Earler this month my sister was visiting me for the holidays. One of her friends took us to a taqueria in SoHo. In the back of the taqueria there was a door with a guy standing next to it. She walked right up and said “Four to go down please.” The man touched his ear (which had a mic and headset, secret service style, attached to it). He waved us in.

We went down a set of stairs, through a busy kitchen, down a series of hallways and into the most beautiful tequilla bar. This whole experience was so much fun, that I decided to try and find as many of these places as I can in NYC. I wont reveal their names or locations, just to keep it fair (finding them is half the fun). I still need to get back to that first place in SoHo and take some pictures, but here is the second one that I have found.

Above is a hot dog from the second secret bar I have found in NYC. This was in East Village. You walk into a hot dog joint, walk over to a telephone in the corner, pick up the phone, press a button, and presto a secret door opens in the back wall of the phone both to reveal a classy bar behind. The bar (whose name I will keep secret at their request) has classic cocktails, and even a few drinks that use raw egg (which were rich and creamy!)

On menu they offered some of their hot dogs, prepared with special touches from other trendy new york restaurants. One that jumped off the page at me was a kimchi dog with homemade kimchi from Momofuku, the popular noodle joint in the lower east side. The dog I settled on (pictured above) had a treat from the famous molecular gastronomy restaurant WD-50! It was a deep fried dog side by side with a deep fried mayo breaded in hot dog bun. This was by far the best hot dog I have ever had. (Sorry Nathans cony island!)

December 9th, 2008 by John (Cho-Tabetai)