Nice. 
If you want a good dog in Seattle, there’s (O’boy) O’Berto They have a factory outlet on Rainier Ave that sells lunch dogs most of the day.
There’s also an Ale house in our neighborhood that has killer dogs on the kids menu form their family side. Wedgwood Ale House on 35th NE
Emphatically (and quite sadly for me) local to you.
picunurse: That’s a bit of a hike from Belltown!
There a hot dog place outside Westlake Center. (I keep wanting to call it Westside Pavilion!) They grill their dogs. I’ll have to wait for better weather before I go there again. Or else have a ‘warm dog’ when I get back to my desk.
I miss corn dogs. The mom & pop burger places sold them when I was a kid. One place made their own batter and made fresh corn dogs.
I haven’t found a place that sells fresh corn dogs in at least 20 years. 
The frozen ones just aren’t the same.
You ain’t nothin’ but a corn dog
You’re a wiener wrapped in pone
You ain’t nothin’ but a corn dog
You’re a wiener wrapped in pone
Put some mustard on ya
In five bites you’ll be gone
Theres a place in West Allis that makes them like that (or at least they did. Haven’t been in there for a while due to diet restrictions). They were a taste of paradise!!
And they only use BEEF hotdogs, no pig, no turkey, no chicken.
I haven’t been in there in a while but I’m SURE they’re grilled. It’s kind of their schtick - the menu is, like, three words. You can have a big burger, a huge burger, or a hot dog. That’s it. And fries. Not a whole lot of equipment.
I forgot you don’t always drive into town, sorry.
The Westlake place is good to know. Hubby loves his 'dogs.
I doubt it, because there’s “generic” hot dogs available in both places as well. I think it’s mostly a logistical issue (no shared components with other things, tough to eat in car, etc) coupled with a “hard to make them distinct cheaply” issue.
I also feel compelled to note that McDonalds seasonally offers a Bratwurst, which (in this case) is basically a semi-spiced hotdog. It’s lousy, and probably the worst thing on their menu. And I know they test-marketed hot dogs at some point.
Also, Dairy Queen has hot dogs 'round here, but I have no idea if that’s a regional item.
Good: The dog was grilled.
Fail: No chili.
I had a small drive in restaurant in the early 90’s and I sold foot long hot dogs. We deep fried them in the grease then threw them on the grill for a minute or so, people loved them.
Check out Po Dogs on Capitol Hill (there’s also one on the Ave) - they’re grilled, and I believe there’s chili. They’re also tasty, and they serve beer.
ETA: now that I’ve been thinking about it for a couple minutes, I really want to go there for a dog. Too bad I already had dinner.
In Japan, most McDonald’s restaurants offer hot dogs in their breakfast menu.
Why should the fast food places sell hotdogs? You can always get them at gas stations. Those kind are a lot better than the kind you get at home.
As for DQ: they also have a shtick: they sell footlongs, or, at least, they used to. That’s why I would always get a hotdog there–that and the free desert tokens which are sadly gone.
I think it has a lot to do with how a chain can personalize what they sell. McDonald’s can easily mix together a bit of cow, kangaroo and some old shoe leather to produce what they market as the McDonald’s burger patty. Hot dogs require an extreme amount of processing that McDonald probably doesn’t want to invest in, just to come up with what may basically end up being nearly identical to an Oscar Mayer Weiner.
In fact, they’d probably do better just by advertising that they were selling Oscar Mayer dogs since the brand loyalty is already there.
Beyond the processing, in the end a hot dog is really defined by what you put on it. McDonald’s would have to make chili & Cheez Whiz available, and set up a condiment bar so that people could create what they feel is the “right” hot dog.