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Allston hot-dog joint can't cut the mustard anymore; to close next month
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Too bad
It's a place I haven't been in about ~20 years mostly because I'm never in that part of town long enough to want a snack. But I liked their dogs.
When did the one near Berkeley close? I know not recently.
Over ten years ago?
TC's Lounge on Haviland caught fire in the spring of 2012 so that would be the last time I'd be in the vicinity and needing something cheap/bad to eat, but I would say shortly after once Berklee and Northeastern started buying up the neighborhood and customizing the local retail to suit a more demanding consumer.
Also, the buns were a love/hate thing. I was not a big fan but for the price I wouldn't complain. The mornings after always reminded me not to eat there but I persisted.
Google Street View's time travel has the answer
Looks like their Boylston St location closed around May/June 2014.
Google Street View's May 2014 photo of the Spike's storefront shows their overhead sign as well as an A-frame sign saying "It's Game Day! Grab Your Hot Dogs Here!" and a table & chairs outside. Most likely still open at that point.
The Jun 2014 photo shows a "Zest Mediterranean Grill" sign on the storefront, white paper signs with what looks like the Spike's logo at the top (presumably a "so long and thanks for all the dogs" message) on the inside of the front windows, and butcher paper behind that. Definitely closed.
The Berkeley location was a
The Berkeley location was a go to spot for me as well. Honestly, I liked their hot dogs better than Simpco's on the Bridge although Simpco's hot dogs are still much longer than Spike's Junkyard Dog's used to be.
BTW
Berklee
Simco's
Did anybody else have an
Did anybody else have an issue with their bun choice? Always felt that there was too much bun and that the bun itself was too substantial. The dogs themselves and the menu were always fine by me, but if you came in there expecting to wolf down a couple of tube steaks like one might at a ballgame, you wound up with half a loaf of bread in your stomach and the roof of your mouth all scratched up.
PS: This was exceedingly hard to write without walking into 8th-grade-level humor RE: buns and wieners.
The buns
The buns might have been a bit much, but they were fresh baked and smelled great.
And their veggie dogs were simply excellent.
I remember Spike's from their earliest days. They advertised "franchise opportunities". Too bad it didn't pan out in the long term. The world would be better with a small chain hotdog joint.
I didn't like the bun, and thus was not
a fan of the place. One visit and I was done.
(Expletive) brutal
Literally one of the only places that I went to the entire 18 years I lived in Brighton. Always good for junk food no matter what was going on in my life.
I haven't been back down there since June. Try not to turn the entire place over for my next visit, huh, Boston?
Bummer
I went there at least once a month. Excellent dogs and fries.
Outdated
Not a good sign that their website still mentions six New England locations, but the map right below it only shows two.
Cute pun but
Small businesses are failing due to inflation on prices, labor shortage, change in street traffic and office attendance.
Hurtful to say they "couldn't cut it". They just worked through the hardest environment their lives over the past 30 months and you gotta make the cheap joke.
Now we know who the real wiener is. (lol)
A shame
I haven’t been there since 2013 when I would bring my son there for chili dogs.
It was a nice bit of variety to what is now a large amount of boba and fried chicken places - don’t get me wrong, I like both of those, but some variety is nice.