About The Corner Dog House

Bristol restaurant has the Corner on hot dogs :

 

• The Corner Dog House

  “The Corner Dog House set the standard for what I consider to be a great hot dog,” says Dick Smith, a Bristol, TN., native now living in Elizabethton.
  
  “When I worked in Bristol, we always knew that we had to get to the Corner by noon to place our order before the lunch rush began.”

   

Situated on a hill in a quiet residential section of Bristol, Va., The Corner Dog House has been serving the same kind of hot dogs and using the same chili recipe since 1963. The business changed hands recently, but new owners Sherry and Steve Willinger (that's them in the photo below) have no plans to abandon the 43-year-old business plan.



“Everybody talks about our chili,” says Sherry. “It’s freshly prepared every morning, four gallons a day.”

She says it takes about 1:30 minutes to prepare the chili, which relies on very simple ingredients.

IF YOU GO THERE...

The Corner Dog House

Location: 102 East Mary Street, Bristol, Va.

Hours: Open Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sample prices: Hot dog w/ Chili Mustard & Onions, $1.25; cheese or slaw dog $1.50; corn dog, $1.25; hamburger, $2.95

Phone: (276) 669-2231

Miscellany: Cash and Most Credit Cards

 

At The Corner Dog House, the work force have been boiling those unforgettable red hot dogs and sautéing that chili forever.



Sherry and Steve had always noticed how busy The Corner Dog House was. A few months ago, they spotted a “for sale” sign on the square, brick building.
“We worked out a deal with the former owners, and we love it,” they told me. “We’ve been totally surprised by the incredible number of customers that have come here for the past 43 years.”

On her slowest day thus far, they sell about 300 hot dogs; on their busiest, over 600. One lady does nothing but make hot dogs from opening to close. Most customers order two, with chili and onions, at a cost of $2.50 plus tax.

There are a couple of picnic tables outside now, a recent addition, but there’s no dining inside and no drive-through. It’s a walk-up business, and people stand in line for hot dogs in all manner of Bristol weather.

Everything is made fresh at the Corner, including the mayonnaise-based coleslaw for the slaw dogs. Sherry and company go through about 50 pounds of cabbage every two weeks.

“It was amazing to watch the parking lot of that restaurant as the lunch time neared,” remembers Dick Smith. “There might be just a few people in line at 11:45 a.m., but by 12:05 p.m., like clock work, a mass of people would descend on the place.

“There would be men in white shirts and ties, women with a station wagon full of kids, and construction workers and other service employees making their daily pit stop for a dog. Watching all this occur as you waited for lunch was fascinating. The Corner Dog House is one of just a few Bristol landmarks that has remained the same through the years.”

Food writer Fred Sauceman, the author of “Home and Away: A University Brings Food to the Table,” is the executive assistant to the president for university relations at EastTennesseeStateUniversity. E-mail him at sauceman@xtn.net.