The Wieners Circle

Coordinates: 41°55′48″N 87°38′37″W / 41.93°N 87.643611°W

The Wieners Circle
Restaurant information
Food type Hot dog stand
City Lincoln Park, Chicago and Las Vegas
State Illinois, Nevada
Country United States
Website wienercircle.net

The Wieners Circle is a hot dog stand in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States.[1] It is famous for four things: its signature Maxwell Street Char-dogs, hamburgers, cheese fries, and the mutual verbal abuse between the employees and the customers during the late-weekend hours.

Food

the prices in 2013
A Wieners Circle hot dog with "the works"

The establishment is known for its char-grilled food, especially its hot dogs and hamburgers (commonly called char-dogs and char-burgers).[2] 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, sport peppers and a dash of celery salt.

History

The interior of the establishment, covered in graffiti

Sometime in the early 1990s (circa 1992) Larry Gold, one of the proprietors, called a drunk and distracted customer an "a**hole" in order to get his attention. This set off the late-night abuse culture of the restaurant. 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.[4] 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 shake," which is code for asking one of the female employees to shake her breasts.[3][5] Reports have indicated that female employees lift their shirts to shake their naked breasts, in exchange for tips over twenty dollars.[4][6]

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]

The nightly tips are very high, and people have worked there for ten years or more.[3] 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.[7] 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",[8] and commenting, "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.[9] 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.[10]

In media

The restaurant was featured in an episode of Insomniac with Dave Attell on Comedy Central in 2002.

The restaurant is the setting for a truTV reality game show.[11]

The Wieners Circle was featured in both radio and TV episodes of This American Life.[12]

The restaurant was the setting of a sketch featuring Jack McBrayer and Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog in the June 14, 2012 episode of the late night talk show Conan, which was the last in a week of shows taped in Chicago.[13]

The restaurant was featured in an episode of the Extreme Restaurant specials on the Travel Channel.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Borrelli, Christopher (June 20, 2010), "101 Places Not to See Before You Die", Chicago Tribune (Tribune Company), retrieved June 1, 2011
  2. ↑ Berg, Eric N. (July 25, 1990), "At the Nation's Table", The New York Times (The New York Times Company), retrieved June 1, 2011
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 This American Life. "Act II, In Wiener Veritas, from Pandora's Box", No. 6, season 1, April 26, 2007.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 McMurry, Joel F. S. (November 21, 2009), "The Wieners Circus", STOCKYARD (Stockyard Media), retrieved June 1, 2011
  5. ↑ Ecko, Marc (August 25, 2010), "My Spot: The Wieners Circle in Chicago, IL", Complex (Complex Media), retrieved June 1, 2011
  6. ↑ Lam, Francis (September 28, 2010), "The Most Depressing Hot Dog Stand in America", Salon (Salon Media Group), retrieved June 1, 2011
  7. ↑ Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning (2004), Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago (Frommer's): 55, ISBN 0-7645-7304-7 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ Price, Catherine (2010), 101 Places Not to See Before You Die, HarperCollins, pp. 137–138, ISBN 0-06-178776-0
  9. ↑ Apel, Melanie Ann (2002), Lincoln Park, Chicago (Arcadia Publishing): 26, ISBN 0-7385-2016-0 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ Staff (December 19, 2008), "Health Dept. Shuts Down Wiener's Circle", Chicago Breaking News (Tribune Company), retrieved June 20, 2012
  11. ↑ Abernethy, Samantha (March 16, 2012). "This Exists: A Reality Show About Wiener's Circle". Chicagoist.
  12. ↑ "A Night at the Wiener Circle". This American Life. August 23, 1996.
  13. ↑ "The Day Lake Michigan Got Renamed What It Should've Been Called in the First Place – Lake Illinois!". Conan. Season 2. Episode 104. June 14, 2012. TBS.
  14. ↑ "Extreme Restaurant special on the Travel Channel".

External links