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Little Shop Of Hot DogsBy Tom DanehyTUCKED AWAY FROM the street on one of the scariest stretches of road in Tucson (one of the nearly 2,000 or so that I'm sure pop into the reader's mind) is Frank 'n' Stein's. Fittingly located near the hair-raising intersection of Campbell Avenue and Glenn Street, it awaits the road-weary--a delightful little eatery distinguished by its "horror-food" and its pleasantly tacky, ghoulish interior.
One genuine surprise is the greaseless fries. Curly, crispy and delicious, they're cooked in a convection oven, which cuts way down on the grease, calories and fat. The onion rings, happily, are prepared the same way. The place also serves deli sandwiches, with meat sliced thin and piled high. The sandwiches come in "Skeleton" and "Regular" sizes. (Oooh, that "Regular" bit is really a scream.)
Billed as "A Taste of New York with a Transylvannia Twist,"
Frank 'n' Stein's should be able to survive on the strength of
its food alone, which is spine-tinglingly good.
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Hot dogs are the specialty of the house, the "house"
being a retail space in a mini-mall in the Albertson's shopping
center. Inside, one-half of the restaurant's interior is covered
by gruesome wallpaper depicting scenes from classic horror movies,
while the other side sports a jaw-dropping mural dominated by
the Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula. The hot dogs have menu
names like: "Dracula: Red onion sauce, but NO garlic";
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Dr. Jekyll likes the onion sauce,
Mr. Hyde likes the sauerkraut, we like to keep them both happy";
and "The Blob: Smothered with chili and cheese. What else
would you call it?" So far, nothing to turn the stomach,
but when I got to the "Mummy: Wrapped in an eerie covering,"
I blanched. Turns out, it's only a corn dog. Watching the making
of a chili dog was a little like seeing Dr. Frankenstein at work.
A seemingly ordinary dog, it was placed in a steam contraption
only to come out twice as big--a real frankenfurter, indeed.