The Hat in SoCal has a wide assortment of condiment packets available, including pickle relish, horseradish sauce!, and both 1000 Island and Ranch. Plus a big tub of what Chicagoans would call “sport peppers” and paper envelopes to contain them. Plus open bins of napkins.
I do miss Fuddruckers.
From what I see on pictures online, they look like the same peppers as in In N Out. Those are not what we’d call sport peppers. Those are more yellow and a bit bigger, as well as spicier.
I am sitting right now in a Tasty Burger restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the table are napkins, plus a lazy susan with:
Salt
Pepper
Two kinds of ketchup
Two kinds of mustard
Packets of relish
Packets of mayonnaise
Malt vinegar
Sriracha
Hot sauch
Fry seasoning
Not bad
By “those” I mean yours. Our sport peppers are more bullet-like, green, no yellow tinge at all, and not what I’d call particularly spicy.
I like those the best because I know it’s the most economical for the store and I can get all I want.
Two kinds of ketchup? As an unrelated note, I am always surprised that “no sugar added” ketchup is not more widely available. Lots of places have “light mayo”. But homemade chunky ketchup is awesome.
An unlabeled, red squeeze bottle, which I strongly suspect was Heinz, and their own house brand of spicy ketchup.
The mustards were a yellow squeeze bottle, and Gulden’s spicy brown.
I like “old fashioned” mustard where the whole seeds are visible. I’ve seen that at a (very) few hot dog joints but never at a burger place.
I sit corrected. My sole time in Chicago has been changing planes at O’Hare.
This is pretty typical for a sport pepper – thinner and more elongated:
If this image is representative, yours are more bulbous and yellow
That looks like the same peppers I’ve seen at In N Out (I haven’t been to The Hat.) They taste significantly spicier than sport peppers, at least to me. Those are apparently cascabella peppers. (Interestingly to me, online it says the cascabels top off at about 4K Scoville and the sport peppers at 20K, but that does not reflect my experience of In N Out’s peppers, at least, vs the average Chicago hot dog stand’s peppers.)
They probably are. In-N-Out peppers have a nice little bite to them. Not hot, but spicy. I eat those things by the packet-full every time I’m at either place.
Most companies just call them “hot chili peppers.”
I’ve only grown cascabelles once, and I took them to red ripe before drying instead of pickling them.
“There’s no Winky’s in Wilmerding!”
I’ve been in lots of places with a selection of bottled hot sauces.
When Kopek attended Pitt from 1976-80, I remember a Burger Chef in the Cathedral basement. Did that turn into Roy Rogers or were they both there?
Burger Chef closed down and Roy Rogers took over circa 1982.
Wow, the memories!
A friend and his date (who he later married) were eating at the Original Hot Dog (the dirty O) back then. He’d placed his car keys on his food tray while he ate. He went to the counter for some reason, and when he returned she had bussed the table.
He ended up digging through several bags of garbage, frantically searching for his keys. He was embarrassed. She was talking with friends.
When he came back, covered with mustard and ketchup, she asked what was going on. He told her about his keys, and she pulled them out of her pocket.
ETA: Roy Rogers closed in 93
even though they’re made from scratch?
The old school Chicago hot dog joints all have fries made from scratch. They’ll even have the fry press (or whatever you call it) attached to the wall where you can see them push the potatoes through, then toss it in the oil for the first fry, then let it cool and toss it in the oil for the second fry where ordered, as it should be. In N Out fries are mediocre at best. Completely a let-down after their fantastic burger.
Yes, I prefer thinner crispy fries.
Yep. But some people love them.
But In N Out’s fries are pretty darned thin. No on the crispy part, and, when ordered well done, they’re just dried out. Even animal style doesn’t save them.
That press has square holes, so it cuts the potato into fries with a square cross section. I had the idea a while ago to make one that cuts into triangles. I thought that might lead to crispier fries. I wondered if it’s ever been tried.