The Wieners Circle is a hot dog stand in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.[1] It is famous for four things: its signature Chicago-style hot dogs, hamburgers and cheese fries, and the mutual verbal abuse between the employees and the customers during the late-weekend hours.[2] On the weekends, the establishment stays open as late as 5:00 AM, drawing many drunken customers who have arrived from bars and clubs.[3]
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The establishment is known for its char-grilled food, especially its hot dogs and hamburgers (commonly called chardogs and charburgers).[4] A Wiener Circle char dog with "the works" is a grilled Vienna Beef hot dog on a warm poppy seed bun, topped with mustard, onions, relish, dill pickle spears, tomato slices, and sport peppers - plus a final dash of celery salt.
Sometime in the early 1990s (circa 1992) Larry Gold, one of the proprietors, called a drunk and distracted customer an "asshole" in order to get his attention. This set-off the late-night abuse culture of the restaurant.[3] The atmosphere can range from playful to hostile.[3] The language used by both the staff and customers during these hours is notoriously foul and aggressive, and sometimes racist.[5] As the wait-staff is largely black and the clientele middle-class to wealthy white, the more racist epithets have led to the rare physical altercation. Customers commonly request a "chocolate milkshake," which is code for asking one of the female employees to shake her breasts.[3][6] Reports have indicated that female employees lift their shirts to shake their naked breasts, in exchange for big tips.[5][7]
The nightly tips are very high, and people have worked there for ten years or more.[3] Featured on Dave Attell's Comedy Central show, Insomniac that aired in 2002. One of the more famous employees is Roberta "Poochie" Jackson, who was featured (along with the restaurant) in a 2007 episode of the Showtime television version of the Chicago Public Radio program This American Life,[3] as well as an episode of Extreme Fast Food on the Travel Channel. In Chicago travel guides, the Wieners Circle is often extolled as a source for authentic Chicago-style hot dogs and its uniquely abrasive customer relations.[8] Journalist Catherine Price listed The Wieners Circle in her book 101 Places Not to See Before You Die, calling it "a microcosm of segregation in Chicago".[9] She commented "if our metric were 'places that make me sad about humanity,' late night at Wiener's Circle would have been at the top."[1]
The location of the hot dog stand is just north of what used to be the Wrightwood Hotel.[10] In 2008, the restaurant was briefly closed by health inspectors for not having hot running water where employees would wash their hands, and other food safety violations.[11]