Best Bet: Corn dog

Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo

MICHAEL DONAHUE/The Commercial Appeal The Jalapeño Corn Dog at Sweet Grass Next Door.

Photo by Michael Donahue

MICHAEL DONAHUE/The Commercial Appeal The Jalapeño Corn Dog at Sweet Grass Next Door.

If you want a corn dog, but you don't want to wait until the upcoming Memphis festivals celebrating barbecue, hot wings, crawfish and music, head to Sweet Grass Next Door. Chef owner Ryan Trimm has created the ultimate corn dog, which he sells at lunch on Fridays and whenever Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis Tigers are playing.

"They're Nathan's all-beef quarter-pound franks," Trimm said. "We chop up onions and jalapeños and mix it into the corn batter. It's a wet corn batter. We serve ours with a Carolina barbecue sauce, which is a mustard-based barbecue sauce."

Trimm said he and his wife love corn dogs, but he began selling his jalapeño corn dogs based on something somebody posted on a blog. "A kid from Auburn ... told another kid that everybody from LSU smells like corn dogs."

Trimm believes LSU was playing Arkansas the day he came up with the Sweet Grass Next Door corn dog. "Someone in here made a comment about LSU. So, on the fly we made them and made a big hit. People love them."

Their corn dog, which sells for $8, comes with house potato chips. I wasn't sure if I should just pick it up and eat it, so I asked bartender Drew Wooten. "The first couple of bites, they go for the knife and fork," he said. Then they pick it up and start eating it.

A lot of people split the corn dogs and eat them as appetizers, Wooten added.

The corn dogs are delicious; juicy, flavorful, perfect. I dipped just about every bite into the tangy barbecue sauce.

I noticed Craig Blondis, co-owner of Central BBQ, and his wife, Elizabeth, at the bar. They'd already eaten, but Craig ordered a corn dog to go. "You can wake up at 3 a.m. and microwave it and it's still good," he said."

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