Haute Dog

Photograph by Adam Detour

The Breakdown:

1. The “classic” dog with mustard and chopped onion.
2. The “foie-gras frankfurter” with green mustard and umeboshi-and-green-almond ketchup.
3. The “steamed bun” dog with jalapeño kimchi and miso-scallion mayo.
4. The “lobster roll” dog with caviar and fines herbes.
5. The “bouillabaisse” dog with pepper, saffron rouille, pickled fennel, and shrimp.
6. Pair your hot dogs with grower Champagnes by the glass—like this Aubry premier cru.

Less than a year after taking over Menton’s kitchen, chef de cuisine Scott Jones decided to shake things up by adding a tasting menu known as “Into Evolution” in February. With such a serious name, the multiple courses of petite, elaborately constructed dishes risked coming across as esoteric, so Jones added familiarity to the procession: a mid-meal foie-gras frankfurter, nestled into a house-made bun and served alongside a squeeze bottle of umeboshi-and-green-almond ketchup.

“It’s been universally everyone’s favorite course, which has been upsetting and great at the same time,” Jones says. “It’s the moment they can laugh.” So why the hot dog as the highbrow-lowbrow vehicle of choice? “Everybody has eaten one and almost everybody likes them,” Jones says. “It has this handmade fine-dining feel to it because of all of the technique…but it ends up tasting like something you’re ultimately familiar with.”

And as of this summer, you won’t have to shell out for a $175 tasting menu to try the foie (and a slew of additional) dogs, as the Menton team transforms its private dining room for a series of hot-dog-and-Champagne-pairing dinners. Or you can simply head to the restaurant’s lounge: Transformed into what’s now called the Gold Bar, it sells the foie dogs—and plenty of bubbly—à la carte.

354 Congress St., Boston, 617-737-0099, mentonboston.com.