It started
as four
hot dogs.

The Hot Dog Archive is the private record of a party three friends throw every August on a Brooklyn rooftop. The rule is simple: each year, one regional hot dog from somewhere new — cooked from scratch, eaten, photographed, and filed. This is the index of every one we have made.

How it began

In the summer of 2021, we boiled four hot dogs on a tar-papered roof in Bushwick and made everyone present rank them. The arguing did not stop. It became a tradition by accident — the kind of thing you do once, enjoy too much, and are then obligated to repeat forever.

Each year the scope crept outward: from a Chicago classic and a New York cart dog, to Tokyo, Seoul, São Paulo, Reykjavík; eventually to merguez smoked on a fire escape and a tlayuda folded around a sausage in open defiance of Oaxacan grandmothers. Some are barely hot dogs. We have declared them so regardless.

The archive exists because we kept forgetting what we'd already made. It is, depending on who you ask, a database, a scrapbook, or evidence.

The rules

01One new region per year. No repeats of a region — though a great dog may be re-made.

02Everything from scratch. The bun counts. The pav counts. Especially the pav.

03It is filed, or it did not happen. Photograph, toppings, and a note from the host.

04No ketchup arguments after midnight. (Unobserved to date.)

The Hosts

Daniel S.

Founder, grill

Started it. Insists on neon relish. Wins arguments by eating the evidence.

Chrissy M.

Bun, brine