Two new eateries and one store closing in ELB
Hot Dogs, Hot Chicken, and
Hot deals
Two new specialty foodie locations will be opening in the 4th District while the Traffic Circle’s PetCo Unleashed will be closing.
L.A.’s Dirt Dogs featuring bacon-wrapped hot dogs will be opening its seventh location in the Circle Center. With three locations in Las Vegas, the CSULB accessible Long Beach location will be the fourth in L.A. County where the chain originates. Other L.A. County locations are in Downey, Pasadena, and Downtown L.A.
Dirt Dog’s origin story is rooted in the Los Angeles street vendor scene. The menu is heavy on bacon-wrapped hot dogs, but it does feature a vegetation Dirt Dog option, flaming corn, special versions of esquite cups (ie. Mexican corn meets flaming Cheetos) tacos, and fries. Two kids' meals are served, one with mini corn dogs and one with chicken nuggets. Desert is deep-fried based including Oreos, Twinkies, and Churros.
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| Dirt Dogs' House Dog photo courtesy of Dirt Dogs |
The menu already features a nod to one of Long Beach's favorite sons with the Snoop’s Dogg that the menu describes as: 100% Premium All Beef Nathan's 5/1 Dog, Wrapped In Center Cut Bacon, Grandma's Slaw, Doggy-Style BBQ, Billionaire Bacon, Gin & Juice Ketchup.
And yes, it is just a block away from The Circle cannabis store.
Chix, Nashville Hot Chicken
In the former Subway space at Palo Verde and Stearns, Chix, Nashville Hot Chicken is preparing to open. An independent entry into the chicken sandwich wars. The new restaurant will feature the niche "Nashville style” chicken sandwich.
In Nashville, Nashville-style chicken is king. The “Nashville style” features fried chicken that gets its “hot” from cayenne and hot sauce in the coating and more spicy sauce drizzled over the cooked chicken. Add white bread and pickles and that is “Nashville-style”. Of course, like BBQ, each restaurant has its recipe (yes and many are “family recipes) of coating, sauce and fixings making Nashville style like BBQ in Texas- very competitive.
Of course, with every great food named after a local, you have to have an origin story. Local lore has the Nashville-style chicken sandwich attributed to Thornton Prince in the 1930s. The gist of the story features a girlfriend, some womanizing, and revenge food that Prince ended up liking.
PetCo Unleashed closing
While Dirty Dog sets to open in the former Dickey’s BBQ spot, a few doors down in the Circle Center the PetCo Unleashed location will be closing. They are having an inventory “everything must go” sale now.
