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Hot dogs used to be up there with Spam and jellied eels as foods that really needed a PR boost. Before their recent gentrification in London, you suspected they were made with minced eyelids and arseholes, sweepings from the abbatoir floor. They needed half a bottle of mustard to taste of anything. They had that springy, alive skin encasing sinister smooth meat.
But Scottish brewery Brewdog is no stranger to PR boosts. When founded in 2006 it was one of the progenitors of the British craft beer scene, and since then it’s used bold marketing to become the fastest-growing food and drinks company in the UK.
Proof of the relentless expansion: Brewdog has opened two bars in London in the last few weeks, taking the total to six. This one in Islington is slightly different, however: it gives hot dogs equal billing with their own range of fearsomely fearless craft beers, including the floral Hop Fiction and the full-on Jackhammer IPA, and a small but carefully selected range of guests (look for Modern Times’s amazing pint cans from San Diego).
The dogs (hot, not Brew) are great: pork, veg, beef options, and a few more unusual ones like a ‘voodoo’ dog with pineapple salsa and spring onions, or the tandoori chicken dog with mango chutney and raita.
The bar follows the general Brewdog prison-yard visual theme, with chainlink detailing, bare concrete and bulbs. It’s a no-nonsense 21st-century beer hall, but somehow a surprisingly cosy place to explore the craft beer world. Have we reached peak Brewdog in London yet? Hope not.