A few years back, a little fast food place opened here north of Detroit, Michigan. It was called Loaded Links. Basically, it was a high-end hot-dog and circus food place. They had all sorts of options on the menu. For instance, there was the Millionaire’s Dog, which had a Wagyu steak dog with fois gras and truffle sauce. They also had menu items with names like Windy City Dog or New York-Style, etc. I went through trying all of the variations. My wife had been getting the Reuben Dog with a few small alterations. I believe it normally came with an all-beef hot dog, and she would substitute a Polish sausage, instead. She would also get it without pastrami. Now, I thought pastrami was kind of an odd innovation. Corned beef, yes. Pastrami? Eh. So, I didn’t try the Reuben Dog until we had been there at least ten times. And I was very pleasantly surprised. It was without a doubt the best thing on their menu. A week later, I was jonesing for that Reuben Dog. We headed over there, and…they were closed. They had a note saying that they were moving and would be at a new location in the spring. And then CoViD-19 appeared. Loaded Links has not yet reappeared if it will. And I’ve been jonesing for another Reuben Dog.

Oh, I have had Reubens since then. Given my conditions, they have to be naked, no bread. Likewise, Loaded Links had an option to serve the hot dogs in a gluten-free corn tortilla, which is how I had been eating them there. But those naked Reubens weren’t quite the same.