For the Cavs‘ home opener on Tuesday, a few of us headed over to Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood to check out the Happy Dog. The flat screen tvs at the cozy corner pub on Detroit and W 58th are a relatively new development, but not as new as the radical change of menu that took effect this month when Eric Williams (of the wonderful Ohio City mod-Mex restaurant Momocho) came on board. (BTW, everything I have read suggests a new name for the bar is in the works, but I didn’t see any clues that night as to what it would be called.)  

Happy Dog trimmed its menu to “choose-your-own” gourmet hotdogs and one of two sides–french fries or tater tots. So, you get to pick either an all-beef Chicago-style hotdog or, if you’re a vegetarian like me, a veggie sausage, and as many toppings (“within reason” our bartender/server noted) as you’d like using a checklist and one of those mini, putt-putt scorekeeping pencils. Then, you flip the sheet over to pick your optional side and mark what you’d like to accompany your tots (oh yeah, you know we rocked the tots . . . no doutbt a carryover fav from the old Happy Dog menu) or fries.

Now, as simple as this sounds, it ends up taking a lot of time. Faced with topping options like spicy Korean kim chee, masaman curry or chunky peanut butter, it’s hard for non-gourmets like us to decide what might go well together. In future, it might be a good idea to have a few stock “specialities of the house” for novices ready to tempt fate but without the culinary background to do it tastily. While the boys added full pickle spears and vodka sauerkraut to their dinners, I played it safe, dressing my faux hotdog with chipotle ketchup, dijon mustard and Spanish onions. When it came to the tater tots, however, I dunked in a devil’s hot sauce that made my fellow diners wince.

I found the hotdog buns to be a little soft and squishy for my tastes, but no one else at the table seemed to mind. One hotdog and a side was certainly enough for dinner (dogs are $5 and sides are $2.50) and the $2 happy hour tall beers kept the tab well within reason. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by to hear a little live music, grab a drink or watch a game . . . and definitely try your hand at designing your own signature dog. –Submitted by AK