Athens, Ohio:

Home of Ohio University but more importantly home of Casa Nueva (a hippie, employee owned, vegetarian friendly, local and organic produce oriented, restaurant with a nice bar), the Burrito Buggy (Hippie operated Burrito cart for drunk college students), and O’Betty’s - the perfect Hot Dog / Bratwurst shop.

O’Betty’s (Ohhh.. Betty’s… mmm)
15 West State Street
Athens, OH
740 589 6111

 Monday - Saturday 11 AM - 3AM;

Sunday 12 PM - 8 PM

O’Betty’s Red Hot Dogs and Sausages

Oh, O’Betty’s. The shop has won the dining hearts in Athens since it opened in 2003 and has been voted best Hot Dog each year since 2004. The theme of the place involves hot dogs named after various striptease and pin up models from the first half of the 20th century.

The hot dogs are 5 Star all beef dogs with a natural casing (one of the best commerically available hot dogs in the country). There are tweleve “varietease” of dogs including a create your own style and tofu dog for vegetarians . If you want a Chicago style dog - go with the Salome - “Dance of the 7 Veils” - sport peppers, sweet relish, pickle spear, diced tomatoes, diced onion, Stadium Mustard, and celery seed. Any kind of topping you can think of is available as well as salsas from Casa Nueva, baked beans, mushrooms, and on occasion, toppings such as corn relish and pepperjack cheese.

My current favorite is a bratwurst - The Sophie - a Sheyboygan Brat with diced jalapenos, mustard, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, fresh chopped parsley on a toasted, crusty french style roll. Yum.

The Fresh Cut fries - are perfect.

The dine in area accomodates about 10 people, most people do carry out. On a Friday or Saturday night expect long lines of college students outside O’Betty’s waiting for their chance to get the perfect hangover food. My favorite memory is, (at about 2 AM) getting the third to last dog and the last order of fries after seeing the Dirtbombs in 2005.

Another bonus of O’Betty’s - the mini in-house Hot Dog History Museum / Weiner Hall of Fame.

This is a mandatory stop when in Athens.

Owners Bob Satmary and Ryan Stolz enjoy what they do and clearly put service and fun first for the business. They are always chatting it up with their friends/customers. And they like to mix things up as well. In the winter - expect some tasty soups to keep warm and all year long expect special hot dog combos to keep things hopping (last one I experienced was a Mango BBQ sauce dog with bacon - yum!).

If you happen to be in town in early August - you may want ask about the Hot Dog Derby and Hot Dog Eating Contest - two local events that are not to be missed.

If you want to win that hot dog contest - plan on eating over a dozen of these.