8s are wild at Tasty 8s, but once is enough for us

There’s a hotdog restaurant in the 100 block of Fayetteville Street in Raleigh that’s keen on “8s.” It has 8 gourmet hotdogs on the menu along with 8 craft beers, and 8 gourmet milk shakes. All prices are $something.88 such as the gourmet hotdogs at $6.88 and the milkshakes at $4.88. The Belgian frites and the sweet potato fries are $2.88. Add chili or cheese for the frites and fries for $1.88. Request an extra dipping sauce for the frites and fries and get charged another $.88. Kids 8 and under can find a meal for $3.88 and standard soda beverages are $1.88. The pints of beer, though, are $6.00. $5.88 would be a better price.

The name of the place is Tasty 8’s Gourmet Hot Dog Co., and it has a long way to go to be a go to place, except that it’s open until 3:00 a.m. (how about 2:58?) on Friday and Saturday nights (which are actually Saturday or Sunday morning). Maybe the younger crowd, after frequenting other area bars and seeking food, like it. Today was our first experience there, and while the serving size was adequate, and while a request for a hot serving of the sweet potato fries to replace the cold serving we were first served was quickly accomplished, there’s plenty of reason to take our tastes elsewhere. First, the pleasant young lady waiting behind the counter to take our order and our money knew nothing about the menu. When asked, “What’s good here?” she pointed to the menu on the wall. When the order was placed, she handed it over to a preparer who had to refer to the menu to know how to build the request. He would add an ingredient, then look at the menu, add an ingredient, look at the menu.

My selection was #6, the El Perro, the continental sausage all-natural japeno-cheddar buffalo brat with queso con chorizo, guacamole, Mexican crema, salsa, and jalapeños. We’re not sure what is all-natural about japeno-cheddar buffalo brat and we think that should have been jalapeño-cheddar, but that’s how it’s listed on the menu, so be it. The food was tasty but there’s too much “paste” ingredients and not enough real toppings. My wife, Nancy, ordered the #7, The Coop, continental sausage all-natural chicken-apple sausage with cream cheese, cucumber, guacamole, scallions, and sesame seeds. Again, there was too much “canned” ingredients and not enough real toppings. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best, she rated it a 1.5. “The sausage didn’t even taste good by itself,” she remarked. Mine was a 5 but that had to do with being hungry.

The beers were good, of course. Mine was a Bruenette, a brown ale from Brueprint Brewing Company in Apex, and Nancy had the Hoptimist IPA from White Street Brewing in Wake Forest. We looked around the place for a while, trying to figure it out. It was in the high 90s today, yet the garage door entrance was open and there was no or little air conditioning. The sanitation rating was a 93. Except to maybe try a milkshake which are probably overpriced compared to other milkshake options, we decided that once was enough for Tasty 8s.

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Dictionary.com word of the day

unquiet (adjective) [uhn-kwahy-it] agitated; restless; disordered; turbulent