Hot Dogs and Ice Cream, All Grown Up

	The Frank Dog, A Beefy Classic
	Photo: LetsBeFrankDogs.com

Summer's certainly the time for dining al fresco, although it need not be at a fancy cafe table or on a linen picnic blanket. Indeed, some of the season's finest offerings can be eaten out of hand: a hot dog and an ice-cream cone.

Food snobs, put those noses back down: The latest offerings in both these worlds are increasingly upscale, organic and lovingly hand-crafted.

Americans eat almost $2 billion worth of hot dogs a year. However, in the past four years sales of packaged organic hot dogs have increased sharply. Although they've been around for at least a decade, this new breed of dogs tastes better.

And they're better for you -- instead of relying on sodium nitrates for color, texture and shelf life, organic hot dog makers substitute celery juice, lactic acid and sea salt.

The amount of packaged hot dogs sold has dropped by more than 6% over the past four years, to 772.4 million pounds from 825.8 million pounds. Organic dogs, although still a tiny slice of the market, have boomed -- during the same period, the number of pounds sold has increased 21% to 1.2 million.

These are boutique dogs, made in smaller batches from nearby herds, in keeping with the local, sustainable food trend as a better economic and social choice than mass-marketed foods.

Stuff Your Buns

When the Giants are playing a home game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Sue Moore and Larry Bain roll out their Let's Be Frank cart ($7 for four dogs). "We make it with pastured beef [from the] 80,000-acre Hearst Ranch in San Simeon, Calif.," explains co-owner Bain, "then stuff it into lamb casings."

Bain knows his ingredients. He formerly worked at Brooklyn's prestigious River Cafe and says he never goes to New York City without visiting the famous Peter Lugar's. "People have 'herd' about us literally, through word of mouth," Bain jokes. "Using local grass-fed beef in a hot dog or a hamburger reduces consumption of fuel in transportation and feed production and helps local ranchers stay in business."

Then there's Niman Ranch ($8 for four dogs) natural meats, which are served in the finest restaurants in the country. This company started nearly 30 years ago in Marin County, Calif., and still raises cattle on the original ranch, but has expanded to sell pork and lamb, too. Niman works with over 300 independent family farmers who raise livestock for the ranch, according to its strict protocols of treating animals humanely, using all-natural feeds and allowing the animals to mature naturally.

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