Eat This
Haute Dog
It’s peak time for hot dogs, and these over-the-top franks from Barrio Dogg blend an American summer staple with the flavors of Mexican street food. The Barrio Logan restaurant, which started as a street cart in Chicano Park in 2017, sells about a dozen variations of gourmet hot dogs from its eatery on Logan Avenue, ranging from plain Jane to five-alarm spicy. Try El Xolito (pictured), their spin on a Tijuana-style bacon-wrapped hot dog topped with pickled onions, jalapeño, cilantro, and crunchy garlic. Or order La Yorona—it’s drenched in a habanero chile oil that chef and founder Pablo Rios calls “dragon tears,” habanero-carrot salsa, and even some essence of Carolina reaper pepper. It’s so spicy that Rios advises to eat half of it, then assess how you’re feeling, “because the heat will creep up on you.” Want something more familiar? There’s also Chicago dogs and a German frank with sauerkraut.
What makes these dogs haute is the Angus beef sourced from Brandt Farms—and the bun. Rios makes a Sonoran-style bun, which is similar to brioche. He spent time at his uncle’s bakery in Mexico to learn how to master the recipe, and it’s been a hit in the neighborhood (Rios is asked all the time to consider selling the bread in bulk).
Rios plans to take Barrio Dogg a lot farther west with a restaurant in Tokyo next year. barriodogg —MARIE TUTKO
Margarita Magic
Serrano Cocktail Spice
We were introduced to this serrano chile cocktail spice from Boy Drinks World and found that it makes the perfect margarita. The bitters add a bright, clean flavor to any tequila (or mezcal) and a light smack of heat that doesn’t overwhelm the drink or the palate. Even better, it’s handmade right in Clairemont Mesa. Boy Drinks World founder Ram Udwin, a self-professed “booze nerd” who also works for liquor distributor JVS Imports, started making bitters as a hobby before launching his own commercial product. The cocktail spice has only three ingredients: whole serranos from Specialty Produce, a 190-proof pharmaceutical-grade cane spirit, and water. Udwin says that with the cocktail spice you can measure and get the exact amount of heat you want every time, with the added bonus of not having to chop and muddle the peppers for each drink. Udwin gave us his recipe for a simple and classic margarita below. Find the cocktail spice at boydrinksworld.com, Collins & Coupe in North Park, Vom Fass in Hillcrest, and Old Town Liquor & Deli. ¡Salud! —MT
Drink This
Cheese Tea!
Take a sip and start cheesing when you taste this delicious drink. Originally from Taiwan, cheese tea started making its way over to the US (and onto our Instagram feeds) in 2017. It’s usually iced black, jasmine, or green tea layered with a frothy cloud of cream cheese that’s been whipped with rock salt. Cheese and tea may sound like strange bedfellows, but the combo works. The drink is both sweet and savory, and is on its way to becoming as popular as boba.
Happy Lemon, a chain from Shanghai, has 1,000 locations around the globe and three in San Diego (Kearny Mesa, Eastlake, and Del Mar Highlands). A blackboard with an illustration notes how to properly drink the cheese tea for optimal satisfaction. The first step: Ditch the straw and use the lid that’s supplied. Do this to avoid getting 90 percent tea and only 10 percent cheese with every sip.
The plain black tea is the best gateway drink, but if that’s not your jam, you can try an iced chocolate drink or a matcha latte. Chakaa in Kearny Mesa makes a version with white peach tea. —JENNA MILLER
Barrio Dog
