Hooking up for Hot Dogs in Orange

Pacific Coast Hot Dogs

3438 East Chapman Ave. 

Orange, CA 92869 

If there's one thing that south OC needs, it's a good hot dog place. Sure, there's a few restaurants down this way that have a hot dog on their menu, like The Hat, Tommy's, Five Guys, and Hot Off the Grill, but we need a hot dog-centric restaurant. A no-nonsense place where the main focus is hot dogs and no Wienerschnitzel's diminished quality over the last few years does not count. We need a place like Pacific Coast Hot Dogs, which unfortunately is not south of Irvine, but instead resides in the city of Orange. 

PCH Hot Dogs reached out to me recently on Instagram to come by for a visit. It had been seven years since my last visit, so you could say that I was definitely ready to quench my hot dog cravings. I decided I'd meet up with my good friend Rebecca, a long-time Orange resident, one who has passed by this place many times but had never stopped until now. 

Situated as close as you can get to the heavy traffic on very busy Chapman Avenue, PCH celebrated their 25th year in business last year and is still going strong. The man who started it all is Scott Browning, a self-proclaimed hot dog fiend. He was a big fan of the hot dogs at Cupid's in Northridge, where he grew up. When he moved to OC, he was frustrated by the lack of good hot dog spots, (I feel your pain, Scott), and he decided to create his own hot dog legacy. 

This roadside restaurant has nine hot dogs on their menu, fries, and a ground beef taco, which we are told is slowly gaining in popularity. PCH uses Thrifty's ice cream to make floats, freezes, shakes, or, if you prefer, just scoops for those with a sweet tooth. Prices are not growing to break the bank here, as most hot dogs hover around the $4 mark, which is two dollars more than what you can get at Weinrchnitzel, but the quality here is way better. 

Rebecca and I decided on what to have and found a table on their patio, which was shielded from the wind while we caught up with each other's lives and basically just gossiped about all of our old coworkers. We could easily talk for hours, as we did this afternoon, but we also had hot dogs to eat, so let's check out Pacific Coast Hot Dogs. 

Here's what we picked up fresh from the window. We decided to get a nice cross-section of their menu but did not want to make hogs of ourselves, even though I could have totally eaten way more than this, but I did show some restraint for once. Let's dive a little deeper into each item.  

I could sense Rebecca's anticipation of diving into these Chili Cheese Fries ($4.65) as I was snapping my pictures as quickly as I could. The crispy fries, chili, and grated cheese were as photogenic as anything I have eaten recently. The fries were nice and crisp, they layered the chili well so every french fry had some on it, and what made this for me was the hand-grated cheese, which is very rare these days with the popularity of bagged cheese that almost everyone else uses. A very nice start to our visit.   

These two hot dogs look similar, but they are not. The one up at the top is the BBQ Bacon Dog ($5.40) with its slice of bacon, jalapenos, pickle, and barbecue sauce topping the snappy hot dog. I'm not usually a big fan of barbecue sauce, but it worked here, with the tinge of spice from the jalapeno and the smokiness of the bacon. On the bottom is the Tijuana Dog ($5.40), which comes dressed with mustard, diced tomato, grilled onions, and jalapenos. This one showcased the all-beef flavor of the hot dog and the snap of the casing better than the bbq bacon dog. I also have to mention the buns, which were pliable and soft, but still held everything together nicely. 

I did not ask, but I'd bet that the Chili Cheese Dog ($5.40)  is the most popular item on the menu at PCH Dogs. This was filled with chili, grated cheese, onion, and mustard. The chili is very solid, but not overly spicy. It adds good flavor, which goes well with the rest of this hot dog. I appreciated that this is not a sloppy chili dog, one that is so overloaded with chili that most of the chili winds up on the parchment paper as you consume it. This did not happen here, as it had the perfect amount topping it. I easily could have eaten another two or three of these with no problem. 

Since I visited Pacific Coast Hot Dogs, I have lamented the fact that they are not located closer to where I live. It would be so nice to be able to swing by whenever the hot dog cravings set in, but maybe because they are so far away, it makes a trip to PCH seem even more special. Check them out for yourself and let me know what you think of them. Now that Rebecca has tried them out, I'm sure she will be swinging by from time to time. Lucky girl. 

For more information about Pacific Coast Hot Dogs, head to their website here: https://pacificcoasthotdogs.com/home

Cruising Down to Pacific Coast Hot Dogs

Pacific Coast Hot Dogs

3438 E. Chapman Ave. 

Orange, CA 92869

For the most part, my days at my day job are pretty much the same. I work five days a week, go in at seven and leave at four. With my five weeks of vacation, I am there about 47 weeks out of the year. Yes, I get five weeks vacation because I have been at the same job for going on 26 years now. Very rarely does my routine change, but recently I had to go to a training class. It broke up my typical week, so instead of dreading about sitting in a class for seven hours, I actually looked forward to it. It also helped that one of the places I have wanted to eat was right across the street from where I would be training. So, once we were released from the classroom, we headed out the door, walked across the street, and arrived at Pacific Coast Hot Dogs.

Not exactly an ocean view, but Pacific Coast has garnered lots of positive reviews for their hot dogs. They have been given some very glowing press on some of the blogs I have read, they were named one of the ten best hot dogs by OC Weekly in 2012, and I have had numerous readers recommend that I try these hot dogs.

PCH is really just a stand in the parking lot of a strip mall that features a Chipotle and a Jersey Mike's Sandwich Shop. No fancy dining room here, these are hot dogs after all. Five tables with umbrellas and a yellow awning keeping the elements away from you, which in Southern California means that these just provide shade for you to enjoy your meal. We got here at 11, and had to wait for the guy to open up, even though they had posted their opening time as 10:30.

We took a look at the menu while he was finishing his opening. PCH offers 9 different hot dogs on their menu, but of course you can customize your hot dog anyway you want. PCH does not have crazy, over the top toppings to choose from. They keep it pretty basic, with the usual condiments and toppers like chili, sauerkraut, and jalapenos. Other than hot dogs, they only serve fries, shakes, and ice cream. No burgers anywhere to be found, so if you're not a fan of hot dogs, this place will not be for you. The guy behind the counter finally opened up the window, and we got to ordering. This is what we came up with.

My good friend David accompanied me on this day of training, and he also considers himself to be a pretty good judge of hot dogs. He used to own a sausage focused restaurant, so I value his opinion here, (and not anywhere else, just kidding big guy). He ordered two hot dogs, the first of which was the Chicago Dog ($3.75). As with all Chicago dogs, I always think of these hot dogs as a salad bar on a bun. Chicago dogs are always topped with lots of veggies, and that was the case here at PCH. Mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, pickle, chili pepper, and celery salt came piled on top of the hot dog. David called this hot dog very average in taste, and the toppings were just okay as well. I missed seeing the neon green relish of a true Chicago dog. The bun was soft, but still held the contents together.

Both David and I tried a Chili Cheese Dog ($4.00) at PCH. This is the item that gets the most attention in on-line reviews here. Joining the chili and cheese in the bun is mustard and onions, which got lost here, or maybe the guy left them off, not so sure. The chili had a good consistency, but the flavor was rather bland. The cheese was plentiful, but it would have been nice to have had it melted, or placed underneath the chili, to allow for melting. The bun did a great job of staying together, but the major problem with this was the hot dog itself. It had a decent snap to it which is good, but it lacked a meatiness to it. Pretty disappointing after all the hype we have heard about these chili dogs.

The second of my three hot dogs, yes I was really excited to try a little bit of everything here, was this Tijuana Dog ($4.00). This came with bacon, mustard, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos. It's hard for bacon not to leave an impression, but that was the case with this hot dog. The jalapenos were especially spicy on this day, so maybe they overwhelmed the bacon on this one. I was kind of let down by this hot dog. Much like the chili dog, this needed more flavor from the hot dog itself, which was kind of bland. So far we were 0 for 2 on this trip.

I have been craving a great corn dog for awhile, and was hoping to get one from PCH. This Corn Dog ($2.00) was encased in a sweeter than normal corn batter, which would have gone well with a meatier hot dog. Again the hot dog failed to deliver, as this one was pretty boring as well. The outer portion of the corn dog was fried nicely, with a decent crunch to it, but it could not make up for the lackluster hot dog here.

David and I were in agreement that we were not really big fans of Pacific Coast Hot Dogs. With all of the build up that I had for this hot dog stand, I was really let down. The main problem for me was that the hot dogs really did not taste like anything, and even with good toppings, you can not hide a hot dog that is devoid of flavor. Maybe we hit them way too early in the day, but neither one of us is in any hurry to rush back. Some might scoff at the prices here, and yes I did think they were a little on the high side, but if they were better, I would not have minded paying four dollars for a hot dog. I was really glad to get out of my normal routine at work, but would have had a better day if these hot dogs were as good as advertised.

Out of five convertibles, (because you can not think about PCH, and not dream about riding down that highway in a convertible), five being best to zero being worst, Pacific Coast Hot Dog gets 2 convertibles.

Pacific Coast Hot Dogs does not have a website, but you can find out more information about them on their Yelp page, http://www.yelp.com/biz/pacific-coast-hot-dogs-orange