Food & Drink: Maddogs, Fortside Brewing a tasty match
By Rachel Pinsky
Published: May 25, 2018, 6:03am
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The Beef Chili Dog from Maddogs Gourmet Hot Dogs contains no beans and pairs with brown ale. Photo Gallery
After a few failed attempts at finding a hot dog vendor, Fortside Brewing Company has teamed with Maddogs Gourmet Hot Dogs. Mike DiFabio, co-owner of Fortside Brewing, explained, “We’ve tried to get a lot of different hot dog carts here. We finally scored the big one.”
When Maddogs opened a restaurant at 1900 N.E. 162nd Ave. several years ago, Fortside Brewing Company’s beer was the first they tapped. “We got draft beer at their place,” DiFabio said. “We had a relationship with them. Then, we bought a food cart. It was a food cart that had closed down in the Columbia River Gorge. It was already certified in Washington state. We had this great little cart that we could have here. We just kind of went with it without any firm plans in place. Then, we hit them up with the possibility of having a food cart here.”
Like Fortside Brewing Company, Maddogs Gourmet Hot Dogs takes its craft seriously. All the hot dogs are free of hormones, antibiotics, and nitrates. The beef hot dogs (which are the only ones available at Fortside for now) are high-quality Niman Ranch dogs. Co-owner Debbie Hijar is obsessed with getting the best product to her customers. Her Chicago dog is so authentic that while eating it (later that night), I felt like I was on the banks of Lake Michigan. As DiFabio said, “The Chicago dogs are legit. Where else can you get authentic Chicago dogs?”
On my visit, Hijar and DiFabio teamed up to create a beer and hot dog tasting. DiFabio guided my journey by sharing his hot dog eating and beer drinking method — “It’s the dog and then the beer” — repeated until done.
Here is what we ate:
• Bacon Gorgonzola Dog and Fortside IPA — Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed: I first tried the bacon Gorgonzola hot dog with a Fortside IPA. The strong, sharp, and salty melted cheese and chunks of bacon punched against the bold Northwest beer. The battle between these two flavor-bombs reminded me of the final scene in the film “Rocky” — each competitor was getting in some good jabs. I wasn’t sure who was the stronger fighter. Then the fight was over and I just wanted more.
• Pulled Pork Sliders and Orange Whip IPA — a Jimi Hendrix Experience: The pulled pork and the Orange Whip IPA were next. The slider featured slow-roasted pulled pork (no hot dog) bathed in barbecue sauce and topped with crunchy, creamy cole slaw. The Orange Whip New England IPA gets its citrus flavor from heaps of El Dorado and Mosaic hops — there’s no fruit juice in this juicy beer. The orange, tangerine and grapefruit aromas from this Fortside classic melded effortlessly with the sweet-and-spicy pulled pork slider and creamy cole slaw. This pairing made me think of the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix play guitar — it expanded my understanding of reality and made what once seemed good no longer good enough.
• Beef Chili Dog and Couve A’licious Brown Ale — Bogart and Bacall: The final pairing was the chili dog and Couve A’licious Brown Ale (which won a silver medal at the North American Beer Awards in June 2017). I love a good chili dog and Maddogs makes a great one. Hijar firmly believes that beans have no place in a beef chili. The chili on this dog was smooth, meaty and perfectly formulated to cover a hot dog. Raw onions and shredded medium sharp cheddar added the right notes and rounded out the flavors. This was the Bogart and Bacall of hot dog and beer pairing — a cool classic that hit the right notes.
Maddogs Gourmet Hot Dogs food cart will have its grand opening weekend at Fortside Brewing Company through May 26. On May 24, there was a ribbon-cutting with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce with complimentary snacks and beer samples. May 25 and 26, a Fort-Dog flight (four gourmet hot dogs with four paired brews) will be offered.
After grand opening weekend, Maddogs will be at Fortside Brewing Company from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with a regular menu of hot dogs, nachos, pulled pork sliders, and beer-friendly sides. For more information about grand opening weekend visit Maddog’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/events/163373894330501.
Rachel Pinsky can be reached at coueeats@gmail.com. You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @couveeats.
