2013 New York System – Rhode Island

At a time when our dining public thrives on evolving menus – low in carbohydrates, fat and sodium, while insisting that taste is never compromised, I would argue that the wickedly popular New York System Hot Weiner has never evolved into anything greater than that which it always has been – a “Rhode Island Original!”

When prepared correctly, the nostalgic New York System hot weiner transports us back in time. For a moment, you can remember the grill-man lining his arm with orders being yelled to him from the counter-man. We can fondly remember ordering 3 all-the-way, with coffee milk and fries with our grandparents,parents, aunts, uncles, cousins or life-long friends. We can remember sitting at the counter while solving the world’s problems with the folks from the neighborhood.

From the blue collared to the blue blooded, when you walk into a NY System Weiner joint and order, you’re nobody special – just equally important. It’s hard to believe that there exists so much history, happiness and memories inside a little steamed bun, but I assure you of its truth.

When judging hot weiners, subjectivity is always a factor. In order to level the playing field, we ask that our judges use the same scoring sheet, criteria and ranking for every location.  Additionally, we assigned multiple judges per restaurant in order to balance scoring outliers and variations in daily product consistency. It’s not enough for a product to be sometimes great; it needs to be great everyday – on every order.

The following are the 10 locations that maintained the highest overall scores in standard categories (Appearance, Steamed Bun, and Weiner Texture, Meat Sauce, Onions, and Overall One-Bite taste) – in alphabetic order:

Into the Belly of the Beast

We encourage you to judge NY System Wieners in all of the following locations as we did. There are so many excellent ones to choose from. Again, we “triple-dog-dare” you!

Note: On behalf of the RhodeCrew, we would like to offer our sincerest thanks to the volunteer judges who helped make the 2013 NY System Weiner Challenge a success!