One trip to Spud Dogs will have you begging to go back

If you haven’t been to Spud Dogs on Cherry Street lately, you haven’t been at all. With new owners kicking it up a notch, the variety of choices and better hours make it worth another visit.

Now open at 8 a.m., Spud Dogs serves breakfast until 11 a.m. Our favorite was the Frenchie’s Sausage Begal (yes, b-e-g-a-l, like “beagle”). For just $4.75, you get a French toast-flavored bagel filled with sausage, egg and cheese, cut in half so that the cut ends soak in a shallow pool of maple syrup. Each time you take a bite, the bitten part gets dipped in preparation for your next bite.

We also tried the Dirty Browns, a giant plate of grilled hash browns, jalapeños, tomatoes, bacon, three eggs and sausage covered in nacho cheese for $9.50. The Breakfast Club was literally a club sandwich, substituting egg and cheese for the usual meats for $6.75.

Breakfast items we didn’t have room for include build-your-own omelets starting at $6.75, a bratwurst and hashbrown bowl for $9.25, and traditional breakfast sandwiches between $4-$5. There’s also the Hampster Wheel, comprised of an everything bagel (“begal”) stuffed with smoked ham, eggs, cheese, bacon, spinach, tomatoes and honey sauce for $6.75.

For lunch, we had each type of slider — cheeseburger, pulled barbecue and chicken salad — for $2.25 each or $6 for three.

The pimento cheese hot dog was surprisingly good, with sweet relish on top of peppery pimento cheese and an all-beef hot dog. There are 12 different specialty dogs, so check Spud Dogs’ Facebook page to see them all.

On the spud side, we had the broccoli and cheese baked potato with chicken for $7.49. Other spuds are topped with Philly cheesesteak, buffalo chicken, taco beef, chili, barbecue or even chopped steak and mushrooms, all around that $7.50 price point. They also have sandwiches, soups and salads if you’re not in a spud or dog mood.

The staff is a lot of fun (that’s you, Scott, Anna and Miss Tina) and kids will enjoy the way they send the order down the line. If you’re looking for a real place with real food and real people, Spud Dogs is it.

Read more reviews of local restaurants

This story was originally published May 18, 2017 at 1:01 PM with the headline "One trip to Spud Dogs will have you begging to go back."