Bama Hot Dogs

This week we found ourselves at Bama Hot Dogs in downtown Tarrant, at 1610 Pinson Valley Parkway. This place had not been on my radar screen at all until I spotted it a week ago as we were returning from North Alabama. When I saw it I was ready to stop right then but in the interest of domestic tranquility I decided to save it for another trip.

Bama is run by Dean & Debbie Harris; Debbie is standing in the door in the photo above. I assume that they are Alabama fans but didn't ask. While we were there we saw a steady stream of customers keeping them busy. We like to try to talk with the owners when we can but they seemed too busy. We went on with the rest of our usual routine of eating, taking pictures and talking with some of the other customers.

This turned out to be another time when the camera attracted some attention, a case of what I will call "the camera syndrome". We were noticed by Debbie who came out to ask us what we were doing. I can understand the curiosity and question; are we reviewers from the News, or do we have some less desirable motive. I guess I would do the same thing. We stood and talked with her for a while before leaving. One thing was clear after that conversation, she is the driving force for quality control at Bama.

So how was the food? Very good! We did vary from our usual order a little and ended up with the four dogs shown below.

Here we have (left to right) a chili cheese dog, 2 regular hot dogs and a "junk yard dog"

You can see the "nacho cheese on both of the end items; I prefer sharp real cheddar cheese but this was still good. As is usually the case the junk yard dog was hard to eat because of the multiple toppings.

We were impressed with the large plump dogs they use. Debbie agrees that these are better than the average and much more desirable than what she called "pencil weenies". She told us the brand name which I was unfamiliar with and don't remember; but they buy them from Evans Meats. This brings up the issue of the size of hot dogs. Robert and I have observed that there is a significant difference in the size of the "weenies" served at various providers. Debbie's label "pencil weenies" is really quite appropriate for those served at some establishments. Others have very plump/fat dogs. I have tried to figure out the difference. One observation came recently from Dee of Dee's Dogs. She commented that the beef dogs always cook down to be real skinny. I noticed that myself when I did the hot dogs for Restoration Academy recently. I used all beef Hebrew National dogs and noticed how they ended up much thinner than they started out. Who would have thought that the beef dogs cook do so much. So, we are now going to be a little more tuned in to who serves "pencil weenies".

Here we have my order, a chili cheese dog, a regular dog all the way and some fries from France.

Bama's Menu

Notice the decor - lots of RED in keeping with their name.