Ever since our trip to Canada last August, I’ve been telling Mrs. Hotdogman she needs to taste our local salute to Canadian cuisine: a Michigan Dog from Archie’s on a Roll. On an early autumn afternoon, we were running some errands and I steered us to the Ken’s Salad Dressing World HQ at 1 D’Angelo Drive in Marlborough, Massachusetts; that also happens to be where Archie’s is parked.
If you look real closely, you can see the truck down at the end of the road…
..AH! Here we are.
On my fist visit to Archie’s, I told you he had a Kurbmaster. While the truck is a Kurbmaster, that’s not the whole story. Kurbmaster trucks are actually truck bodies put onto large, step van chassis. The Kurbmaster is a brand of truck body manufactured by Grumman. Most well known for making military jets and helicopters, Grumman opened its doors in 1930 and made lots of WWII aircraft for the military. They also manufacture the truck bodies for the US Postal Service. If you see a hot dog truck, or any other big, box shaped van, there’s a pretty good chance it’s a Grumman. During the post cold war military manufacturing corporate mergers, Grumman was bought by Northrop Corp for $2.1 BILLION. That’s Billion with a “B!” That’s a lot of hot dogs!
On an unrelated note, Grumman also used to manufacture aluminum canoes and their canoes were featured in the movie “Deliverance.”
Mrs. Hotdogman was edging to try some of Archie’s Hot Dogs….
Archie’s has a great location in a busy office park. There’s room for the big rigs…
…and smaller modes of transportation.
Alan “Archie” Archibald was all psyched up because he was recently featured in the national voting for the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race. I did a blurb about it on The Hot Dog Truck dot com. He didn’t win, but he got a lot of publicity for his Hot Dog Truck: he was written up in the Boston Herald and The Daily Northborough and he was featured on the New England Cable News Network (the NECN video is at the bottom of this page).
Alan and Mrs. Hotdogman chatted for a bit. Alan’s from Verdun, QC (a part of Montreal) and has family in Terrebonne, QC. Mrs. HDM has family in both places too.
RELAX, Alan! We’ll get to the “thumbs up stuff” in a little bit….
Mrs. Hotdogman and I ordered up Michigan Dogs. What is a Michigan Dog you ask? Well, it’s “a steamed hot dog on a steamed bun topped with a meaty sauce, generally referred to as ‘Michigan Sauce’. The chili may or may not be tomato-based, depending on where the Michigan is purchased. Michigans can be served with or without chopped onions. If served with onions, the onions can either be buried under the sauce, under the hotdog itself, or sprinkled on top of the chili.” Alan bills his Michigan sauce as more of a “Cincinnati style” chili- a not too spicy meat sauce. Around these parts, most folks would refer to this kind of hot dog as a “Coney Dog.” They’re called “Michigan Dogs” in upstate New York and Quebec (and now Marlborough). On Coney Island, they’re called “Red Hots” or “Michigan Dogs.”
In Michigan, they’re called “Coney Island” dogs.
Coney Island, Cincinnati, Michigan, Quebec…Confused? Me too! The important thing is they are YUMMY!
I got one for me…
…and one for Mrs. HDM.
The “dining room” today was the tailgate of Mrs. Hotdogman’s RAV4.
While grudgingly allowing me to include her in some Hot Dog Stories, Mrs. HDM STILL doesn’t like me taking pictures of her eating hot dogs!
TIME TO CHOW DOWN!
They were so good, we ordered a couple more!
Mrs. Hotdogman gives Archie’s on a Roll TWO THUMBS UP!
Two Thumbs up from the Hotdogman too!
Okay, Alan, NOW you can do the Thumbs up! You deserve a pat on the back and a heartfelt “attaboy” for serving up damn fine hot dogs!
Archie’s is still a “must eat” hot dog joint. The Michigan Sauce is out of this world.
Here’s the NECN video featuring Archie’s on a Roll.
Thanks for your kind words! Always great to see you guys and glad you enjoyed my Michigans! Still no word from the Food Network as to where I placed, but we had a lot of fun doing it!
Stop by soon… eat lots, I can always make more!