Get Your Sticks on Route 66
(corndog sticks, that is!)


Bacon on the Byway!

When Route 66 opened in Chicago in 1926, the city was nicknamed “Hog Butcher for the World.” More meat was processed in the windy city than in any other place in the world. While Illinois still ranks 4th in the nation for pork production, the stockyards are now closed.

 


From Winnie to Winner

Oscar Mayer used to work in the Chicago stockyards. In 1906, he knocked the meat packing industry on its…well, buns. He was one of the first to volunteer to be USDA-inspected. (Illinois food companies are super cool like that.)

Check out the fun stuff on National Hot Dog & Sausage Council 


Henry's Drive-In
6031 West Ogden Avenue, Cicero

Follow the giant hotdog sign to this throwback restaurant that serves Chicago-style hot dogs in the same bag with French fries and a pickle spear.

No wonder their slogan is “It’s a Meal in itself.

 

 

 


 

What is a Chicago Style Hot Dog?

Money was scarce during the Great Depression, so Chicago street vendors invented the hot dog creation with a “salad on top.” This ingenious way to stretch a buck caught on and has become a city icon.

Look further down this map for the answer. Can you name all 9 ingredients in a Chicago dog?


Downtown Atlanta
How often do you get to have your pictures taken with a 19-foot tall statue of a guy holding a hot dog? Find “Bunyon “ in downtown Atlanta. More about Atlanta on Route 66

Is Your Love for Hot Dogs Skin Deep?
Most hot dogs are cooked inside a cellulose casing that is removed before you eat it. But some hot dogs are made inside natural casings, often sheep intestines. This casing stays on and gives the “snap” that folks enjoy.

 


Cozy Dog Drive-In

2935 South Sixth Street, Springfield

In line with Illinois’ preoccupation with hot dogs, this is the birthplace of the corn dog. Today, the Cozy Dog is a shrine to Route 66 and to itself, packed with mementoes, clippings, and old signs. More about Cozy Dog

Diggity Dog!

What really is in that hot dog? Don’t worry. Meats used in hot dogs come from the muscle of the animal, like what you buy in the grocer’s case. If meats like liver are used, the package has to say “with meat by-products.”  


Brooks Catsup Bottle Water Tower

800 Morrison Avenue, Collinsville

Paint the town red at the world’s largest catsup bottle! This unique 170-foot water tower was built in 1949 for the bottlers of Brooks Rich and Tangy Catsup. It holds 100,000 gallons of water…or 640,000 bottles of catsup. More about  Gaint Catsup Bottle

Trendy Tomatoes
American colonists thought tomatoes were poisonous. In 1820, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson surprised everyone by eating tomato after tomato…and living! By 1842 farm journals declared the tomato as the “latest craze.”


 

Ears to Corny Types

The corn along the road is called yellow dent corn and some of it is turned into the cornmeal that wraps corndogs. (Most of it goes to feed cows, pigs and chickens, though.) Illinois competes with Iowa to see who’s #1 in the nation’s corn production. Corn on the cob is a different kind, though. It is called sweet corn. About 600 of Illinois 76,000 farms grow sweet corn.


ST. LOUIS

Dog gone it! We just have to finish our trip through Illinois with another ode to the hot dog. Some believe hot dogs got two big “start” in St. Louis: being served at the ballpark and being placed in a bun.

 


 

What’s in a Chicago Dog?
  1. Vienna Beef hot dog (made in Chicago, of course)
  2. Steamed poppyseed bun
  3. Yellow mustard
  4. Bright green relish
  5. Chopped onions
  6. Tomato wedges
  7. Kosher pickle spear
  8. Sport peppers
  9. Dash of celery salt
  10. AND NO KETCHUP! (Shhh, don’t tell the folks in Collinsville.)
 
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