El Paso Has Its Own Unique Way of Making Hot Dogs

El Paso has its own way of doing a lot of things, especially when it comes to food.

We have our own style of rolled tacos, we’ll put green chile on just about anything we can, and somewhere along the way, El Paso looked at the traditional hot dog bun and decided we could do better.

Enter the round hot dog.

And if you grew up in El Paso, there's a good chance you never even stopped to think about how unusual that sounds.

What Exactly Is an El Paso Round Hot Dog?

Despite the name, nobody is making circular hot dogs. Instead, the hot dogs are sliced up and served on a hamburger bun, usually topped with chili beans, mustard, pickles and onions.

And to me, this makes PERFECT, delicious sense!

A hamburger bun gives you more room for the hot dog and all those toppings. You get a little bit of everything in each bite, and you're not trying to keep an overloaded hot dog from falling apart after one bite.

Maybe El Paso didn't make hot dogs weird, maybe we fixed them!

Round Hot Dogs Go Way Beyond Chico's Tacos

Of course, when you mention round hot dogs in El Paso, plenty of people probably immediately think of Chico's Tacos.

But that's where this gets interesting. The round hot dog isn't limited to one famous El Paso restaurant.

You'll find hot dogs on the menu at longtime local burger joint Rosco's Burger Inn, while Frisco Burger offers a double round hot dog with chili beans, mustard, pickles and onions.

And over at Martita's Lunch Box, you'll find a round hot dog with chile beans sitting right there on the menu alongside burgers and other El Paso comfort foods.

When the same unusual style of hot dog keeps popping up at local restaurants around town, it starts feeling less like one restaurant's specialty and more like an El Paso thing.

Somehow Round Hot Dogs Just Make Sense in El Paso

Maybe that's why I never thought twice about round hot dogs.

To someone outside El Paso, cutting up a hot dog and putting it on a hamburger bun might look strange. Around here, you look at it and think, “Well, yeah. Where else are all the chili beans supposed to go?!”

And clearly I'm not the only El Pasoan who thinks it works. The round hot dog has found a home on the menus of several longtime local restaurants, each putting its own little spin on the idea.

El Paso has plenty of foods we're proud to call our own, and maybe it's time we gave the humble round hot dog a little more love.

Because once you realize a hamburger bun gives you more room for chili beans, pickles, mustard and all the good stuff, the round hot dog starts making a suspicious amount of sense.