A Gift

MY Tacoma Rainiers have given the PCL a gift this year: Rainiers outfielder, and 2004 Olympian, Wladimir Balentien, was named PCL Rookie of the Year.

Full story here.

Hot Dog Cinema #9

We’ve finally made it to the big screen. This is video (posted at Tacoma’s own Cassioposa) of a guy named Michael going berserker on our Tideflats dog. The Tideflats is a remake of what I used to eat at 7-11 on a daily basis during my 18th and 19th year of life when I first started living on my own. It was a fork meal. Michael says otherwise, and I applaud him for that. You go, Tideflats Champion!

First Bite @ The Red Hot from Sarah Freitas and Vimeo.

Wow.

I’ll start by saying thanks to everyone who has, and continues to come visit us at The Red Hot. It has been an insane 2 weeks, and today is the first day where I’ve seen to be able to take a step back and breathe for a sec. It has been totally awesome, and I am stoked to have a dream come true.

People of Tacoma, you truly love hot dogs. It is a rarity that I only serve one to someone. Two and three are the norm, and I have an all-star eater who put down 4 in a row, and would have done 5 if time permitted. She hopefully will be entering in our hot dog eating competition when we get that rolling.

Most problems have been sorted out, takeout orders are on the upswing, and I have received a huge amount of thanks from my neighbors, which is something I have always strived to be…a neighbor, not a business in the neighborhood. Since most of our kinks have been worked out, here are a few additions we’ve made:

1.) Happy Hour. Happy Hour is from 3-6pm, Monday thru Friday. $2 domestics, and $3 micros.
2.) Monday Nights. Starting September 10th, we’ll be opening for Monday Night Football. I wouldn’t classify the Red Hot as a sports bar, but I loves me some football. It will probably be 3pm to 10pm for Monday’s hours, but it could change slightly. We will be running a Polish Sausage dog special.
3.) Hot Dog availability. Hot Dogs go to 10pm, not 9pm as it’s previously been. We’ve made some changes in our “kitchen”, and made some operating and ordering changes, to keep it going later. Hopefully I can get it to 11pm on weekends, but for now…10pm every night. “Kitchen” is in quotes because apparently even though the health department, the state, and my insurance company classify it as such, people “in the know” say otherwise.
4.) $2 Tuesdays. I do this every Tuesday. I’ll pick a handle, and all day that pup is $2 a pint. Nuff said. (p.s.-Tonight, 8/28, is Rogers Pilsner from Georgetown Brewery, if you’re so inclined).

Coming soon: website, Wooden Nickle Club, Hot Dog Eating Competition, and Running the Gauntlet.

Thanks again to all my neighbors, new friends, and regulars. Thanks also to the local blogging community who truly support home-grown businesses in our city. Your help was and is greatly appreciated.

I’ll post more regularly, and thanks to everyone who has come in and started off by saying “Yeah, I read your bolog and…”. AMAZING.

Here it is:

I wanted to put up a fancy pdf of the menu, but due to enough headaches today (sign is MIA, failed delivery, etc.), here is the menu in it’s simplest form. We open at 11am, come watch us work out the kinks!

The Chicago $3.50
All beef dog cradled in a poppy-seed bun, topped with yellow mustard, relish, chopped onions, tomatoes,
a pickle spear, a couple of spicy sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt. The timeless meal-on-a-bun classic.

The Coney $3.50
All beef dog, mustard and onions, topped off with The Red Hot’s very own chili sauce. None better.

The Red Hot $3.00
The basic ballpark namesake, all killer and no filler. The dog on which empires and memories were built…
and sustained. All beef dog, your choice of mustard, onions, & relish.

6th Ave Strut $3.50
Tomatoes, onions, and cream cheese finish off an all beef dog to create the quintessential northwest version
of the hot dog.

Puget Polish $3.50
Deli mustard, onions, and 2 sport peppers sit alongside a hearty polish sausage in a poppyseed bun.

Murray Morgan Bridge Brat $3.50
An awesome premium Bratwurst sausage paired up with yellow mustard and sauerkraut. For the European in
all of us.

T-Dome T-Dog $3.00
Where’s the beef? For our patrons who wish to remain health conscious, healthy or not. Prepared like a
Chicago (poppy-seed bun, mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, pickle spear, sport peppers, celery salt), but with a
100% natural, free-range turkey frank in place of the beef. Gobble gobble, pilgrim.

Destiny City Slaw Dog $3.75
Two Red Hot signatures, our chili sauce AND our very own Southern-style cole slaw, paired up with onions
and mustard to top off this Southern classic.

North End Not Dog $3.75
Herbivores rejoice! no animals were harmed in the making of this hot dog. Served up just like the Chicago..

Naked Narrows $3.00
Back to basics, stripped down, the heart of the meal. No buns, all funs. Two all-beef franks on a stick
suspended over a sea of ketchup and mustard. That’s it.

Tideflats $5.75
Our most industrial strength hot dog creation. Two all beef dogs on an open-faced bun, topped with (get
ready for this) mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, tomatoes, a pickle spear, sport peppers, jalapenos, cole
slaw, sauerkraut, giardiniera, nacho cheese sauce, and our own Red Hot chili sauce. You know you want to.

If you don’t see it listed, but you gotta have it, feel free to add these toppings at no extra charge:
Yellow mustard, deli mustard, onions, relish, celery salt, and ketchup.

If it’s not listed in the description, but you REALLY gotta have it, feel free to add any of these for 25 cents:
giardiniera, cream cheese, nacho cheese sauce, tomato, mayonnaise, cole slaw, sport peppers, jalapenos,
pickle spear, sauerkraut, and shredded cheese.

Hot Dog Cinema #8

Short, but to the point. Wrap your brain around this one.

Almost There

Tons of deliveries, failed deliveries, happy moments, and heartache moments…that describes my time since last posting. I’m totally excited, and the place is taking shape. Staff is coming in for a lesson in hotdoggery on Tuesday, and we should be opening to the public on Wednesday (AUGUST 15th!).

Old school Tacoma baseball shots

Vintage Rainier sign, still ticking!

Bob and Doug McKenzie, warning you and yours…

I picked up some old Tacoma music stuff to hang on the walls today. Jeff Miller (no relation) over at Wiley’s Golden Oldies is a saint. More hanging stuff tomorrow and Monday. Beer shows up Monday to be ice cold for Wednesday. Oh. Yes.

Update and the Temple of….OK, it’s just another update.

The Red Hot is about ready to set sail. This week marked sign-off on final building inspection, as well as sign-off on the health department pre-opening inspection. Things are making their way onto the walls. I believe the flag company stated I was the only person in recent memory that DID NOT work for the city to ever purchase a City of Tacoma flag. Awesome.

This week’s other milestone was the arrival of my pinball tables. My favorite game, Addam’s Family, proved to hard to snag right now. Same with my #2 (Twilight Zone). Instead I got the totally fun Jack-Bot.

When I lived in Seattle, I was a devout student of Pin-Bot, and later, Bride of Pin-Bot. This is the third in the series, and stacks up well. It has crazy casino side games, a fast table, and killer extra features (ability to cheat on the casino games, ability to cheat to increase your bonuses after you get the drain, etc). VERY fun game, as I have dumped at least $15 into it in the past 2 days. Each game is 50 cents for 3 balls. If you load in $2 at once, you’ll get 5 games.

The other game I scored was a 1976 Bally’s Freedom.

Old School. One of the first games to convert from mechanical wheel score readouts to digital display. Too many operators freaked out over the new-fangled digital readouts, so I guess 2 versions exist…one with mechanical wheel, and one that was the digital. I dig the bells and the slower playfield. It has a great nostalgic feel, reminding me of dropping quarters into the pins at the old Sub-Station 2 in the city where I grew up. I’ve plunked at least $10 into this one in the past 2 days. 5 balls for 50 cents.

Sound is almost installed, and the projection screen is in and working. Bar finish is up to 3 coats, but 3 more are planned. Have to frame a few more things. Main sign is ordered. First food order shows up tomorrow. Only so much time in a day.

BTW. If anyone knows of a good out-going bartender who wants to work a Friday and Saturday night shift with another bartender pouring beer and wine, making dogs, and hosting the party, tell ‘em to swing by. I’m usually there from 8am to 6 pm every day. I’m pretty amazed the best shifts are the only ones not filled, but I know it’s only a matter of time.

Jones Finally To The Show?!?!?

Rumors, rumors, rumors, but at a press conference, skipper McLaren said it’s so. Adam Jones will replace Jason Ellison on the roster. I know the Rainiers exist as a farm system for the Mariners, and they wouldn’t exist if it was not for the big leagues…but as someone who prefers the Minors over the Majors, I am a bit sad to see one of our stars go. Hopefully his new step up is a good one. Congrats, Mr. Jones!

Full scoop here over at TNT.