thelocaldiner.com

As the summer grilling season approaches, the New York Times recently surveyed the best hot dogs in New York. The surprising secret of hot dogs in Gotham is that all the classic franks, from the grills of Katz’s Deli on the Lower East Side all the way up to Papaya King on the Upper East Side, and every food cart pot of “dirty water dogs” in between, is that they all come from the same place: Sabrett’s of New Jersey. Even better you can order them shipped five pounds at a time–a critical service when your pregnant wife’s most discernable craving is macaroni & cheese with hot dogs. (Once, when I asked her if I should make three hot dogs for dinner, she asked, “three each?”)

Montana’s counterpart to the svelte Sabrett Frank is the fat and smoky Beer Baron, made in Oregon for the Bielen family of Great Falls. Where the New York sausage is thin, salty, beefy, and snaps back when you bite it, Montana’s monster sausage is an inch-thick, coarse ground, smoked, and squirting with savory juices. Each link weighs in at one-third pound and, thanks to unabashed mention of beef hearts as the fourth ingredient on the label, carries a 30g dose of saturated fat that should meet your weekend quota. Last time I checked, you could find Beer Barons at a White Sox game and some supermarkets, though the purest way to enjoy this monster sausage is at the humble Beer Baron Market at 2nd and 2nd north of downtown Great Falls, where you can sit at an outside table next door and wash it down with a 32-ounce pop.

Beer Baron
203 2nd Ave N
Great Falls, MT 59401
(406) 453-7123