The ‘Seattle Dog’ is a nationally recognized hot dog combo. What about a ‘Spokane Dog’?

The Chicago dog, the New York dog, the Sonoran dog, the Detroit dog, the Seattle dog.

There’s a collection of well-known, regional spins on the classic hot dog, each boasting toppings that nod to the local culture and history of their namesake cities.

The Seattle dog, smeared with cream cheese and buried in grilled onions and jalapenos, was just dubbed the best regional glizzy among eight contenders by the New York Times.

The title brings national attention to the Western Washington invention from the 1980s, but what about Spokane?

There’s no question that Spokane is a “hot dog city,” said hot dog slinger Bob Hetnar, owner of the cart Spokane Dogs that he regularly parks outside of Boo Radley’s in downtown Spokane. When he set out to open his cart in 2013, that question rattled around Hetnar’s mind.

“How can you not have a Spokane dog in Spokane?” he said.

He searched the internet for recipes to add to his menu, which produced “thousands and thousands” of options, he said, from the simple boiled dog with mustard to refined takes, like with caviar.

Famous regional specialties also came up in his search, several of which he added to his menu among 10 dog offerings loaded with toppings. The first item on his menu is the “Spokane dog” of his own creation, finding no recipes in his search.

The Hetnar Spokane dog comes with his standard 100% beef hot dog topped with a cabbage coleslaw and a generous sprinkle of bacon bits.

The toppings don’t really have much to do with the Lilac City, he admitted. He found mayo to be a popular condiment that he’d never considered serving, so he added a mayo-based coleslaw to moisten the dog. The bacon entered the picture because, “who doesn’t like bacon?”

The dog is “relatively popular,” he said, though it’s not his best selling.

“What’s funny is the Spokane dog is mostly served to people not from Spokane,” he said, describing tourists stopping for what he intends to be a taste to represent Spokane.

Rodrigo Rodriguez stopped to buy a dog on his lunch break on Thursday. Like he’s done probably 50 times, he ordered the Spokane dog.

Asked if he thinks the wiener represents the city, Rodriguez said it depends on the person. Coleslaw is a controversial food with its die-hard fans and adamant detractors. Rodriguez is the former.

“The coleslaw, it’s the best,” he said when asked what keeps him coming back for more Spokane dogs.

Much like the cabbage-based side, Spokane is also a “ride-or-die” city, said local chef LJ Klinkenberg, an American Academy of Chefs inductee who grew up in the restaurant industry, worked as a private chef for billionaires and now leads the nutrition team at Cheney Public Schools.

The parallels between the moist cabbage dish and the gritty city make it an apt addition to our regional dog, he said.

Asked about what his version of an Eastern Washington dog would entail, Klinkenberg said he had put a lot of thought into it.

“I want to meet people where they’re at always, with food,” he said. “And I want to challenge them, in a way.”

Klinkenberg imagined a recipe with wide appeal to even the most un-adventurous palates in Spokane, with ingredients that reference Eastern Washington. It’s meant to inspire “camaraderie about what a dog should be,” much like the die-hard unity around a classic Chicago -style dog that’s been “dragged through the garden,” as the locals say.

For the Klinkenberg Spokane dog, he’d start with a signature bun from Costco Wholesale, a Washington-based company that he fondly recalled shopping at in the original Seattle location as a kid. The dog, bun and price at $1.50 famously hasn’t changed in those years.

“That bun is embedded in the brains of Washingtonians of being what a hot dog bun should be,” he said.

For the dog itself, he’d opt for a classic kielbasa-style sausage cut down the middle and grilled. Proposed toppings also hearken to an elevated Costco-style dog with an Eastern Washington spin. He’d add a hearty pile of raw Walla Walla sweet onions, plus a mustard made from seeds grown east of the Cascades. He’d finish it off with a “rich” complex fry sauce of mayo and ketchup, elevated with white pepper and onion powder.

“You got this pop of the onions with the crunch, you’ve got this umami with this little sour, roundness of the mustard, you got that bun that holds all those flavors in there, and texturally it holds true,” Klinkenberg said.

Finally, he’d top it all off with a crumble of Tim’s Cascade Style Potato Chips, founded in Auburn. He would opt for sauerkraut to finish it off, but acknowledged the fermented cabbage dish isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Klinkenberg was born in Seattle and has lived across the country, but considers Cheney his hometown, having moved there as a kid while his family opened a restaurant. He sees the region evolving, both in culinary offerings and in residents’ taste buds, he said.

“We’re not necessarily a ‘food town,’ but I think that as we evolve as a city, you’re going to see that change,” he said. “We’ve got some great, talented chefs, we’ve got some restaurateurs that are doing cool stuff. I love the hot dog carts and the food trucks.”

One such restaurateur also has visions for what a Spokane dog could entail, visions that could hit the menu of her food trailer as soon as the end of summer, she said.

Jenny Slagle, owner of Indigenous Eats, alluded to a classic “Rez” dog known to many who live on reservations. It’s a lot like a corn dog, only wrapped in frybread, which gives it a much fluffier, thicker consistency, she said.

Indigenous Eats already offers burgers and sandwiches using frybread instead of buns. Slagle, who serves as the president of the Spokane School Board, said an open-faced hot dog cradled by frybread could soon be a menu item. That, she said, would be a fitting Spokane dog given its nod to a beloved food in Indigenous communities.

“We get asked a lot whether or not that could be an option later, or if it’s something that we could add to our menu, mainly obviously from our Native community members,” she said.

The slew of hot dog carts and sit-down eateries offer varied versions of what the Lilac City’s signature wiener could entail. With no dog that has caught on nationally, the floor is open.

Klinkenberg, a fan of the New York Times-recognized Seattle dog, relished the opportunity to imagine a sibling Spokane dog.

“Washington state is so eclectic on their food,” the chef said. “I’m so damn proud of the fact that Washington gets so many different aspects of what we get to do.”

Elena Perry can be reached at 509-459-5270 or by email at elenap@spokesman.com.