UPDATE: WiseGuys is opening today at 5 p.m. and WILL be open on Black Friday. Co-owner Bill Nychay told us this afternoon that they received the green light from the powers that be. ... "It was the crazies thing," Nychay said. "He came in and said 'you've got this, this and this and here's your certificate of occupancy.' So we'll be open later today."
[ from earlier Wednesday ] I've been keeping a keen eye on WiseGuys, the Chicago-style eatery coming very soon to the Westview Village Shopping Center at Valley Mills and Waco Drive. They tentatively planned to open this week and even had local crooner Bruce Carbonara scheduled to serenade the opening-day diners.
As of this morning, though, it looks like the opening will happen early next week instead of the Black Friday debut they were hoping to host. (again, I kept these two paragraphs in the blog to demonstrate the serendipitous nature of WiseGuys opening up for business this weekend)
But keeping a keen eye on them did pay dividends for me today as Nychay let me preview the Chicago-style hot dog. I was fresh off breakfast, so I took it to go. Nychay insisted I try the WiseGuys fries as well and wrapped them up on top of the dog. So it was kind of like hot dog-frites.
Since Nychay is a Chicagoan, he was able to explain something I had always wondered about Chicago dogs. I never know what to do with the pickle. The hot dog doesn't seem to want to stay together with a pickle in it. Nychay told me he takes off the pickle after it has dripped its pickle goodness onto the dog. Then he enjoys the two separately.
So there's that, which could definitely alter my view of the Chicago hot dog.
