All Over Albany

Lauren's House of Dogs

The fact of the matter is that if a place is called "Lauren's House of Dogs," we're going to stop in eventually -- whether they have dog dogs or hot dogs.

In Lauren's case, it's hot dogs. So we stopped in for lunch today.

Here's a quick take...

Lauren's is right next to Emack and Bolio's on Delaware Ave in Albany. It's like a kid's dream dinner spot.

We tried three different hot dogs: with onion sauce, BLT and... chimichanga style.

BLT and Onion Sauce

The BLT dog comes wrapped in bacon. We approve. The bacon was crispy and makes for some salty, meaty bites. The lettuce and tomato were OK, but they're kind of hard to eat along with the dog -- shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes might work a bit better.

The onion sauce is sauteed chopped onions with some tomato sauce and spices. It's a little sweet, a touch spicy. It's kind of like smearing an extra layer of umami on the dog. It was OK.

The chimichanga dog

This is basically two chili dogs wrapped in a tortilla -- and then deep fried. It's a salty, meaty, gooey beast encased in crunchiness. We're not sure we would get this again -- it was heavy. It made us think of football food, like someone's mom's chili dip.

Fries

We tried the waffle and sweet potato fries. We're glad we did. The waffles were good and crunchy (that's the point of a waffle fry, right, to maximize surface area for crunchiness?).

The sweet potato fries were a little crunchy on the outside and nicely creamy on the inside. Bonus: they come with a creamy tarragon dipping sauce(!). Also good with the heat from the "Australian Tomato Ketchup for Grownups" that sits on the counter.

Condiments

The counters are full of fun-looking condiments, including the aforementioned ketchup for adults. (There's also regular ketchup.)

The interior

It's casual and playful. You order at a high counter in the back. The rest of the space has counters with these great yellow stools.

Overall

+ The hot dogs themselves were OK -- you know, not the best we've ever had, but good. Lauren's serves two types -- a grilled Chicago-style (beef and pork) and a boiled New York style (all beef). We forgot to specify what kind of dogs we wanted and ended up with the grilled.

+ The buns were toasted. +1

+ We got the two dogs with a side special -- it's $5.99. That seemed like a fair price.

+ The menu lists 12 types of dogs, along with mini franks and a vegetarian sausage; eight sides; and a few other items. So, there's some choice.

+ Thea had a good suggestion about getting "the NewComers" -- three mini dogs with toppings for $3.99. We probably would have gone this route if we hadn't tried the chimi-style dog.

+ We weren't blown over by any one thing at Lauren's, but it's a fun place. We'd be very happy to go back.

By the way: If you haven't been down Delaware Ave in Albany recently, you should have a look. As we overheard one of our fellow lunchers say today: "Delaware is all done up."