Hot dogs, cheese fries, shakes: The best of Chicago street food at Lucky Dawgs 2 — JLB review
My dining travels take me all over Lee and Collier counties.
In my hunt for the greatest local eats, I spot all kinds of little hole-in-the-wall restaurants tucked back in off-the-road places. (My curiosity almost always gets the best of me.)
And on a few of those travels I have spotted Lucky Dawgs 2, the bright yellow building with blue trim on Collier Boulevard, and wondered: "What's that about?"
I finally gave into my hungry impulses — like I always do — and pulled into the parking lot of the tiny Pine Plaza on the eastern edge of Golden Gate.
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Let's just say it was a stretchy pants kind of day.
Fresh-cut fries smothered in chili and cheese. Seasoned roast beef slices piled on top of Italian sausage. Peanut butter milkshakes.
So stretchy.
Chicago native John Johnson opened Lucky Dawgs 2 in late 2017 in the former space of Carlo's Pizza. He gutted the place last year, adding new air conditioning, new drywall, new plumbing and all new equipment. He turned it into what is essentially now a walkup concession stand, with a couple umbrella-covered picnic tables in the grassy spot out front and a row of rickety high top chairs against a wooden railing painted blue.
I think I may have accidentally removed a shard of wood when I pulled one of the chairs out. Oops.
But what Lucky Dawgs lacks in flashiness and allure it makes up for with the best of Chicago's famed street food. And with peanut butter milkshakes.
Take the Maxwell Street Polish, a Polish sausage all char-y and sweet, and finished with mustard and onion rounds caramelized until sweet and soft, with a little crunch on the edges. The dish originated from Maxwell Street, an iconic neighborhood in Chicago’s Near West Side that is considered the birthplace of Chicago blues. It's like the Chicago dog's second cousin, with a different, more European heritage, but still just as iconic.
And Lucky Dawgs does it right.
Another uniquely Chicago sandwich: the beef and sausage combo swaddled in soft French bread. Lucky Dawgs grills up tendrils of seasoned roast beef — peppery, tender and whisper thin — and then piles a mess of it high and wide on top of a grilled Italian sausage. Fennel seeds give the sausage a deliciously aromatic flavor. A dip in the accompanying au jus sauce and that French bread turns deliciously soggy.
And now my pants are getting deliciously stretchier and stretchier.
Customers walk up and order at the window at Lucky Dawgs 2, next to the menu board that lists its 16 menu items; any more than that and the place would lose its charm, I think.
Most days there are two employees working in the kitchen. On those days orders are ready within minutes, when they pull open another window and deliver all your food packaged in Styrofome boxes and plastic sacks.
Other days there's just one employee, and so food takes much longer. On those days, when the August sun is hot and steamy, I tend to get grumpy and impatient.
But then I notice that the fries are made fresh at Lucky Dawgs, their outsides crisp and darkened, their insides chewy-soft. I indulged and ordered mine smothered with cheese and chili (so, so dirty). And then I notice that the chili is housemade, too — boldly beefy and flecked with spices.
That's when I can let a few extra minutes tick by in the kitchen, and so I happily sucked the grease from my fingers.
Lucky Dawgs uses products from the Chicago-based Vienna Beef, with that wonderfully snappy bite in the hot dogs. And you're gonna want to order the Chicago dog, with its poppy seed bun, sweet relish, sport peppers, pickles and tomato discs.
Order a chili dog, while you're at it.
And a burger, which is charbroiled and pressed thin on the flat-top until the edges turn crisp and blackened.
When I first spotted Lucky Dawgs 2 on the side of Collier Boulevard, in that bright yellow and blue building, I assumed it would be a throw-away, roadside hot dog stand (and wondered why Lucky Dawgs is No. 2; I still haven't figured that out).
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True, there's nothing necessarily ground-breaking about the place. But there's authenticity in that kitchen, the kind that has me reminiscing about Chicago's street food — convenient, tasty and so, so cheap.
So I took one last bite from a chicken wing, dipping it in a side of bourbon barbecue sauce, and pushed my wobbly wooden chair back under the railing.
And that's what Lucky Dawgs 2 is about.
Jean Le Boeuf is the pseudonym used by a local food lover who dines at restaurants anonymously and without warning, with meals paid for by The News-Press or Naples Daily News. Follow the critic at facebook.com/jeanleboeufswfl or @JeanLeBoeuf on Twitter and Instagram.
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Lucky Dawgs 2
12435 Collier Blvd., Golden Gate
• Food: ★★☆☆
• Atmosphere: ★☆☆☆
• Service: ★☆☆☆
• Price: $
• Call: 239-300-0367
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily
• Noise level: Moderate
• Etc.: Some outdoor seating
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Sample Menu
Sides
• Chili cheese fries, $4.50
• Chicken wings, $8
• Fries, $2
Mains
• Hot dog, $3.50
• Combo beef and sausage, $11
• Double cheeseburger, $6.50
What the symbols mean
Our new stars system, explained
★ - Fair
★★ - Good
★★★ - Excellent
★★★★ - Exceptional
$ - Average entree is under $10
$$ - $10-$15
$$$ - $15-$20
$$$$ - $20-$25
$$$$$ - $25 and up
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