I’m from Chicago, and I take hot dogs pretty seriously. We keep celery salt in the house just so I can sprinkle it over hot dogs we grill at home. I’ve learned that people in Orlando don’t share the same passion as Chicagoans do over hot dogs. It can be a pretty polarizing topic. People either love them or hate them.
Thursday evening, Kevin, his brother, Stephen, and I got to go to the soft opening of Bite, a brand new hot dog joint, which opens this Monday. Ever since Between the Buns on Colonial packed up his hot dog-shaped Winnebago and headed back to Boston, I’ve been on the hunt for a new hot dog place. Bite did not disappoint. It is in Longwood so it’s a little further for downtown residents, but it’s worth taking a trip out there if you have a hot dog craving (which I do…often).
The owner of Bite is Jeremy Litwack, who you may be familiar with because he owns Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, which has three Central Florida locations so far.
The hot dogs at Bite were delicious. I got the Chicago Dog, which Jeremy said is his favorite. It was a classic Chicago hot dog made with Vienna Beef hot dogs, so you get that great snap when you bite into it. The seasoned fries are also delicious. They had just enough flavor to keep making you want to eat more, but it didn’t have so much seasoning that your mouth is burning afterward.
I’m excited to return to try their loaded chili-cheese hot dog, which consists of chili (your choice of with beans or without), cheese, tomatoes, onions, sour cream and jalapeños. I also want to try the roasted garlic mashed potato dog, which has, of course, garlic mashed potatoes, brown gravy and crunchy potato sticks on it.
All of their hot dogs come in three varieties: their regular beef dogs (which is what I got that night), spicy and jumbo.
After stuffing our faces with hot dogs, we felt it was only appropriate to continue our patronage to Jeremiah and head to Jeremiah’s Italian Ice for dessert. I had gone to Jeremiah’s about two weeks ago and was pretty much craving it again as soon as I was finished eating it. We all got gelatis (a layered cup of whatever flavor of Italian ice you’d like and soft serve). I got black raspberry, Kevin got cake batter and Stephen got banana, all with vanilla soft serve.
It was a great sweet treat and follow up to Bite. I encourage you to try Bite when it opens Monday, and definitely check out Jeremiah’s Italian Ice if you’ve never had it.
