Hot Dog Charlie’s Airport Mobil – Latham, NY

Since moving to Niskayuna, I’ve been intrigued by the presence of an installment of Hot Dog Charlie’s dangerously relatively close to my house. It’s located in Latham at the intersection of Route 7 and Albany-Shaker Road, just down the road from the Albany Airport and across the street from Keeler.

And it’s inside of a Mobil gas station.

One Saturday afternoon, I popped in for a few mini dogs with the works. I was kind of amazed that they pretty much offer up the full menu, including fish fry, hamburgers, and other snacks. My order that day was six mini dogs with the works (mustard, diced onion, Charlie sauce).

This style of mini hot dog is ubiquitous, and Hot Dog Charlie’s does it almost as good as Gus’s. The two main differences that stand out is that Charlie’s uses slightly inferior dogs and meat sauce that doesn’t have the depth that Gus’s does. Where Charlie’s has a slight edge is in the bun which is more substantial and chewy than Gus’s.

It is maybe a touch weird walking into this place just for hot dogs, just because you have to walk past the front counter to get to the Hot Dog Charlie’s counter, and I’m sure the majority of clients walk in to either pay for gas or buy cigarettes. But, it’s actually pretty awesome to have a Hot Dog Charlie’s nearby, especially since they’re not the mainstay in area mall food courts that they used to be.