Food Review - Hot Dogs: AT&T Park

You sort of know going in what to expect - a hot dog at a baseball game is going to cost you. A lot. However, growing up in NY and being a frequent visitor to both Yankee and Shea Stadiums (and now "New Yankee Stadium" and Citi Field) it was at least tolerable because you were getting a good dog. At all four of parks you can/could get a footlong hot dog (for something like $7.50) so even though you were paying an arm and a leg, at least you had enough food to last you a full inning. Or 2 batters if Oliver Perez was pitching.

Cut to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. A regular sized hot dog is around $4.50, and it's small. And every time I've ordered one, the person behind the counter has literally bent down, opened some sort of warming try (or hot box as I've heard things referred to on Food Network) and handed me a foil wrapped, thing. Again, comparing it to NY, you can look over the cashiers shoulder and see the hot dogs quietly rolling along their cooker thing, watch as said cashier goes over to it and plucks a dog for you, and serves it in a little try, exposed so you can actually see it. (The footlongs do come in a box, but you can watch them put it in the box). There's nothing like that at AT&T Park for the regular hot dogs. They've been heated hours ago, wrapped in foil and shoved into some secret compartment. Appetizing.
So on my last trip to the ballpark I opted to try one of the smaller stands that also sells bratwurst. There, they had a "jumbo dog" for $7.25 and it was grilled, on a flat iron grill, in front of you. More expensive but seemed like it'd be worth it because at least I knew it was cooked to order and would have that delicious slight black sear that dogs get. Unfortunately the grilling only improved the taste slightly. Thus meaning that the real problem is with the hot dog they're using - a local vendor called Alpine Meats. I don't know what the deal is, if it's organic or trans-fat free or made from the ground up remains of dead hippies, but it tastes too much like a tube of bologna and sits with you for hours upon hours after consumption. (YMMV since you probably don't have Crohn's Disease like I do).

Anyway, it's bad enough to make me hate myself after eating one, every time (hey, I'm an all-American boy, so I've got to eat a hot dog at a baseball game) and wish I was back in NY. The one redeeming quality though, is that it looks hilarious if photographed in the proper position.