Wiener's Circle: "The Most Depressing Hot Dog Stand In America"

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 29, 2010 6:20PM

In a column yesterday, former Gourmet and current Salon food columnist Francis Lam declared Wiener's Circle "the most depressing hot dog stand in America." Lam based his assessment wholly on the racially-tinged post-last call smackdowns between the all-black Wiener's Circle staff and the nearly all white, all male, all drunk clientele. Lam does use some of his column space to differentiate between the early evening shenanigans (captured by the Tribune's Kevin Pang in the above video) and the darker, more ominous goings on after the bars let out (chronicled by the now-classic, well traveled clip from "This American Life" after the jump; both clips NSFW for language).

Says Lam:

"It's possible, for a while, to think it's all good theater, that everyone is just letting off steam, but the tell is in people's faces when they're not open-mouthed and screaming. The crowd is laughing, having fun, and you hear people comment, titillated, on the quality of the show. But the staff look tired, and maybe a little bit sick to their stomachs. This is their job."

Both staff and customers can delude themselves into thinking that it's just "theater," but this is not the same as going to Ed Debevic's and being berated by your waiter.