In a sea of strange food and even stranger attendees, Rolling Stone magazine called the Sumo Dog “The Best Footlong Meal” at Indio’s Coachella music festival.
Though that could be considered faint praise, chef Jeffrey Lunak’s wildly creative DIY hot dogs — loaded with everything from chili to furikake (a dry Japanese condiment) to togarashi cheese — have also been clocked by Vogue and online trendsetting website Thrillist.
In February, Lunak and Sumo Dog will arrive at Napa’s Oxbow Market — buns and relish in tow.
The curated menu is focused on four kinds of “dogs” — an Angus beef frank, pork sausage, a hamburger-style dog with ground beef, and a vegan dog.
Purists can go “Traditional Style” with usual suspect add-ons like sauerkraut and spicy mustard; chili, minced onion, togarashi (a Japanese chili seasoning) and cheese sauce; or Windy City-style with relish, tomato, pickle, peppers and celery salt.
I’m more fascinated by Sumo Dog’s “Signature Style” options, which include a breaded and fried dog with miso mustard coleslaw, tonkatsu sauce and furikake; the bacon-wrapped dog with daikon and carrot slaw with lime and spicy mayo; and the megalithic foot-long Godzilla dog with chili, cheese sauce, wasabi relish, spicy mayo, furikake and teriyaki sauce.
The Sumo Dog pop-up is part of Oxbow’s chef-in-residency program that introduces locals to unique dining concepts from chefs testing the waters of the Napa Valley market. The residency is also a return for chef Lunak, the opening chef at Masaharu Morimoto’s namesake restaurant in Napa.
Sumo Dog has existing locations at Yankee Stadium in New York and appears at numerous events, including Coachella, Comic-Con and TwitchCon.
You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.
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