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You need to come to Chicago and try a real pizza ;)

I have not only had most of the popular Chicago pizzas: stuffed, pan and thin crust, I was also paid to make them. A third tier Brooklyn pizza joint blows the doors off of the best Chicago style pizza Chi-town has to offer. You will notice that most of the great pizza joints in the historical pizza cities do not have becoming a chain as their highest aspiration (Pepe's being a notable exception as the family decided to cash-out). Chicago is proud of their cookie-cutter chains: Uno, Gino's East, Giordano's, Edwardos, Connie's, etc.

The best pizza place in Chicago is Piece Pizza on North Ave., which provides a solid New Haven style apizza, and manages to pull it off without a coal oven that has been on for 70 years.

Chicagoans need to get out more.

Oh, and really great hot dogs don't need to be buried under a salad and celery salt. A great New England hot dog needs nothing more than a lightly toasted New England roll (with butter), a split broiled (NEVER boiled or steamed) high-quality hot dog (Hummels is a good bet), and a light application of some combination of grilled onions, mustard, relish and/or ketchup to taste, but never so much that the frank itself is hidden.