It's time to vote in our epic search for N.J.'s best hot dog joint.
The polls are open!
No, not another gubernatorial race, but, frankly, something more important – our search for N.J.’s best hot dog joint.
We’ve picked N.J’s best bar, best burger, best Italian restaurant, best ice cream shop, best diner, best sub/hoagie shop, best pizzeria and best bakery, now it’s time to pick the state’s best hot dog joint.
There’s nothing like one of our N.J.’s best showdowns. We don’t mess around. First, we solicit nominations from readers, who tell us why their favorite place is the best. Then it’s time to vote, which is what you can do starting right now.
Every hot dog joint that was nominated – in our call for nominations story, on nj.com’s Facebook page, by e-mail and on Twitter – appears on the ballot. A total of 120 hot dog joints were nominated.
Did we miss someone? Let me know immediately, make a case for it, and we’ll add them. As far as regions, we’re doing something a bit different. Since there are so many hot dog joints in North Jersey, we’ve divided it into two regions – North I (Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Sussex, Warren) and North II (Essex, Union, Morris).
And since there are so few true hot dog joints in South Jersey, we’ve put South Jersey and the Shore together as one region. The result: roughly the same number of hot dog joints in each of the four regions.
The top six vote-getters in each category, plus 26 of my selections, will comprise the 50 semi-finalists I will visit starting Monday, July 9. After that, I’ll pick the ten finalists, which will be visited again. But that’s a long way off.
The easiest way to get your favorite into the next round is to vote for it. You can vote once in each category every day. The deadline for voting is 11:59 p.m. Thursday, July 5. Here are links to all four categories:
North Jersey I (Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Sussex, Warren)
North Jersey II (Essex, Union, Morris)
Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.