Carl’s Jr. is celebrating more than 65 years in the quick-service industry. What began as a lone hot dog cart in Los Angeles, California in 1941 is today an international organization that employs nearly 30,000 people worldwide.
True classics never go out of style. So, for a limited time, young hungry guys across the West can head to Carl’s Jr.® and enjoy one of the menu items the company was founded on – the Chili Dog.
The history of Chili Dogs at Carl’s Jr. dates back to 1941 when founder Carl N. Karcher and his wife Margaret opened their first restaurant enterprise - a hot dog cart at the corner of Florence and Central in Los Angeles. They originally sold hot dogs and chili dogs, and they were an instant success, remaining on the menu at Carl's Jr. restaurants well into the 1990s.
"Everyone knows you can get a great burger at Carl's Jr. today, but not everyone knows that our founder Carl Karcher’s first menu items 68 years ago were hot dogs and chili dogs," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing at Carl’s Jr. "We’ve had great success in recent years with Chili Cheeseburgers and Chili Cheese Fries, so it made sense to give another all-American standard a try, especially since Chili Dogs have a nostalgic meaning for us. This time around, we brought in Farmer John® hot dogs, of 'Dodger Dog' fame, and topped them with spicy beef chili, mustard and chopped onions, dubbing the resulting creations, 'Jumbo Chili Dogs.’"
Originally sold at Carl Karcher’s hot dog cart for .20, the Jumbo Chili Dogs of today remain true to his vision of selling good food at a fair price and are available at 2 for $3 at participating locations.
Etathed, our Eastern embedded reporter, recently stumbled upon something both snackable and interesting:
"Found this stuff at the store last time i was there. I am always skeptical of foodstuffs claiming to be "gourmet" but Popcorn Indiana Popcorn is indeed gourmet.
The package explains this popcorn comes from an actual town in indiana called Popcorn! Justly so as this is probably the best popcorn i have ever tasted. The first bag i got was the smoked cheddar. An amazing flavor that seemed to be baked into the popcorn, not sprinkled on top like so many other flavored popcorns. The popcorn was extremely fresh and seemed as if it had just been popped. This popcorn is very bender friendly, eating a whole bag will be no problem for most priders. This is not to say that the portion is small, to the contrary, these bags are quite full. It is simply a testament to the deliciousness of the product.
Handful after handful after handful, in the midst of it all, it seems so wrong to stop. When i did finally stop, once the bag was empty i was shocked to find a measly 2 un-popped kernels in the bag and none of those sharp little curvy kernel things that get caught in your teeth while munching. This product had what must be the closest thing ever to a 100% pop ratio.
The only down side to Indiana Popcorn is the bag itself. While it is very smooth, similar to most kettle chip style bags, it is prone to splitting thus running a long tear down the side of the bag. Another negative factor for some may be the high price point. At over 3 dollars i wouldnt blame anyone for passing these by, but if you got an extra few bucks, I GUARANTEE you will not be disappointed.
I just picked up a bag of the Buffalo Cheddar and the aged white cheddar flavors. I actually prefer Buffalo Chedder to the smoked cheddar i originally had. While i haven't yet tasted the white cheddar (my favorite of all popcorn flavors) i am sure it will be fantastic.
If you like popcorn, do yourself a favor... seek this stuff out and dig in!"
