Is a hot dog a sandwich? One Durham sandwich shop takes on the debate
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- LRB Provisions opened in a former Dog House stand and serve regional specials.
- Thursday specials use New England split-top buns and housemade toppings.
- The Kansas City Dog centers sauerkraut, mustard and melted Swiss on the frankfurter.
If you open a sandwich shop in an old hot dog stand, sooner or later you’ll confront the hot dog question
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
At the new LRB Provisions in Durham, a little known regional hot dog makes a compelling case for YES.
Last year, longtime Durham fine dining chef Amanda Orser opened LRB Provisions, a new gourmet sandwich shop in a former Dog House hot dog stand on Guess Road. Named for the trickling Ellerbee Creek that winds through Durham, LRB has quickly built a reputation as the Triangle’s latest, greatest Reuben sandwich, smoked fish and housemade chips.
But on Thursdays, LRB nods to the past and runs a hot dog special, often spotlighting a regional variety, such as the inaugural special, our very own Carolina Dog.
Most recently LRB’s hot dog special was a regional concoction I had never heard of, nor had any other sandwich lover I checked in with: The Kansas City Dog.
For an On A Budget column — where we dine, tax and tip for less than $25 — I visited LRB to discover the Kansas City Hot Dog.
The visit
I consulted the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, and sure enough, the Kansas City Dog was on there: the combination of sauerkraut, mustard and melted swiss cheese. The Kansas City Dog is essentially a Reuben sandwich in hot dog form, complicating the hot dog as sandwich debate. Curiously, the Carolina Dog is not recognized by the venerable NHDSC.
At LRB, the Kansas City Dog is dressed with bright red sauerkraut, folds of melted Swiss cheese and some zippy spicy mustard. Orser makes the sesame seed buns, served in the New England split-top style. The hot dog itself is $7 and you’d be making a colossal mistake not getting a bag of $3 housemade chips, dusted with LRB seasoning, which is often reminiscent of Old Bay, but with some extra tangy notes on some chips.
While modeled after a classic sandwich, this Kansas City Dog makes the case that hot dogs are a distinct thing, as the toppings are all in service of a single, centered entity — the frankfurter itself, rather than the way a sandwich is a symphony of textures and flavors building to one cohesive note. Especially with the split-top bun, hot dogs seem more akin to tacos in structure and effect.
The bite
I’ve never encountered kraut made from red cabbage and the effect is dramatic, specially on a hot dog that would otherwise be capital B beige. The command of sour and tang at LRB is a beautiful thing, countered by the smoky richness of the hot dog itself. And somehow the bun is the star — flavorful, buttery, tasting a bit like pretzel dough but with a softer texture. A housemade hot dog bun is rare indeed.
Having visited LRB a few times now, Thursdays feel like something special. This is a serious sandwich shop, smoking its own trout and going to great pains to make great pastrami. But on Thursday it feels particularly fun, the hot dogs arriving in a bright red paper bag that looks right out of the state fair. On a frigid Thursday, I saw many of these hot dogs devoured in the front seat of cars and pickup trucks filling the parking lot.
