Savour Winnipeg

Less than a month after wroting Corydon Avenue Gone to the Dogs, announcing the opening of Dingo’s Wild & Crazy Dogs, super chic Italian Bistro Fazzo unleashed another pack of gourmet hot-dog options at its take out window just two blocks away.

Yesiree there’s a dog fight happening in Winnipeg’s little Italy and Savour Winnipeg took on the task of eating hot-dog after hot-dog to bring you the low down on the hoedown.

Dingo’s Wild & Crazy Dogs

Luminous in its ketchup red and mustard yellow colour scheme, inside and out, you can’t miss Dingo’s Wild & Crazy Dogs in the former Sugar Mountain space at Corydon & Wentworth. Dingo’s drew first blood and boy did they come out swinging with an unbelievable line-up of gourmet dog toppings never before seen in Winnipeg.

The contenders:

• Samurai - Wasabi, sesame mayo, pickled ginger, fresh daikon, green onion and toasted sesame seeds.
• Zorba the Greek - Diced onion, green pepper, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, feta, Greek dressing.
• Godfather - Pizza sauce, pepperoni, tomatoes, green peppers, grated mozza.
• Chicago - Cucumber, tomatoes, white onions, relish, pickled peppers, celery salt.
• PB & J – Peanut butter, strawberry jelly, fresh strawberries, crushed peanuts and Cap’n Crunch.
• Slaw Dog Millionaire – Coney Island chili, coleslaw, mustard.
• Reuben - Sauerkraut, mozza, secret sauce.
• Canadian - Crumbled bacon, grated cheddar, secret sauce & Old Dutch chips.
• Baba - Potato and cheddar perogies, bacon, fried onions, sour cream.
• Cowboy - Bacon, chili, grated cheddar, corn relish & BBQ sauce.
• Nacho Libre – Pickled peppers, sour cream, salsa, cheddar cheese, nacho chips.
• DIY - Choose any 4 toppings.
• Naked Dog – Plain weiner on a bun.

You can’t really go wrong with any of the toppings…except for that PB&J…I can only see that working with the Corn Dog…but hey, I won’t judge.

Top sellers are The Godfather, Slaw Dog Millionaire, the Cowboy, Canadian, and the Baba. But I gotta tell you, the Nacho Libre is also a winner in my book.

On my first visit I was charmed by the mini-dogs. Hey, everything tastes better when it’s small. With the option of a Single ($2.50), Double Dog Dare ($4.50), or Three Dog Night ($6.25) the genius here was you didn’t have to commit a huge chunk of dough, or stomach space, to cover a lot of tasting ground.

The hot-dog itself had a nice meaty flavour and smooth texture (that’s a true hot dog if you ask me). The buns, steamed, appropriately comprised the smallest part of the equation (bread just fills you up), the dog extending far beyond its doughy realms.

But on my next visit to Dingo’s I was devastated to learn they’d abandoned the mini dogs in favour of a regular size dog or Super Dog at $4.50 or $6.50 respectively. Guess what…I can buy those at the super-market. Not special.

The dog itself was barely heated through and had a disagreeable aluminum aftertaste. To make matters worse, the bun showed no indication of being steamed. Quite the opposite, it was dry and chewy.

Dingo’s offers sides, the usual suspects–fries with optional gravy, chili, poutine syle or the works.  They’re charmingly presented in a grey cardboard container reminiscent of the fries I used to get at the Oakville Booth at the Portage Ex when I was a kid.  Beyond that, they’re unremarkable. Made in a mechanized fry-o-lator that delivers not so much a crisp exterior as it is hard, they have a vaguely cardboard flavour.  While the gravy looked promising, it vanished beneath the fries rather than clinging to them, a pallid pool of dirty dishwater cowering in the bottom.

Dingo’s best, and most redeeming feature is the unparalleled inventory of soda, almost 250 from all over the world. I even found an English Ginger Beer, something my dad fondly remembers from his youth, made with fermented ginger in the style of a real beer rather than ginger-flavour infused pop.

Service is adequate, almost passing for friendly but on my first visit the server was more interested in gabbing with an off-duty staff member than preparing my order, even failing to deliver one of my three-dog night combo.

Fazzo

There is much to say about this newcomer to the Corydon strip, and I’ll get to the magic that’s happening in the main dining area in future posts. Here I focus only on the take out window. It’s exactly that…a take out window (okay, you’re right, there’s also a counter and waiting area just inside) but there’s no dining space. And while they do have a host of delights like burgers, sandwiches (chicken parmagiana, pulled pork, Italian club), and pot-stickers, to compare apples to apples I’ll only focus on the Fazzo signature dogs.

The contenders:

• Chili Dog ($3.50) – chili and cheddar.
• Kubi-Slaw Dog ($4.50) – kilbasa sausage with slaw, diced tomato and a pickle side.
• Pizza Dog ($4.50) – signature dog, crispy pep, mozza and tomato sauce.
• Northender ($4.50) – signature dog, potato perogie stuffing, cheese, chives, sour cream, crispy bacon.
• Taco Dog ($4.50) – cheddar smokie, taco chips, salsa fresco, lettuce, guacamole, cheddar.
• Zubriski ($4.50) – kubi-dog, sauerkraut, dijon mustard, melted mozza.

A lot of similarity to the toppings offered just down the street but where Fazzo really sets itself apart from the pack is in the sausages hemselves.  These aren’t your smooth meat classis, but juicy, meaty sausages. The signature hot-dog is Winnipeg Old Country sausage, the Kilbasa your standard Polish sausage and the cheddar smokie again not the smooth meats but a meaty, cheesy sausage.

Buns form the better part of the equation…you’re carbo loading long before teeth meet flesh, but you can always tear that piece off…I won’t tell. Toppings are top notch. Being an Italian place, the tomato sauce on the Pizza Dog is bellissimo and the perogies on the Northender are fresh rather than those frozen nightmares. My potatoes were a little cold and I’d like to see the perogies sauteed until crispy for an added dimension of texture because there wasn’t enough of the crispy bacon. Hell, there’s never enough crispy bacon.  Some fried onions would be an appreciated and appropriate addition…screw the chives.

If not prompt (a price worth paying for fresh fixins), service is at least friendly, from both cashiers and the short-order cooks in the back.

On the liquid side, there’s simply no comparison to Dingo’s. There’s your standard pop chasers and milkshakes in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but wait up…check out the banana, pineapple, espresso (hello) and mocha (ohhhh yeah!) Root beer, orange and grape floats also work a treat.

And the winner is…

As with any old fashioned dog fight, there was a lot of growling (my stomach), biting and rending of flesh, and there emerges only one winner. Who goes home with their tail between their legs? Who emerges victorious in the battle for tube steak supremacy in Winnipeg’s Little Italy?

I gotta hand it to Fazzo. Dingo’s soda selection and mongrel meat just couldn’t compete on the level of superior sausage and concern for quality that makes Fazzo top dog.

A.P. (Ben) Benton Eat dingos, fazzo, gourmet hot dogs