A Doggone Crosstown Showdown: Vienna Vs. Bobak

The Fourth of July has come and gone, but summer is here to stay (finally). And in light of last weekend's crosstown rivalry, we went looking for your best doggone choice for an ongoing grilling season.

The Chicago White Sox may have commanded round two of the Crosstown Classic by taking a 2-1 series over the Chicago Cubs recently, but according to five trusty food enthusiasts, they didn't win the battle of the ballpark dogs. We assumed the challenging role of taste testing for a Vienna-Bobak face-off. And the jury ruled in favor of Vienna — the brand of frankfurters now served at Wrigley Field.

Vienna Beef opened its first store in Chicago in 1894 and their dogs were served at Wrigley prior to 1982. But this is the first season since then — the Friendly Confines changed it up to serve Sara Lee Ball Park franks for nearly three decades — that Vienna has returned to the park. Bobak Sausage Company has stocked the dogs at U.S. Cellular Field on the South Side ince 2010.

We topped five steamed hot dogs from each company with all the crucial Chicago condiments — chopped onions, sweet relish, mustard (duh), tomatoes, pickle spears, sport peppers and celery salt. Then we served them up to five tube steak lovers without identifying which was which. Five out of five sided with Vienna Beef because of their smaller, easier to bite into dogs.

The Bobak brand touts significantly larger hot dogs than Vienna, but with all the Chicago fixin's they're harder to eat. They also have a thicker, tougher casing than Viennas. Although all five critics said they preferred a Bobak-like snap to their frankfurter chomp, they said the casings were too thick, making eating them much messier to eat.

As far as flavor goes, Bobak's Veal frankfurters were a bit more bland than the Vienna dogs. All in all, Vienna hit a grand slam.

We know that in the Southland, this may be a bitter pill to swallow. But we're not talking baseball. We're talkin' beef franks. So if you're planning an upcoming grill out, we'd tell ya to buy several packs of Vienna Beef dogs — they're also significantly cheaper than Bobak's, offering twice as many dogs for about the same price.

If you're interested in Vienna dogs, they're available at most major grocery stores in Orland, Tinley and Oak Forest. Bobaks can be found at , Eurofresh Market and in and Walmart in Orland Park.

Conduct your own taste test and let us know if you agree or disagree with our ruling.

There's nothing wrong with a little competition, after all.