While United Airlines has still not restored its pre-pandemic buffet spread to its network of airport lounges, two of the four the United Club in Chicago O’Hare are currently offering Chicago-style hot dogs (well almost…), a delicious that I enjoyed prior to a recent flight.
Chicago-Style Hot Dogs In ORD United Club!
My friend Denny first introduced me to Chicago-style hot dogs many years ago and traditionally I only have them once a year during my annual trip to Green Lake.
The ingredients of a Chicago-style hot dog include:
- All-beef frankfurter
- Poppy seed bun
- Mustard
- Chopped white onions
- Sweet pickle relish
- Dill pickle spear
- Tomatos
- Pickled sport peppers
- Celery salt
Notice what is missing? It is sacrilegious to put ketchup on a Chicago-style hot dog.
The bun should be steamed, not toasted, and the hot dogs traditionally are of the Vienna Beef brand.
While United’s offering doesn’t quite measure up to a genuine Chicago hot dog, I was elated to see hot dogs along with:
- Tomatoes
- Sport peppers
- Onions
The celery salt and poppy-seed buns were missed, as were the pickles (I’m not a relish guy).
But I have to say, this was a very tasty treat and put a smile on my face.
When I used to be a baseball fan, I’d love to have Dodger Dogs at Dodger Stadium…but you put ketchup and mustard on that.
All the ingredients of a Chicago-style hot dog create a far more satisfying juxtaposition of flavors and it was so tasty I may have had a second with extra peppers…
My only regret was the ridiculous amount of plastic waste.
Note, I only saw these at the B6 United Club (review here). The B18 and C16 clubs had no hot food while the F9 lounge had hot dogs, but no condiments beyond sauces.
CONCLUSION
United is continuing to embrace indivudlaly-wrapped items in its lounges, which has led to some interesting choices like gas station burritos and instant soup. But the Chicago-style hot dogs are a real winner and brought a great smile to my face.
Have you tried United’s hot dogs in ORD?
Just what the average ‘Murican needs. More fat food. And look at that shrine of plastic. SMH at the amount of garbage.
Dude you’re such a moron. We have way bigger problems than fast food and, especially, landfill space. Go fix your own life.
Actually, the lethality of COVID-19 is in large part a result of American obesity. If Americans weren’t so fat, there wouldn’t have been so many deaths and we could have avoided the ridiculous lockdowns. Perhaps the Wuhan lab is to blame for the virus escaping, but Americans are to blame for their own obesity.
Keep dodging that Delta variant, anti-vaxxer
Are you concerned for my health, box jumper, or are you wishing ill upon me? Either way, you’re clearly a stand-up guy!
Hopefully Darwinism has its way with you and your ilk. Keep being part of the problem!
Culling the herd…..
Natural selection has blessed me in most aspects that correlated with success in this world. You like to throw around terms like Darwinism, but I doubt you know very much about how heredity works. I wonder what genetic garbage has somehow survived in your “body,” as leftists like to refer to people, to produce such a spiteful box jumper. Or are you a tabula rasa sort who blames everything on his parents? Nature or nurture? Deep questions!
Box jumper!!??
Ask UA-TDS about his amazing feats of jumping on and off boxes. What makes you think you wouldn’t be among the culled?
Find me any country that does not offer a fatty, delicious, crazy concoction. As an aficionado of curry wurst in Germany, as just one example,I assure you that this is not just an “American” thing.
I 100 % lyou’re right, pathetic
I’d rather get COVID than eat one of those.
Is that because COVID-19 is so trivial in most cases?
So trivial I wish you’d get it.
Denying facts with insults and wishing ill upon others, always a good look. You and UA-TDS should team up. I stated a fact. If COVID-19 were as lethal as Ebola, I wouldn’t be able to say what I did. COVID-19 is so horrible for most people that medical authorities have to tell them how to differentiate it from seasonal allergies.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/infographic-overlap-symptoms.html
Great hot dogs. Hold the onions. You wouldn’t wanna sit beside me to LA otherwise.
p.s. I enjoyed one so much I won’t even mention your typos.
Glad you enjoyed it but I am disappointed this is the offering. Cheap, unhealthy, not tasty in my book, and not fitting for a membership club. Would rather have hearty soups than this even in mid summer.
And not sure what pandemic benefit there is to serving hot dogs vs appropriate hot food options. Sounds like cheap budget move.
How come whenever I’m in ORD UCs, there’s little to no food, both before the pandemic and as recently as last week? There were 2 packets of cereal and some sad looking muffins last week. There wasn’t even coffee as the cappuccino machine was broken and the big coffee urns had been taken away for refilling ( I assume that’s where they went). The bowl of creamers was empty, too, so had there been coffee, it would have been black only. I have much better luck at the UCs in other airports.
Interesting that stuff are still individually packaged in plastic containers there. I was at Delta Sky club at ORD last week and their food spread was back to normal… petri dish… no plastic containers or shrink-wraps. I was happy to see that actually. Must be the United’s decision rather than State/City mandate.
Maybe they are trying to spend down inventory?
Excellent. I <3 Chicago airport hot dogs
This actually looks great to me. Would you say that the B6 United Club is the nicest one at ORD?
Also, do you have any sense of whether Star Alliance J/F passengers can get premium drinks at the UC, or is that only for United Polaris passengers?
Unspeakably repulsive, putrid crap. No one would eat this rubbish if they knew what was in it; not only the disgusting ‘meat’ ( very loosely defined) but also the chemical additives and preservatives; throw in the calories in the bun: dead flour, salt and sugar, and it becomes the ultimate fast food poison. There should be a full disclosure warning given with every serving.
A former coworker of mine liked to get dirty-water dogs from time to time. Whenever I would see this, I would say, “Mmm, pig lips and anuses!”
Exactly. That something like this merits an entire article is breathtaking.
He wrote ab
Sorry…..he wrote about what was there and that he liked it. So!!??
There are few things in life better than an authentic Vienna Beef Chicago-style hot dog. But no matter where a hot dog is from, it’s sacrilegious to put ketchup on it, IMHO.
Ketchup is a wonderful, wildly versatile condiment. Being a snob about hot dogs is laughable. Americans eat seafood pasta with “Parmesan” cheese. Describe that to an Italian and he would likely gag.
As the old saying goes, “There’s no accounting for taste.” I love ketchup on french fries, but on a hot dog, no. But I don’t like yellow mustard. Only a spicy mustard will do.
Ignore the haters, Matthew. I for one would gladly book UA over AA through ORD if I could get even a half-decent red hot in the UA lounge. If they start carrying Italian beefs, I’d even pay a premium!
While I have vowed to never trust Matthew when it comes to restaurant suggestions, this damn well looks pretty good.
I heard that United was going to just install hot dog rollers like a gas station has but “Due to Covid” they had to just offer them up “Delta” style instead 🙂
After reading all the harsh comments I’d say most miss the mark of
1. Coke would be upset with using their napkins alongside the planet-killing amount of plastic waste.
2. Nobody should eat ketchup on a hot dog, yuck 🙂
3. Eating a hot dog prior to boarding a plane is only slightly better than eating Mexican food at the airport.
So there was no ketchup available!!??
Asking for a friend…..
Nope. No ketchup available.
Omg, the amount of self-righteous assholes commenting on a hotdog post. I’m from Chicago originally, those look delicious… even without the poppyseed bun. Would definitely make a stopover in ORD worth it.
Thanks Matthew.
No kidding. A bunch of miserable bastards who feel the need to tell everyone what to do. They know better than everyone else. We would be totally lost without their wisdom and guidance. Now pass me one of them hot dogs.
ORD F Club last Sunday and Wednesday. The condiment selection was there, but I didn’t know what those were for. The hot dogs were there and I did know better than ask first catsup. Odd thing was the attendant did a last call for hot dogs at 2 PM. She took the remaining hot dogs away. Hot dogs appeared again at 4 or 5 PM.