Saveur Seeking @ Dogellos

DATELINE: AUSTIN
This past Saturday in Austin was lovely, breezy, and greatly enhanced by chowing down a very fine - no - the best chili dog in town. Though it may be one day, the chili dog itself wasn't the reason why I left the house. I ventured out to eavesdrop and ogle a fine crew shooting video about Dogello's, which claims to make the best guess what in Austin. Yup. Chili dog.

The video shoot was staffed by the small but effective crew at Saveur Seeking, a new video venture in Austin that got started documenting food trucks, and plans to expand into other food-related avenues. Saveur Seeking lives on ReadTheHorn.com, a decent online publication aimed at UT students. There are values and standards involved at Saveur Seeking, but I'm not sure what they all are yet. For instance, I heard a crew member ask if Dogello's has any vegan menu items, and editor Neil Ferguson yelled, "It's against my values!!"

Neil may have been kidding. And yes, one can special order a vegetarian dog at Dogello's. But a chili dogs are for meat lovers, and carnivorous types will be thrilled. A Dogello's chili dog is a rich, smoky, meaty, messy jewel. The slow-cooked homemade chili is savory and spiced with a good amount of cumin for a slow heat. Top it with onions and cheese if you like.

Dogello's also offers a selection of homemade relish - but not the pickle kind. There are four fruit and chili relishes that one can top one's dog with, and one would have to be really unadventurous not to try them. The four varieties are Mango Heat(mango and jalapeno); Bronx Cheer (raspberry and chipotle); Cheery Dog (dark cherry and green chile); and SpiceBerry, which sounds like something you'd find at the Yankee Candle Company, but is in fact a blackberry Serrano chile relish.

I thought these would be like chutneys, or maybe a mango salsa, but they are not. These fruit relishes are freaking delicious, and their spiciness varies from batch to homemade batch.

I went halfsies on my dog, and got chili on one end and the Bronx Cheer on the other. The chili half was satisfying, spicy, and dang good. And the fruit relish side was sublime: sweet and tart from the raspberry, with the smoky heat of chipotle. So good on a hot dog. Hard to photograph well, but really good.

As you can see from the photo, Dogello's also serves coffee. I really enjoyed the Cuban. If you get it iced (and this is Austin, which means you will likely order iced coffee 11 months out of the year), you will see that the cubes themselves are made of coffee and milk. It is freaking genius and also adorable.

Which brings us to the guy in the hot dog suit. That would be Mr. Dogello, who makes the fictitious claim that he has been producing the best chili dog in Austin since 1952. This claim is especially cute as the stand Dogello's occupies is on-site at Freewheeling Bicycles, which has literally been in business since 1971. It is almost believable that Dogello's has been there that much longer than the lovable Freewheeling Bikes. Please watch this short film made by Austin Foodie Card and agree with me.

I got to briefly interview the man in the hot dog suit (please note he only wears it when he's not working) too. Oh, and if you think it's not cool to wear a hot dog suit, ask Andrew Zimmern to show you his favorite self-portrait. He carries it around in his wallet. Of himself, dressed in a hot dog suit.

While I graduated from college quite some time ago (it was twenty minutes ago, if you have to ask), I still read some articles and columns in online college newspapers from time to time. The Horn has great photography and good articles about events that don't have a directly felt impact on campus, like Occupy Austin and Fun Fun Fun fest. When I was in college, I can remember only a few stories from non-campus living that did break through - they were the O.J. Simpson case and verdict, and the Oklahoma City bombing. So it is great to see an ambitious website aimed at students without insulting anyone's intelligence. And I like the pace of the Saveur Seeking videos, as well as the content.

The Saveur Seeking shoot was fun, and will hold some surprises. Watch this space for a link, or keep an eye on ReadTheHorn.com/SaveurSeeking.