Catching up

Where have we been? Good question. I guess I've been a little off pace during the first of the summer. I have my excuses, but I'll sum it up by saying; "Life is hard."

The lovely Caroline and I have had two different times of keeping two different two year old grandchildren for many days and nights. Wow, these kids are fun and touch the heart, but it's not always easy for some of us to take care of two-year-olds around the clock.

Then to follow that, Susie (our youngest daughter) gave birth to our sixth (count em) grandson.


Regardless, what about hot dogs? As I said in my previous post we have been making a few return visits as well as looking for some new places to visit.

A few days ago Robert and I started out to visit a new (for us) hot dog cart downtown. Robert had spotted it a week before and stopped by to talk with the guy. Unfortunately, the day we headed downtown to try his dogs there had been a weather forecast of rain around noon resulting in the guy not showing up.... (Wimp). So we decided to head for Homewood on our way back toward our respective offices.


The plan was to visit Mike's Chicago Dogs since there has recently been a change in ownership/management there. But, when we got there it was obvious that the new owners had not yet figured out how to serve on a timely basis. We saw numerous folks standing around waiting for their orders and watched the cashier take a very long time to review the order and finally poke the food out the window for one customer. We decided we would wait and try again at a later date. I hope these new owners can get this right.

So, when we left there we went a couple of blocks down the street to Salem's Diner. Actually I had been there on a Saturday about a week before but Robert had never been there. It was a good choice. Salem's is becoming one of my favorites!


On my previous visit I had a chili dog combo with a chili dog, a mix of fries and onion rings and a drink. The chili dog was one of those that needs to be eaten with a knife and fork. Being not terribly hungry, I was well fed with just one dog. On that day I opted for one of the Philly Cheese sandwiches which are the specialty of the house. Robert had a chili dog combo like I had eaten a few days before. He agreed with me that these dogs are among the best we have had. The option of a combo including their perfect onion rings also takes it up a notch.

Salem's is a must try place in the Birmingham area. Wayne Salem and his helper Ernie Dease will make you at home. I will give this advice; the place is small so you might need to wait for a seat. Then if you are at a table, watch the flow of people and try to finish up and be on your way if they are full.

Now here's another recent visit. We have gone back to G-Dogs a couple of times. Read about our previous visit Here. These revisits are fun. When we make our first visit we have a standard order of a hot dog all the way and a chili dog (also all the way). The revisits give us an opportunity to try more of the offerings. Below You can see our latest orders. I decided to try their sausage dog and a corn dog. Robert ordered a chili dog and some chili cheese fries.



I would say that between the two items I ordered I liked the sausage dog better. There is something about recipe used by whoever makes some of these previously frozen corn dogs that tastes a little too sweet for me. Nevertheless, G-Dogs remains a good choice for hot dogs in the Hoover area.