A $35 hot dog?! How this Roseville restaurant puts a fine-dining twist on an American classic
Would you pay $35 for the Sacramento region’s bougiest hot dog? Dozen of people do every week at Q1227, Quentin “Chef Q” Bennett’s Southern fine dining restaurant in Roseville’s Stone Point shopping center.
The Q-Dog, as it’s known, is a foot-long behemoth loaded with decadence. Bone marrow, bacon and a layer of melted cheese pile on top, creating a dish that’s way more extra than your average ballpark frank.
“I wanted a grown man dog, I wanted something I could have with the guys in the backyard, and this is what we came up with,” Bennett said. “We don’t want you to leave this place hungry, so we had to make it a pretty sizable dog there.”
The Q-Dog starts with a wagyu beef sausage from Sierra Meat & Seafood in Reno. While I’m not particularly impressed by wagyu burgers or sausages in general (wagyu steaks stand out for their beautiful marbling, but meat processors can easily add as much fat as desired to ground products), this one did have the rich flavor one would hope for in a quality all-beef hot dog.
That sausage is grilled next to a bun from Arden Arcade’s Grateful Bread Co., slathered with a housemade bone marrow aioli. Once put together, the hot dog and bun are topped with bacon jam, salt, pepper, sautéed onions and jalapeños and Fontina cheese, then finished in Q1227’s pizza oven.
The Q-Dog greets customers on a bed of mixed greens, with a ramekin of housemade sweet pickle slices and a heaping tower of potato chips dusted with Q-Spice Seasoning, a blend of chili powder, brown sugar, paprika and more available for purchase by the jar.
The big dog is listed at $28 on Q1227’s menu, and Roseville’s 7.75% sales tax accounts for another $2.17. An 18% before-tax gratuity (listed on the menu and automatically applied, but removable upon customer request) adds another $5.04, bringing the Q-Dog to $35.21.
Customers order seven to 10 Q-Dogs per night, Bennett said. Many of them are kids, since Q1227 doesn’t offer a children’s menu — fried lobster bites are the closest you’ll get to chicken nuggets, manager Traci Bankston quipped — and hot dogs seem more approachable than, say, tomahawk Berkshire pork chops in a maple-bourbon glaze. Those kids usually end up taking half the dog home, undone by the size of the beast, Bennett said.
Q1227 will move from its current digs to a 6,700-square foot space in Westfield Galleria at Roseville shopping mall at the end of July. Bennett and Co. will use the expanded kitchen to craft fresh pasta, bake their own breads and fashion housemade buns for future Q-Dogs.
What I’m Eating
As Chef Q makes waves in Roseville’s dining scene, Chef T is charting his own path in North Natomas.
I first wrote about Fresh Off Da Boat by Chef T, Muagututia Tuala-Tamaalelagi’s Hawaiian/Samoan restaurant in a side-street office park, shortly after it opened in January. The chalkboard menu features approachable items travelers might have previously tried on their island vacations: intensely-marinated ahi poke over crispy taro chips, loco moco patties ground in-house and threaded with ginger, fish and chips using mahi mahi.
It’s Sunday, though, where Tuala-Tamaalelagi gets further back to his roots in American Samoa, with a separate menu curated for Pacific Islander elders but available to all. Dishes are available by weight, à la carte or in hefty two- or three-item combo boxes ($18/$24) with white rice, taro hunks cooked in coconut cream and two sides.
If there’s one dish to order on Sundays, it’s povi masima ($14.89 per pound), Samoan corned beef brined and braised in-house to a deep pink. It’s deliciously salty and ribboned with just the right amount of fat, firm-textured without being overcooked.
Turkey tail ($7.89 per pound) was a surprising table favorite as well, a Hawaiian organ meat specialty that’s actually the oily glands connecting birds’ tails to their bodies. In Tuala-Tamaalelagi’s classically-trained hands, they were coated in a sticky-sweet adobo sauce and transformed from an off-cut into a choice item.
There were plenty of Sunday sides worth adding — the aforementioned poke ($7.89), a taste of sea urchin ($12 for four ounces), pork-packed Hawaiian noodles called miki ($4). The toothsome fai’ai fe’e ($15), a Samoan octopus-coconut cream mixture, stands above the rest as an inky black study in contrast, suckers poking through the luscious base.
Tuala-Tamaalelagi wants to open a second restaurant exclusively for those soul-warming Hawaiian and Samoan niche dishes. Until then, you’ll only find them regionally at Fresh Off Da Boat on Sundays.
Fresh Off Da Boat by Chef T
Address: 1515 Sports Drive, Suite 300, Sacramento.
Hours: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday.
Phone: (916) 418-7239
Website: https://www.cheftskitchen.org/
Drinks: Coffee, sodas and energy drinks.
Vegetarian options: Garden veggies on cassava cakes, or taro chips and fries during the week. On Sundays, try the palusami, a Samoan side of taro leaves stewed in coconut cream.
Noise level: Pretty quiet.
Outdoor seating: A few tables in front of the restaurant.
Openings & Closings
▪ Momo Korean Egg Drop held the grand opening for its first U.S. location last Saturday inside Bober Tea & Coffee at 8848 Calvine Road, Suite 160 in south Sacramento. The Filipino chain specializes in Korean-style scrambled egg sandwiches on fluffy milk bread, with additions such as bulgogi or thick-cut bacon.
▪ Zoe Coffee & Tacos also opened Saturday at 1829 22nd St. in central Sacramento’s Newton Booth neighborhood, serving pupusas and breakfast tacos on owner Josue Acosta’s housemade tortillas. Along with Sacramento rock climbing-adjacent restaurant Pintworks and Elk Grove barbecue spot Slow & Low, mentioned in last week’s newsletter, that makes at least four new restaurants that opened on June 1.
▪ Wines in Tandem will close this coming Saturday, owner Ryan Crosbie announced in an email to subscribers. The downtown Davis tasting room and wine store at 222 D St., Suite 1, opened in January 2023.
