LA Countdown: Pink's Hotdogs

Every time we drive past this hotdog stand on the corner of La Brea and Melrose I am intrigued. There are some curious tourist traps in LA and I've been eager to find out what the deal with this place was. Line around the block? For hotdogs?! I mean, I consider myself a hotdog connoisseur (a flag I wave without shame), but I'd barely consider waiting that long on line (see what I did there? New York, here I come!) for anything, much less a HOTDOG. After a marathon run of House of Cards (anybody else hooked??), we decided on a whim that a midnight visit to Pink's was in order (actually I'd been planning to casually suggest this outing for the majority of the day, but deciding to get hotdogs "on a whim" feels infinitely better than planning your entire evening around it).

We did a drive-by to check line length. The queue outside looped around several times and ran along the sidewalk about 50 feet, nearly curving around the edge of the building to the parking lot. Are these people crazy? They must know something I don't know. I was ready to bail, but DVC insisted we stay and get something out of having ventured across town in the middle of the night (driving anywhere in LA is inevitably a pain and must be made to seem worthwhile if at all possible to prevent deep depression from setting in). So we bundled up and braved the light mist to join the eclectic crowd. A pair of body builders waited in front of us, a family with 4 small children (at midnight! tsk tsk) behind us. The odd collection of people thrown tightly together is enough to keep one entertained during the wait - high school kids coming from a school dance, an elderly couple holding hands, a bunch of suits smoking cigars, one badass chick in line all by herself. Finally made it to the front and went with a bacon chili cheese dog and a Hollywood Walk of Fame special (chili, shredded cheese, tomatoes, onions, mustard). And fries, natch.

Oh. Em. Gee. There is a very good reason people wait around for days for these dogs. AMAZING. And HUGE. I only got through about half of mine (but the second half was just as good for breakfast the next morning!). All future superlatives will be described as "the Pink's hotdog of ___."

Happy heartburn!!!