Dirty Water Hot Dogs

You can’t buy a hot dog from a cart in the city of Chicago–home of the what are arguably the world’s greatest hot dogs. In Los Angeles, vendors sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs from carts as well as quesadillas, tacos, elotes, and all manner of prepared foods from their carts. Street food carts are encouraged–in fact, they’re giving them out. Portland, Oregon famously has over 500 licensed food carts gathered into pods throughout the city, selling barbecue and birria, sandwiches and sushi and almost anything you could want to eat including hot dogs. NYC Hot dog cart. Source: Wikimedia But not in Chicago. You can buy hot dog carts in Chicago. You can go to Vienna Beef’s Hot Dog University and get training on the business and health code requirements of running a street food cart–again, in Chicago. But due to the nature of how food carts are licensed in the city of Chicago, any food preparation–from placing a hot dog into a bun to pouring beverages into a cup–isn’t allowed to occur at the…