Charlie's Pool Room T-Shirts

Super super limited edition. John (pictured) emailed me about a year ago that him and his wife and some buddies were driving from Virginia to New Jersey to visit the legendary Charlie's Pool Room and wanted to make some shirts for the trip. 

These are not for sale anywhere, although I do believe there is one at Charlie's among their permanent collection of memorabilia and press clippings.

They ran off a total of 6 shirts using cafepress and my artwork which was originally done for Serious Eats ( also available as a print in my store) and I'm surprised how good they look. Thanks to John G Douglas for sending the photos.

Charlie's Pool Room is one of the most unique hot dog places in the country.. think combination candy store, pool room, and outsider art shrine, with hot dogs. Delicious, delicious hot dogs, shallow fried in a pan and topped with Grandma Fencz's secret hungarian sauce. 

Original art / Serious Eats post: Hot Dog Of The Week - Charlie's Pool Room

More of my photos from Charlie's on Flickr

Buy prints at hawkkrall.net

Seattle Dog - Seattle Weekly

Seattle dog illustration (originally done for Serious Eats) featured in a recent Seattle Weekly cover story on the origins of the "Seattle Style" cream cheese hot dog. 

I'm quoted along with my buddy Garrett Morlan (also an awesome illustrator  ) who tipped me off to these things when he moved out there a few years ago.

Also interviewed for the article was Keith over at Hot Diggity about his version, which I also did the artwork for. Diggity's version takes it more in a "bagel" direction, which i always thought was sort of wrong, until I read this awesome article and realized the first guy to do this in Seattle was a bagel guy.

The funniest part is that everyone in Seattle thinks the style came from Philadelphia, assuming that we slather everything in cream cheese. Anyway the article is fantastic - and follows the history of the Seattle cream cheese dog WAY further back than I had any idea it went - to hot dog carts in the park during the grunge era - supposedly someone was hit in the face with a cream cheese dog at a Pearl Jam concert in the early 90's - and a bagel place that made hot dog roll sized "bialy sticks" and filled them with hot dogs.

From the grunge carts and bagel dudes the trend spread to vendors outside Mariners stadium - where i had assumed it started - like Joe Bernstein at Joe's Grilled Gourmet Dogs, who's been slinging them for something like 15 years. Joe may not have invented the cream cheese thing, but he's probably the first person to call them "Seattle Style".

From then it spread across the country, in waves - the most famous cream cheese slingers outside of Seattle being Biker Jim in Denver (who bought his first cart - cream cheese caulk gun and all - from a guy in Seattle) and M.A. in Alaska, who added their coca-cola onions to the mix, served on reindeer dogs and game sausages rather than standard dogs.

They've both been at it for 10-15 years, Biker Jim famously serving one to Bourdain on No Reservations a few years ago. Anyway don't take it from me, go check out the article,
probably the most exhaustive history of this newer regional hot dog style to date.

Seattle Weekly: The Seattle Dog - An Oral History

Michigans Illo for Adirondack Life Magazine

For Adirondack Life Magazine, illustration for an article about "Michigans", a peculiar hot dog found in the North Country and Adirondack region of New York State. Great, thorough article on the subject that you can check out at adirondacklife.com. Also, T-Shirts!

Yellow Boy's Polish Boys

Artwork for Yellow Boy's Polish Boy, a cart in Colombus Ohio that serves the (previously) unique to Cleveland "Polish Boy" - a kielbasa covered in fries and cole slaw served at places like Freddie's Southern Rib House and Hot Sauce Williams, made semi-famous by Cleveland native Michael Symon who has featured it on a bunch of food shows. 

Yellow Boy's cart is run by Marcus Spivey who sets up around Columbus late night on the weekends as well as special events like the Columbus Country Music Festival (pictured above with the Lee Gantt Band.) Check it this article or follow Marcus on twitter for more info.

Art Show At Hot Diggity!

Stop by Hot Diggity on South Street this Friday for lots and lots of hot dog art including some brand new work and even a couple of burger paintings.

Also for the first time prints from the Hot Diggity menu will be available for sale. The show will be up until the 29th, opening reception is this Friday the 3rd from 6-9pm. The restaurant will be open for business so come have a beer, eat a hot dog and check out some art. Also exciting, Hot Diggity (and the menu paintings) finally made it onto Hollyeats.com... my life is now pretty much complete.

Hot Diggity
630 South Street
thehotdiggity.com

Gilbert's Sausage Artwork and T-shirts

Gilbert's is a super awesome newer hot dog & sausage company out of Wisconsin. Nitrate free and artisanal and all that jazz but also high-quality traditionally seasoned frankfurters & brats that live up to the standard of serious encased meat lovers (not just me). I wrote about their stuff a while back and they commissioned me to do some artwork that they're also using on t-shirts - and an awesome Froman track jacket.




More Gilbert's-

•Visit Gilbert's Craft Sausage
•Gilbert's T-Shirts and Wearables
•Serious Eats post cooking with the Froman
•Roadfood review by John Fox aka hotdoglover

Hot Dog Interior Design

Big thanks to Christa Hayden for sending in these photos of her crazy wall of prints. I don't think I ever expected to see them in such a fancy setting. Looks awesome! The piece above the prints was reclaimed from a torn down house from the 1800's.


Here's some more I've gotten over the years, the above is from the Serious Eats office (the first four I had made)... send in yours and I'll definitely post them.

NEW PRINTS!! Free magnets with every order & free shipping on sets of 4!

TONS of new hot dog (and burger) prints in my store, including some new & exciting stuff like the giant 24" tall burger print and a whole bunch of more affordable (16 bucks a pop), smaller 8" x 10" prints. These are all high quality giclee prints done by the fine folks at Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints in Philadelphia. They seriously look almost better than the original paintings.


I'll be shipping FREE sets of five hot dog magnets (ten for big orders) with every order from now until they run out! I have a LOT, they probably won't run out. Selection will be random but if you let me know which you prefer, I'll send it if I have it.

Also for the month of December I'm offering FREE SHIPPING on orders for a set of 4 11 x 14 prints. ($100 even). You can also mix & match and do three 11 x 14 prints and two 8 x 10 prints (or 2 big ones and 4 small ones) for the same price. Order here:
Hawk Krall Prints


Skeeter's is an awesome general store / restaurant in Wytheville Virginia. Glass bottles of coke and famous chili slaw dogs. Also pretty decent pulled pork sandwich.


Ecuador has awesome hot dogs covered in crazy sauces. A set of four with the Torta Salchicha, Perro Caliente and Tijuana Dog prints would make an awesome "Latin American" collection.


Crazy 2 foot tall exploding burger Illustration I did for Cincinnati Magazine a couple years ago about the city's best burgers.


AWESOME Polish Boy / Barbecue spot in Cleveland.


One of the first paintings I did for hot dog of the week.. Flo's famous red shack on Route 1 in Maine.


Awesome mini-chain in South Carolina serving up beautiful all beef dogs topped with pimento cheese on "top split buns" that are all over the south (not just New England!).


Amazing German butcher shop / grocery n Portland that makes their own hot dogs and sausages, and serves them outside right off the grill.


Crazy variation on the Flint Coney which is already a variation of the Detroit Coney (or vice versa, if you're from Flint Michigan). Koegel's natural casing dog, chili, mustard and onions on a hard taco shell! The regular coneys are great too, and Angelo's is an amazing place.


Famous Lunch in Troy, NY serves up tiny hot dogs for something like 65 cents each. Buried under their famous "Zippy Sauce" and onions. Also terrific rice pudding.

See ALL the prints HERE- hawkkrall.net/prints

Dirty O Artwork & Prints

Unfortunately I don't have the time to do a full-on painting every week for Hot Dog Of The Week (my column on Serious Eats).. these things take me at least a few days to finish... but every once in a while there's a place so awesome that it really deserves an illustration. The Dirty O was one of them, awesome food along with awesome hand painted signs covering every inch of the place. They also sell beer and greeting cards. The vibe was more Philly Cheesesteak stand than hot dog joint.

Anyway check out the process shots below or check out the article on Serious Eats. Or pick up a 10 X 14 giclee print of the artwork here- www.hawkkrall.net/prints