Dat Dog started in a 475-square-foot shack on Freret Street in 2011, and the sausage list was strange from the beginning.
Alligator is the one people come for. It arrives spicy and coarse, closer to a Cajun smoked link than anything on a ballpark menu. Crawfish and duck sit beside it, along with a full lineup of traditional and vegetarian options for anyone who wants a normal lunch. The toppings are where the kitchen turns the whole thing loose, with combinations numbering into the dozens and no real limit on how many go on one bun.
Growth came fast. Within five years the company had crossed Freret Street into a renovated gas station and opened on Magazine Street, on Frenchmen Street, and in Lakeside Mall out in Metairie. The footprint has contracted since, and the three current New Orleans locations each carry a different neighborhood personality.
Magazine Street is the one that fits an afternoon outdoors. The store sits at 3336 Magazine in the Irish Channel, on a stretch known for miles of shopping, with outdoor seating under trees and a pace that works for families. Anyone walking the shopping corridor will pass it without trying.
Frenchmen Street runs on different energy. That location sits at 601 Frenchmen in the Marigny, in the middle of the music strip, and its balcony is one of the better perches in the neighborhood for watching the street work itself up. Dogs and daiquiris both get served up there, and the crowd stays mixed between locals and visitors well past dark.
The original on Freret is closed at the moment. The company shut the 5030 Freret store on May 26 for what it is calling a glow up and says it will reopen at the end of the summer. No firm date has gone up, so check the website before planning around it. Magazine and Frenchmen are running normal hours in the meantime.
Anyone hunting for a Mid-City or Oak Street outpost should adjust. Neither exists. Freret sits Uptown near Tulane and Loyola, Magazine runs through the Irish Channel, and Frenchmen belongs to the Marigny. The Lakeside Mall location in Metairie no longer appears among the company’s stores.
Hours run long by New Orleans counter-service standards. Listed times show 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, which covers a late lunch, a full dinner, and a stop on the way home from a show. The Freret number is (504) 899-6883.
Prices stay low enough that ordering two is reasonable, and most people do. The move is one alligator and one thing you have never tried, split with whoever came along, eaten outside while the street goes by.
