The Hottest Bars in L.A. Serve Hot Dogs
Every day is the Fourth of July at The Ruby Fruit, Walt’s, and El Prado
Photographs by David Gurzhiev
Today, we celebrate hot dogs and American independence. If you’re barbecuing, you’ve hopefully already secured your dogs and buns, as it’s likely that the best options for each—including the Big City Reds sold at McCall’s and Martin’s potato buns—are almost sold out. If not, might I suggest stopping by The Ruby Fruit, El Prado, and Walt’s for a ceremonial bar crawl this weekend?
All three Eastside bars, located in Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Eagle Rock, respectively, are known as much for their booze as they are for their hot dogs. They are also three of the most popular hangs in town. There’s an obvious correlation to be made here.
Los Angeles loves a hot dog, this much we know. On the way out of any major sporting event or concert, there’s a guaranteed waft of brine-scented, fat-slicked griddle smoke emanating from a row of bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors. Hot dogs are the ideal revival snack. They are salty, snappy, scarfable, and inexpensive. They are satiating sustenance.
“The street dog is a very city thing,” says Mara Herbkersman, who, alongside Emily Bielagus, owns the lesbian wine bar The Ruby Fruit. “So why not keep everyone inside the bar, continuing to drink wine, instead of going outside and spending their money elsewhere?” She says, laughing. “We’ll bring the hot dogs to them.” Copenhagen is the city that inspired The Ruby Fruit hot dog, where Herbkersman spent a lot of time in her 20s, going clubbing and eating hot dogs on the street late at night. Accordingly, the beef hot dog—which The Ruby Fruit sources from Hoffy, the same supplier used by the famed Hollywood hot doggery Pink’s—is served on a griddle-steamed bun and dressed Danish-style, with curry powder-laced remoulade, sweet relish, mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup, then finished with a bread-and-butter pickle spear and crispy fried shallots.

Before Herbkersman and Bielagus opened their brick-and-mortar, they sold hot dogs and natural wine out of Herbkersman’s 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia van. “I thought [hot dogs were] really fun and economical and delicious and satisfying,” says Herbkersman. “I could cook hot dogs by myself, Emily could pour wine, and we could do it just the two of us,” she adds. Now, they run a bona fide restaurant serving salads, sandwiches, and sansho-seasoned popcorn chicken to pair with wine and beer. Still, hot dogs remain their best-selling item.
While The Ruby Fruit is wildly popular — on a recent Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., most seats were taken — Herbkersman and Bielagus joke that if times were to get tough, they could only serve hot dogs and still survive. On Dyke Day, they sold 750 hot dogs during the festivities in Sycamore Grove Park, the most they’ve ever sold in a day. “It’s something that really helps us as a restaurant. Food costs are crazy, labor is crazy, [but hot dogs] are something we can rely on,” she says.
Last year, El Prado sold 10,000 hot dogs decorated with ketchup and mustard squiggles, mayonnaise dollops, and thinly sliced jalapeño coins. Owner Nicky Fisher says he wants to have a plaque made to commemorate the accomplishment.

Fisher was inspired to put hot dogs on the menu while still the manager of El Prado, before he became the owner, after spotting an old Star brand hot dog broiler at Silver Lake’s now-closed modern Jewish restaurant Freedman’s. In 2018, he bought the bar from his former boss and swiftly swapped out cheese plates and pâté for hot dogs. “It was delicious stuff, but too cute and date night,” he says. “I was like, ‘Dude, people want to party, let’s be a dumb wine bar and sell something stupid like hot dogs,’” he says. Visit El Prado on a Thursday or Friday night, when swarms of Eastside creatives fill every nook and cranny of the bar and spill out onto the sidewalk, and you’ll quickly realize that he was right. In typical El Prado fashion—Fisher is known to tap artist friends to develop site-specific works—the hot dog machine sits on a sculptural pedestal that Ry Rocklen made of trophy parts.
As Fisher points out, hot dogs are an easy item to execute for a bar that doesn’t have a kitchen, not to mention more filling than olives and nuts. “It’s the perfect amount of snack that keeps people from getting drunk, keeps them fueled, but it’s not going to ruin your appetite,” he says. “You could have one if you're waiting for a friend to meet up with you. You can scarf one down if you’re famished after work.” The Prado hot dogs are made of beef and pork with a sheep casing by Continental Gourmet Sausage Co. in Glendale—the same wieners you’ll find plopped into cups of pea soup at Silver Lake’s German beer garden The Red Lion—and served on Martin’s potato buns. Fisher wanted to use “nice ingredients,” so the ketchup is organic, the mustard is Dijon, and the mayonnaise is Kewpie. The mayo and the jalapeños nod to the Los Angeles street dog. Otherwise, El Prado keeps their dogs simple—no sauerkraut, no relish, no extraneous toppings.
The hot dog at Walt’s, over in Eagle Rock, is even more bare-bones. The arcade bar, which is known for its tall blue cans of Hamm’s lager, buttered soft pretzels served with mustard and queso, and as a meet-up spot for cyclists and runners, sources their thick, all-beef dogs from a “badass master sausage maker” in the Redlands. Her name will remain a secret, as per owner Jeff Johnsen. They’re cooked on a vintage Star 35 35SSC roller that holds water up top to steam buns, and which Johnsen maintains is the best model—specifically those from the “golden years” between 1979 and ‘84. “I was always obsessed with these hot dog machines,” he says. “My dad had one when we were growing up on [Brainbridge Island]. He had a classic car restoration company, and he always had hot dogs spinning.” They are prone to break, so Johnsen regularly snatches up machines on OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. His dad’s name is Walt.
It was important for Johnsen to get the buns right, too, so he worked with a bakery downtown to create the perfect soft, fluffy, stadium-style bun. The Walt’s dog is finished with tight zig-zags of Hunt’s ketchup and Gulden’s spicy brown mustard. “That’s just the classic,” says Johnsen. “There are some people who bring their own relish; I think that’s great, but everyone gets the same thing.” On a typical Friday or Saturday night, Walt’s slings upwards of 250 hot dogs.
Many people debate the merit of ketchup on a hot dog. Some argue that it doesn’t belong. But this is America, and America loves ketchup. This writer, for one, is a Heinz apologist. Johnsen argues for Hunt’s, suggesting that “it’s on the same basic level as Heinz. It just doesn’t have all that corn syrup in it.” And while Fisher says he prefers “the bad stuff,” he opts for an organic ketchup at his bar to avoid feeding customers something overly processed. I will not rest my case.
Ketchup sidebar aside, let’s talk drink pairings. Whether you’re grilling hot dogs today or plan to swing by The Ruby Fruit, El Prado, or Walt’s this weekend, there are a few ways to go to ensure hot dog nirvana. Herbkersman recognizes that a hot dog and a beer is a classic combination but likes to elevate the experience with a nice bottle of Champagne or something else sparkling. Johnsen suggests a German lager, Czech pilsner, or a pinot noir from the Central Coast for more of a wild card. And while Fisher leans German pilsner, he also thinks that El Prado’s house Zinfandel, which he and his team made up in Sonoma with grapes from Clearlake, California, pairs great with a hot dog. “It’s light but it has good acidity and a little juicy pepperiness to combat the savory, salty of the dog,” he says.
Happy July 4th, and happy hot dog eating. “I fucking love hot dogs,” says Johnsen of Walt’s. I do, too.
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This is exactly the kind of content I wanna see on 4th of July! 🌭🏆 (If you wanna do some more hot dog reading, you might like “A Guide to the Hot Dogs of Latin America” over on New Worlder.) It’s not even 9 am and I’m ready to fire up the grill now! 🔥😂
I did not realize El Prado had become my kinda cool, and hadn't even heard of The Ruby Fruit, so THANK YOU. Both added to my bar rotation.
An extra thank you for maintaining journalistic standards in terms of reporting numbers of hotdogs sold 🫡