A Shock to the System
A Pilgrimage to a Hot Dog Icon Becomes a Rhode Island Hot Wiener Crawl.
We are now half way through Hot Dog Week at The Mix!
All this week we are posting hot dog content and nothing but, all the better to get everyone in that Summertime mood. Today’s stop: Rhode Island!
The news came down one cold February day. Baba’s Original New York System, a hot dog joint in business in Rhode Island for nearly a century, was in danger of closing.
I texted Mary Kate. We had just returned from a food-and-drink tour of Baltimore. But our course of action seemed clear to me. “Looks like we’re going to Providence this weekend,” I wrote. She texted back, “Yes.”
Rhode Island is one of the nation’s great hot dog states, with its own way of doing things, and there are multiple outlets executing that style at a high level. And yet, for some reason, I’ve always approached the city with blinkers on, visiting only its most famous hot dog destination: Olneyville’s New York System. I don’t think I’m alone. Olneyville is one-stop hot-dog shopping for most visitors to The Ocean State. It has the greatest name recognition.
I always assumed Olneyville was also the oldest hot dogger in Providence. But I was wrong. Baba’s, which is also called simply the Original New York System, beats it by a couple decades. (Fun fact: David Byrne of The Talking Heads worked here briefly in the 1970s.)