Restaurants
Fancy Franks
Fancy Franks has been open for just four days, but the gourmet hot dog shop has been generating murmurs of excitement since a bold-coloured mural appeared on its College St. brick wall about a month ago.
It's a move of promotional genius courtesy of Pulp&Fiber and the Community, but the kids who evidently skip up and down the street, singing a jingle they're made up themselves about the shop, are a case in point of advertising that money can't buy.
Owner Angelos tells me that they're providing more than just gourmet toppings: "Our dog is 100% beef in an all-natural lamb casing, which gives you a bit of a snap," unlike the casing-less dogs sold by street vendors. The meat is provided by a local Toronto butcher, the toppings are fresh from Kensington Market, and the buns come from Silverstein's Bakery down the street. With their 11am-11pm hours, they're drawing a stream of school-age kids, 20-somethings, and late-night traffic.
The interior is unrecognizable as its former self, thanks to the designing touch of Marc Kyriacou. Reclaimed wood reigns supreme, in the rich wood countertops and the faded herringbone floors. A large vintage mural covers one wall, and the spot's seating is divided between coveted window seating and a long communal table.
The outdoor mural is the work of Andrew Kidder, the man behind Toronto restaurant signage for La Carnita and The Yukon, among others.
The menu consists of several (read: many) hot dog options, including the Franks Got Seoul ($7.50, with Korean beef ribs, kimchi, sesame seeds and scallions) and the Franko Fancy-Aano ($9 for wrapped prosciutto, reggiano cheese and balsamic dijon mustard). I asked the dumb, and to me obvious, question: "These things all come on top of the dog?" The answer is a smiling yes. There, you've been spared the humiliation.
You can also go for the humble corn dog ($6.25), and smother it in free toppings such as curried ketchup, hot peppers, saurkraut, kalamata olives and pickles. For $2, you can add chicken bacon, feta, or baked beans, or, if you're feeling fancy, top it with prosciutto or pulled pork for $3.
I overhear some complaints about the dog-to-bun ratio. While the hot dog itself is on the small side, the large, white bun is a definite necessity if indulging in one of Franks' more decadent options.
The Frankaphone ($9), has been doing very well, with its mix of smoked gruyere, horseradish cheddar, squeaky curds, and honey dijon mayo. We opt for tomatoes, extra mustard, and the $1 upgrade to the spicy sausage (sweet mild and chicken, and veggie dogs are also available).
It's well worth it--a robust and satisfying piece of meat, although whatever spice there might be is fully sopped up by the cheeses. This riff on the French's love of their fromage is well-done, but the cheese itself adds only a touch of richness. Without the sausage, it might be fairly unremarkable.
I've been on something of a po'boy kick lately, so even though I at first glance dismiss the Po'boy Gets Fancy as excessive, it turns out my impulse control is feeble in the face of panko fried shrimp, horseradish mayo, and hot sauce. There are a few slender pieces of lettuce, to which I add tomatoes and horseradish mustard. Word to the wise: always add the latter.
It's a sandwich that shouldn't work, but somehow excels, thanks (and this is damning by faint praise) to the modest girth of the hot dog. The fried and heavily-breaded jumbo shrimp and array of sauces are the dominant flavours, with the hot dog registering as almost a textural afterthought--a good thing, to be clear.
A word about the combos: they're not as economical as you might think. If you add any fries and drink to your dog, you'll save $1. Likewise, if you add, say, a green salad (originally $4.25) or a chili poutine ($7.50), you'll again save just $1. The drinks are added full-price, and run from $2 for fountain drinks to $2.49 for glass-bottled Pepsi or sweet-ambrosia-of-my-youth orange Crush.
The chili poutine ($7.50) is topped with chili and curds, but the gravy is nowhere to be found. It's not as terrible an oversight as it might seem, because the chili is almost entirely composed of ground meat, with a touch of jus and rich spices. The green salad is simple spring mix and halved baby tomatoes, topped with a rich balsamic vinaigrette (other options are available).
If you stop by next week, Franks will hopefully be complete with the much-anticipated arrival of a conveyor-belt-style donut machine from California, which has been held up at customs. They'll be mini donuts, sold by the dozen ($4-$5.25), and available in flavours as basic as powdered sugar, and as slightly-less-basic (but no doubt mouthwatering) as lemon curd and powdered sugar.
So if you're not in the market for a meat coma, you can stop in for some sweet treats and one of three basic milkshake flavours ($4.25).
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(sweet mild and chicken, and veggie dogs are also available)
.... confused?
http://www.pulp-and-fiber.com/2012/09/fancy-franks-fancy-branding
Can't wait to try this place! Fancy 90210 looks amazing!
Always good to hear your "frank" opinions on the food, good and bad.
The hot dog seemed undercooked. While the hot dogs are claimed to have a nice snap due to the natural lamb casing, mine was just rubbery and hard to bite through. The substance of the dog wasn't much better, being small and almost totally flavourless. Your typical street meat dog is much more flavourful, and cooking it on a grill rather than on a flat top, as they do at Fancy Frank's, adds a lot.
I ordered the Greek dog, and with toppings such as feta cheese and olives, you'd think that could make up for the flavourless rubbery meat, but even the toppings didn't add much, reflective of both their quality and quantity.
I ordered a poutine with my dog and was hoping it could salvage my meal. It's tough to screw up poutine, right? Wrong again. The fries were totally undercooked and remained a grainy, potatoey mush, and somehow retained the flavour of fryer oil above either gravy or curds.
Bottom line: my meal was $15 for a sub-street meat hot dog and borderline inedible poutine. Definitely won't be returning to this establishment.
It's just haphazardly piling a bunch of shit on a meat-bun product to inflate the cost/attempt to stand out.
I can pile a bunch of free stuff on a $3 street meat.
$9 hot dogs are for morons.
I will gladly skip by this crap concept and spend my money at Kensington Market.
the dood DEEP-FRIED my hotdog .. DEEP-FRIED!!! I had the one with prosciutto... terrible
Bun - shitty small
Weiner - Shitty small
Toppings - shitty
Price - huge ... 12.50 after tax for a hotdog and a Aquafina (who drinks that shit anyways?)
Seriously I'd rather hit up my dood at Queen and Spadina and pick up a real dog and drink for $4 .. whoever opened this spot is clearly not from Toronto .. how u gonna open a hotdog joint in Toronto and not even be better then street meat ... what a joke
the fuck outta here
2 bites later I was fueled with pure , unfiltered rage, as it dawned on me I had just spent 10 dollars on one of the worst excuses for a hotdog I've ever had. MANY questions started flooding through me such as "who is the asshole duping people into buying this shit". if this hot dog was a person I would have dragged him outside and beat the shit out of him for disrespecting me like that. I havnt been able to work since eating at franks due to the dehabilitating depression brought on from being scammed so hard. Walking down the street and getting a dog from a vendor would been such a better idea. And I wouldn't have had to waste my time writing this review. I will never return to your overpriced hipster establishment. Every good review on here is Obvioisly a friend or family member of the criminal who owns the place. overall, I did not enjoy my franks hot dog.
Don't get me started on the poutine..
Love always
- a gentleman who now wishes he were dead
We ordered two different Dogs. The first, the "Korean" dog. I opted to upgrade to a Spicy Sausage. The inattentive girl working the counter asked me what I wanted on my dog, only to be reminded by the cashier that I had ordered the Korean Dog. She added the braised rib meat, kimchee and a few rings of diced scallion to my Sausage. Firstly, At 8.50 - i was pretty disappointed a the size of the sausage. It wasn't much more then a 1/2'' thick, and barely long enough to cover the small bun. The Korean Beef was moist, but flavorless - and did not bring any of the soy/ginger/sesame flavors that I would expect from "korean" beef ribs.
The second dog we ordered was the Greek style dog, topped with Tomato, Cucumber, Feta Cheese and Black olives. The biggest issue with this dog was the deliver. It *really* doesn't make sense to prep your toppings in pieces that are so big that they require individual bites. The tomato slices were a mouth full in themselves, along with the super thick cucumbers and whole black olives. Spending the extra time to PROPERLY dice your toppings in a manner that they can all be shared together would have made this dog much more enjoyable. There's really no point in putting toppings on a hot dog, if they have to be eaten separately.
I understand and appreciate what They're going for - but I hope that these details are things they can sort out, as I surely won't be going back to spend nearly $20 on two hot dogs that weren't even in line with the quality of $3.50 street meat.
To say that WVRST is better is an understatement. This place isn't even in the same universe, let alone on the same playing field. For the same price of the sub-standard sausage I got at Fancy Franks, i can get Sausage that's double the sized and made from local game meat at WVRST.
Took one bite and literally THREW IT OUT. Rubbery sub-cafeteria quality garbage.
Street meat is strictly superior in EVERY WAY. For more gourmet steamed fare, try the hot-n-dog in Parkdale.