Little Skillet's chow-chow-laden waffledog. Which ones are keepers, and which deserve to die the ignoble death of the S'more-tini? Find out at SFWeekly.com. Need a taste now? Read an excerpt from Kauffman's intro (after the jump). And in SFoodie's pair of 'Eat' Extras, read about the wiener that didn't make it into this week's review (and why), and follow along as 4505's Ryan Farr makes hot dogs from scratch.

Sustenance no longer seems the point of the hot dog. Now it has to overwhelm the senses with red-state excess or a blue-state urbanity. Given the effect the recession has had on sandwiches, pizzas, and tacos, it's not surprising that hot dog stands and carts are spreading all over San Francisco, nor that chefs who would barely have deigned to serve housemade sausages a few years back are riffing on the frank. The wienie is being upscaled, reconfigured, smothered, redeemed, and pimped out.