Hot Dog Tower and Yap?

In this economy, the pricey seafood tower has given way to way to the hot dog tower

For Trina’s Starlite Lounge, the longstanding bar in Somerville, Massachusetts, 2024 was financially “pretty rough.” And then the election happened. “We felt a little stuck,” says co-owner Emma Hollander. They’d been serving hot dogs, fried chicken sandwiches, and other Southern-inflected bar foods for 15 years. Enter the hot dog tower, a two-tiered assortment of five hot dogs, fries, and sauce that joined the menu in January. It’s served on branded Miller High Life trays, with hot dogs fanned out like a starburst. Visually, it has a playful appeal that fits in with the bar that’s known for its statements spelled out in childlike magnet letters on a fridge.

What began as an easy way to breathe new life into the haunt has become a popular order. Trina’s now sells 40 hot dog towers, which start at $35, in a night — some as casual snacks for big groups, others as the centerpiece of celebrations. The concept fit into the menu of American comfort food that people loved at Trina’s, and since hot dogs and fries were already two of the bar’s best-selling items, the new addition didn’t give the kitchen extra work. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Hollander says. “But we really wanted to do something fun.”

Highroller Lobster Co.

As at Trina’s, the hot dog tower at Highroller Lobster Co. in Portland, Maine is a strategic addition. Hot dogs have always been second to lobster rolls on the menu, and since the restaurant also serves seafood towers, the hot dog tower, which it also launched in January, was “a fun way to repurpose some of the stuff we already had and use,” says co-owner Baxter Kay. It features six corn dogs in addition to six hot dogs, fries, and sauce. While visitors from out of town gravitate toward lobster rolls, locals tend to lean more toward hot dogs and corn dogs, he explains.

The rise of the hot dog tower, which is an undeniably unserious idea, is further proof of what my colleague Jaya Saxena has dubbed “LOLfood”: that in times of crisis and instability, diners revert to food that doesn’t require thinking too hard. It’s food that draws on the most basic familiarity and cheap thrill — make Goldfish extra-large, serve a tower of hot dogs. “Everybody, post-election, was really looking for something that made them happy,” Hollander says.

Around the country, the hot dog tower is doing just that. Charleston’s Sir Wieners, which serves hot dogs at Lamar’s Sporting Club, popularized the concept when it launched its “wiener tower” in September. The three-tiered hot dog tower features all five of its specialty hot dogs — including a chili cheese “Dumpster Dog” and peanut butter- and bacon-topped “PB Wiener Time” — served with truffle fries and a selection of sauces.

The concept was all but guaranteed to become a social media sensation: Like a bottle of pricey booze, Sir Wieners’ tower is brought to the table by servers wielding sparklers. “We wanted something that would capture on social media very well and that would potentially go trending — which it did,” says Sir Wieners owner TJ Dinch. One video of the tower has picked up nearly 8 million views on Instagram since October.

In Newport, Rhode Island, Wally’s Wieners serves a hot dog tower in addition to other stunt-y offerings like a giant espresso martini and an espresso martini tree; a video featuring all three bears the caption “this and yap.” It’s food for the TikTok age: ready to star in a video.

But it’s also food that speaks to diners stressed out by a constant influx of devastating news and, increasingly, financial worries. It’s easier to ball out with a hot dog tower than to splurge on a seafood version, especially when the latter can still leave one hungry. At Highroller, six hot dogs, six corn dogs, fries, and sauce is $75, compared to the $105 seafood tower. At Sir Wieners, five specialty hot dogs, fries, and sauce rings in at $60. (Caviar service at Lamar’s runs $99, and the “bumps and bubbles?” That’s market price.) At Trina’s, $35 is the base price, though swapping in loaded hot dogs or veggie dogs adds an upcharge.

Even when loaded, these tend to be relatively basic dogs, not especially bougie ones. Trina’s uses local ones from Kayem — makers of the Fenway Franks — and Highroller opts for red snappers from local Shields Meats.

For Dinch, the hot dog tower is about taking “something that usually isn’t looked at as an elevated food [and] making it more of a high-end product” by “presenting it like it’s a VIP experience with sparklers and your own personal server.” Served in the high-energy cocktail lounge and sometimes paired with Champagne, “it’s definitely an elevated experience,” he says.

Despite the initial intentions, the hot dog tower has resulted in extra work for one Trina’s employee. While Hollander had pitched it using “those cupcake towers that you see at every thrift shop,” co-owner Josh Childs vetoed them, arguing that he could build better ones. And so he did, turning Miller High Life-branded drink trays into sturdy towers with industrial metal handles. The bar started with three and that quickly escalated into five. “And now he’s making three more,” Hollander says.

In a busy bar or restaurant, the hot dog tower has the same effect as sizzling fajitas and espresso martinis: It’s hard to not feel tempted. According to Hollander, “When you bring it out, people are like, What’s that? I want one.”