Price Check

Jumbo Hot Dog Raises Prices, Shatters Our Worldview

Photo: Daniel Maurer

We hate to do this to you when you’re still reeling from the blow of a T.G.I. Friday’s opening in Union Square, but another tragedy is upon us: Jumbo Hot Dog, the takeout window serving quarter-pound, six-inch franks at 149 Canal Street, near the Fung Wah bus, has raised its price from 92 cents plus tax to $1.25 (relish or sauerkraut, as usual, are 25 cents extra). This is easily the most troublesome wiener news since Gray’s raised its prices, and the most worrisome news coming out of Chinatown since bánh mì prices inched up. Jumbo Hot Dog always seemed too good to be true — a tube steak twice the size of a normal hot dog and half as expensive, served on a Martin’s bun. It always seemed to us that the powers that be kept the price at 92 cents only to thumb their noses at this wildly overpriced city — and for that they were heroes. Now, alas, an era has ended. Although it’s still a pretty good deal. (Monsieur Ripert: Let this be evidence that people do remember a bargain.)

Jumbo Hot Dog Raises Prices, Shatters Our Worldview