Entries associated with the tag "Vienna Beef":

My profile on Vienna Beef veep Bob Schwartz a few weeks back prompted a representative of a local law firm to point out that the venerable hot dog concern has just settled a class-action lawsuit accusing it of falsely advertising its natural-casing hot dogs as "100% beef" or "pure beef." Seems that a handful of hot dog eaters who keep kosher (or maybe not--the complaint isn't explicitly clear) discovered that Vienna uses sheep casings and sometimes hog casings on some of its sausages. Lance A. Raphael and the Consumer Advocacy Center to the rescue. The Chicago firm filed a suit accusing Vienna of "misleading advertising and marketing of its 'natural casing' products," and in July Vienna settled.

The punishment? Vienna now must disclose what the casings are made from, take down any old signs and posters claiming pure beef, and are on the hook for $300,000. Aggrieved parties who want a piece of that can submit a claim for $3 for every "Natural Casing Product" consumed since July 2003. Who's eligible?

"All consumers residing in the United States (including the District of Columbia, territories and possessions) who have consumed and/or purchased any Vienna Beef Natural Casing Products and a) did not know that the casing on the Natural Casing Product consisted of pork/hog or sheep intestine and b) would not have consumed and/or purchased the National Casing Product if they had known the product’s casing consisted of pork/hog or sheep intestine."

Claimants must consult their meticulously detailed dog logs and provide the quantity, location, and approximate date of purchase of the offending sausages.

Vienna president Howard Eirinberg wouldn't tell me why they settled, but he did have this to say:

"Vienna Beef has resolved the lawsuit about its natural-casing products. Nonetheless, because our customers are our first and foremost concern, and in the event someone could have misunderstood the nature of our products, we have modified our Web site and marketing information to make Vienna Beef’s product content even more clear."

CAC, for its part, quoted Pulp Fiction to support evidence that some people have strong feelings about pork avoidance.

This week in Omnivorous I profiled Vienna Beef VP Bob Schwartz, whose new book Never Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog is a warm and fuzzy history of classic Chicago hot dog stands. Schwartz is a gregarious and funny guy--that's his license plate in the photo--and despite his book's provocative title (provocative to outsiders anyway) it is fairly good natured when it comes to the raging controversies that flare up from time to time when debating hot dogma. If you don't know what I'm talking about check out the minor shitstorm that broke when contributor David Hammond dared to slag Jimmy's Red Hots. Hey, you guys are friends! (But for the record, I wondered what Hammond was smoking too.)

I bring this up because that distinguished Investigator of South Side Culinary Oddities Peter Engler referred me to a few old newspaper clips during my research that challenge some of the conventional wisdom passed down through the ages about the origins of the "Depression sandwich." For one thing the legend of Fluky's founder Abe Drexler pioneering what we know today as the Chicago hot dog "dragged through the garden" seems somewhat flawed given this passage by Charles Leroux from the Tribune of May 17, 1975:

There are a half-dozen or so hot dog stands that have grown into shrines to the Chicago-style pup—steamed poppy-seed bun; big slices of tomato, pickle, etc. One of these is Fluky's, 6749 N. Western Av. There, under a three-story revolving hot dog sign, you can sit in the spacious parking lot and have a dog (50 cents, 89 cents for a double) with the works (mustard, catsup, relish, onion, pickle, hot peppers, tomato slices).  

That's right--"the works" at Fluky's at one time included "catsup."

I come from a land where it is perfectly acceptable to dress franks with ketchup, but I really don't have a dog in this fight. I only point it out--with apologies to Schwartz--to suggest that the wiener police ought to take a deep breath and concentrate on their own condiments.

We have 20 other hot dog joints in the listings, orthodox and reformed.