The world famous Superdawg drive-in at the corner of Devon and Milwaukee in the far northwest side of Chicago has been serving up hot dogs - no, wait - "Superdawgs" since 1948.
Superdawg was started by Maurie Berman, a World War II veteran who was studying to be an accountant at Northwestern University, and his wife, Florence, who had married Maurie a year prior. Maurie and "Flaurie" wanted to have a summer business, something to occupy their time during the summer vacation season.
Maurie designed a little building and put two distinctive hot dogs on the top of the place. He called it "Superdawg" as there was a proliferation of cartoon "superheroes" at that time. Superdawg opened in May of 1948 with car hops going out to the cars to take orders.
It wasn't until the early to mid-50's when two way communications for order taking had been invented and Maurie immediately installed a system at Superdawg. Calling his two way system "Car Hop on a Wire", Superdawg began to grow tremendously. What had started out as a part time thing to pass the summer months for Maurie (who had long since passed his CPA exam) and Flaurie, turned into a thriving year round business.
The trademark greeting of "Hiya! Thanks for stopping!" is the first thing you hear from the Superdawg people when you hit the order button. Each Superdawg comes in a box with an order of Superfries that aren't bad, but the hot dog is pretty damn good. They serve the Superdawg "Chicago style" (of course) but instead of a red tomato wedge, they have a small green tomato wedge. It's a nice twist on the traditional Chicago hot dog.
You can still eat in your car, or you can go in and eat in a somewhat cozy dining area in the building. It's still fun to order up a hot dog and fries and have it in your car.
Maurie, Flaurie and their children have been serving Superdawg's (made with secret preparations) for over 50 years. It's not a hot dog, it's not a wiener, it's not a frankfurter, it's not a red hot.
It's a Superdawg, and make no mistake about that.
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