Yum Yum's: World's Best Hotdog

The memory of loving a hotdog is kind of like that of a charming but alcoholic ex-spouse. Sure, you know they were bad for you, but O When Things Were Good, They Were Great.

So it is with the all-the-way dog at Yum Yum, the ice cream and hotdog joint on Spring Garden Road in the College Hill section of Greensboro, NC.  I spent six years growing up just a few blocks away in the 1970s, and a Yum Yum dog with an RC Cola remains one of the most pure memories from my childhood.

Here's why they're different -- and for my money, better -- than any other hotdog on the planet: The Yum Yum all-the-way is a fusion of dog, chili, slaw, onion AND BUN into an enigmatic culinary unity, an elemental combination inexplicable by deconstruction into its original component parts. It comes wrapped in plain paper, two to a white paper bag, and each sells for just $1.50.

And so far as I can tell, the only thing that has changed about this meal is the RC Cola. Today it comes in a plastic bottle instead of a glass one.

The world outside the cinderblock interior has changed greatly. UNC-Greensboro's campus now sprawls all around Yum Yum, and sometime back in the 1990s the city did some serious curb-appeal remodeling of Spring Garden, replacing its bleached out concrete with new-urbanist brick streetscaping. Yum Yums was unfazed by these improvements and retained its stolid, predictably ugly appearance -- a wise move, considering that homeliness is practically the shop's branding strategy.

I smelled it before I saw it: a dense, seductive haze of onion and steamed bun that hung at the intersection, beckoning pedestrians and motorists like an olfactory siren: hotdog... hotdog... hotdog...

The decor is nothing to speak of, and the design work on bags and T-shirts and gimme caps is unintentionally retro. White cinderblock walls. Press-letter menu boards that haven't changed since I moved away from the Greensboro area 25 years ago. Cash only.

The service is neutral at best, with a reputation for being occasionally surly and combative. I remember going in for a dog and watching the guys behind the counter assemble my order without ever interrupting the argument they were having before I walked in. But on this Monday I got a friendly guy who didn't even mind my stammering as I looked for RC on the board.

Janet took pictures while I waited at the counter: faded old promos for the joint's excellent, made-on-the-premises ice cream, leftover fonts and appliances from other eras, signs and gumball machines, black and white photographs and laminated newspaper clippings. But my mind was on the hotdog coming together on the board.

This is what struck me about six weeks ago: Of all the things I remember from growing up, the only thing for which I have never found a comparable or better iteration is the Yum Yum all-the-way. Not in Germany, where they serve fantastic wursts on hard rolls, not in New York, Washington or even Chicago, where they serve them with with long pickle spears. And as soon as I realized this I craved one. Getting a Yum Yum dog became the secret focus of our trip to Greensboro for ConvergeSouth.

But would it be as good as I remembered? So many of my memories are counterfeits: girls who aren't as pretty in pictures as they were in my mind, big houses that shrink as soon as I look at them with adult eyes. Would it turn to dust in my hand, choke me, leave me bitter?

At first glance it's not promising. The wiener itself is dyed an artificial red that practically glows with toxic malice. The steamed bun is as wrinkled as a shar-pei, and the combination of all the ingredients is heavy and ... moist.  The onion smell is almost strong enough to make my eyes water. Janet refuses the one I bought for her. "I'm not eating one of those things," she said. "We just ate breakfast."

And so... there is nothing left to do but eat. The first bite.

Heaven.

You know, sometimes there's a whole lot of history in a hotdog:

A girl I liked in junior high who could match me dog for dog... scraping together change to get something to eat on the way home from track practice... lugging an enormous trombone case through the straps on a backpack, turning sideways to get through the door... summer days when we'd go for ice cream... high school days when we'd stop by after hustling pickup basketball games for a Lincoln... 

And it was all good. Every memory, every humiliation, every heartbreak.

I left Greensboro with mixed feelings in 1981 and spent a few last months driving a cab there in 1984 before I headed out for good. My family moved away while I was overseas and I've rarely returned since. Much of what I remember isn't pleasant.

But Yum Yum is, and it's just as good as it ever was. Because the best hotdog in the world is the one you remember fondly.

*It's even better when you're there with a date...

Comments

[DeweyS]

IIRC they also sold foot long rubber-bands that could go from the furthest point of your outstretched finger back past your ear and seriously zing the kid next to you -- probably several times until a teacher took it away.

I was never sure why they sold these, but they did. The ice cream was pretty damn good, too. I never tried taking a date there -- must have been something about being 9 years old...

[Dawn Adams]

Maybe its just us three that have fond memories of Yum Yum's. To me Daniel, it is the memory of the times I went there, not so much as the memory of that hot dog tasting so good.

But I must confess, on the few instances that I've returned to Greensboro in the past few years, I always make a stop there as well.

But to my mind, it was the ice cream that was better than anything else.

Since I'm the only one of the three of us who actually attended UNC-Greensboro, and spent a hell of a lot of time in the Math Building across the street, I'll have to tell you, that only on a very rare occassion indeed while I was in college did I ever go to Yum Yum's.

It was all the times when we were little that I remember the most.And while I have very little to remember about our childhoods with such fond memories, this is one of them. And walking into the place just made you feel like walking into Mayberry. A little home town place in a big (or at least bigger) city.

I actually teach with a woman who attended UNC-G when we were just those little tykes bouncing around the Corner, or Yum Yum's, (I often wonder how many times we crossed paths and will never know.) She too remembers that wonderful little establishment with fond memories. It's just one of those things.

I remember bouncing down to the Corner to pick up packs of baseball cards with the slick piece of bubble gum in it. Boy was I always thrilled. But then, I knew NOTHING about baseball then, or the players. It was just such a cool thing to do as a young 'un.

[Danielle]

I read your post on Yum Yum's and I laughed so hard! I have worked at Yum Yum's for about 7 months and it cracked me up when you said the bit about,"The service is neutral at best, with a reputation for being occasionally surly and combative." I know exactly what you mean....especially on Saturday's. Sometiems when its not so busy, we even ask the customers what they think on the topic....its just a lot of fun and everyone having a good time. It keeps the mood up when we are working the long shift on Saturday's! I am glad you liked our hotdogs!

[big t]

Just stumbled across the article.

An excellent description of their hot dogs.

My wife has worked there for about 20 years now. It took me the first 10 years of dating and marriage before I even LIKED their hotdogs. Now, I love them.

I'm still amazed at the number of people that cram into that little space to place their orders each day.

And I'm always a little in awe at how my wife can balance so many hotdogs on her arm while calculating in her head the total of an order. Imagine if someone came up to you and asked for 2 all the way, 1 no onion, 2 slaw dogs, a cone of ice cream, a cheerwine and a bag of chips and you had to not only remember their order but calculate how much it costs in your head? Amazing.

[Lisa Hubbard]

Just stumbled across this webpage today! I grew up in a beautiful old home at the corner of Stirling Street and Walker Avenue right across the street the International House" of UNC-G. My memories are very fond. My sister, Cheryl and I went to school at Curry as did our mom, aunt and uncle. We walked to school every day...no, not in the snow and not all the way uphill both ways. We would stop at Yum's Yum's every day at it's original location and put a penny in the gumball machine. If we got a speckled gumball, we got a FREE ice cream cone! What a treat! Our grandfather, Pa-Paw, would walk with us after supper most nights for a "cone of cream". Very special memories for me. It was so sad the day we had to sell the house to UNC-G but growth was inevitable, I suppose, and that meant they needed our property and so we had to move. I still, 48 years later, go to Yum-Yum's. In fact, a friend of mine at work just left to get us hotdogs, chips and ice cream! I can taste it...AND SMELL IT...already!!

[Mark Hinson]

I LOVE Yum Yum Hotdogs!!!!! I live on the outer-banks of NC and soon I will be passing through greensboro, so you know where I'm stopping, at Yum Yum's. I eat 5 hotdogs there one day, I was stuffed but it was GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!