Friday, March 09, 2007
Funny Food in Fayetteville
| I have been going to Fayetteville, NC for almost 10 years to watch hockey games. Most of those trips my parents would drive in from the coast to meet me. One February weekend Fayetteville happened to have been hit with a "blizzard" of about 5 or 6 inches of snow. All I had with my were shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. Normally that would be bad. But since in those days I was going to hockey games 3 nights a week dressed like that, trudging around in the snow in shorts and sandals was fine with me. My mother, however, was not at all happy with that arrangement, and I still hear about it on occasion. In all those years of going to Fayetteville, on the drive from the hotel to the Crown Coliseum (now called the Crown Center) I would pass a restaurant that never failed to make me giggle.  (Click the picture for a better view) I arrived in fayetteville very early, and well ahead of my parents. I tried to check into the hotel but was told the room wouldn't be ready. It wouldn't be ready for 4 more hours! I tried to restrain my disbelief that they had NO rooms in the hotel that would be ready for 4 hours. With time to kill, and an empty stomach, I made the judgement call. It was Weenie Time! Once I got inside, I looked over the menu. Not very extensive, but lots of great selections. I went with the Footlong chili cheese dog combo.  Now the funny thing is, once my parents arrived we began to make dinner plans. Out of nowhere, my father suggested we go to "that hot dog place." Great minds think alike! Or perhaps this was like father like son. I don't which rule applies, but I was up for a second trip. I got the same order as I had for lunch. My parents each got the 2 chili dog and a Coke combo (for like $1.99) and split an order of onion rings. My father also got an apple pie to go. I was so impressed with the place that once I got home I started to look it up on the web. From what I can put together, there are only Wiener Works in Fayetteville, NC and in Danville, IL. Obviously this is a chain, but it was unclear how a "chain" could form in two cities so far apart. A little more research (sadly I have lost the link) shows there used to be a chain called something like Wiener King that fell apart, and some of the stores combined together to form Wiener Works. At one point they were in 3 cities, but only Fayetteville an Danville are left. I don't know the other town. There is a Wiener Works in California but it appears to be completely different. The Wiener Works websites have roughly the same look and feel, and almost identical addresses. But oddly enough they both portray themselves as the original store. Only by looking close can you figure out that Fayetteville probably came first. The Danville site has more stuff on it, including commercial sound clips (quite funny). But the number one thing I wanted was a cool T-shirt or a hat. Well the Fayettevlle store has T-shirtys at the unbelievable price of $6.99!! On closer inspection they only list them in Small or Medium (I am an XL). The Danville store has a wider selection but their shirts are $10 and only come in navy or orange. Orange is not a good color on me. I may be placing a call here in the next few days to see if I can snag a bigger shirt from the Fayetteville store. Or maybe I'll wait til the next time I am up that way (probably around July). The hockey game was another display of poor team play and miserable defense. But even watching bad hockey is better than watching basketball!  |
