Columbus Clippers: Sloppy Dog

A combination of minor league all-star games and team schedules landed me in the only option I had this day to catch a game: Columbus Ohio. I am glad that it did. Huntington Park is one of the nicest minor league parks I have visited. It is in a great location in downtown Columbus and espouses a nice merge of modern and vintage ballpark vibes. I love the four-sided, open air concession stands, and it was the concessions workers that steered me toward the Clipper’s ginormous specialty dog offering: The Sloppy Dog.

Dog is misleading. It should be dogs...as in plural. This culinary colossus consists of two regular-size dogs topped with a large portion of french fries and then smothered with sloppy-joe style chili and then covered in nacho cheese. When finished, you cannot see the hot dogs due to all the other food piled on top. Wow.

Appeal-a catchy concept that makes you want to sample it. 5

Ingredients-not bad, but teams are over doing the nacho cheese thing. This dog included. 4

Uniqueness-using two regular dogs to beef up (pun intended) this hot dog conception is pure genius. 5

Monstrosity Factor-I can tackle some pretty big dogs. This is a LARGE meal. I could only get about 75% of it down. 5

Value-this is a two-person meal. For $9 that means it is $4.50 a person for a good ballpark snack, and that is the ONLY thing both fans will be eating for the evening. A great deal. 5

Overall Taste-I would recommend going a little easier on the nacho cheese. The Clippers also use Sugardale franks. They are ok, but the taste suffered. I would have gladly paid an extra dollar to get the same meal with Hebrew National franks. And the dog would have gotten top score in this category. 4

APPEAL	5
INGREDIENTS	4
UNIQUENESS	5
MONSTROSITY FACTOR	5
VALUE	5
OVERALL TASTE	4
TOTAL	28

An overall score of 28 means the Sloppy Dog is must have when at a Clippers game. Plus, you get to eat it in one cool ballpark. Great job coming up with a unique dog that even your intrepid Hot Dog Explorer could not slay.