© 2010 EthnicNJ.com
Review
- As soon as hot dogs became an EthnicNJ.com food category, Jimmy Buff’s was at the top of my list of places to try. You can’t live in North Jersey without hearing the name. Considered one of Jersey’s best hot dogs by many Jersey dog connoisseurs (“The Italian Hot Dog made here is one of the 3 best in N.J. therefore the world.,” according to John Fox, aka Chowhound’s hotdoglover ), Jimmy Buff’s has been around since 1932. Now there are three locations – East Hanover, West Orange and Scotch Plains. Even though the West Orange stand is closer to home, I went to the East Hanover Jimmy Buff’s, reputedly the best location among those in the know, to try my first Jimmy Buff’s Italian Hot Dog.
In a Route 10 strip mall (facing the side street), Jimmy Buff’s occupies two storefronts, one side with the order counter, the other with extra table seating and a bar counter with stools. The decor is, let’s say, eclectic, like a bar/rec-room circa 1960 decorated with baseball, Rat Pack and Elvis posters.
"The Double" (Photo: www.jimmybuff.com)
For an Italian dog, you can’t do much better than Jimmy Buff’s. The Italian hot dog (single or double) is served in a rounded wedge of soft, pizza-dough-ish bread with fried onions, peppers, sliced potatoes, mustard and ketchup. (I can’t stand ketchup on hot dogs, so I went with everything except ketchup. The woman at the counter was accommodating.) The hot dogs – fried then charbroiled – have an excellent salty snap. It’s impossible to get everything at once into a normal-sized mouth, but if you remove some potatoes with the plastic fork provided, and squeeze real hard, the Italian hot dog is an indulgent carb festival of flavor.
Links
Best Italian Hot Dogs in NJ
News 12
Roadfood.com
Tags: East Hanover
Print this page
Comment