LOCAL MAN EATS
DOG
June 12, 2003 - Austin, Texas -
Chris Chappell could be a man on a
mission from God. Or perhaps he's just a man with a death wish. One
gets the feeling he could be swayed to believe either one.
One thing is certain: when Chris is around, good, greasy, food you can hardly imagine
(or digest) is
just around the corner. |
Casino El Camino's
foot long chili cheese dog |
|
When
chrisatelunch.com
began in January, 2003, Mr. Chappell had the best intentions of
putting his best foot forward and displaying his painting skills and
creating a professional web environment to promote and expand his
career choice as a living, working and breathing painter. Time
passed, libraries of images were uploaded, the site was tweaked to
become more user friendly, and after two and a half months, he had a total of
80 hits.
Until one fateful day in April, when inspiration and indigestion hit
Chris like a double barreled shotgun blast.
"The
Day I Had Whatever the Hell This Is" was not just the end of one
chapter of Chris' life, it was the start of a brand new book.
Viewers flocked to his site - each day, the lunches got worse, more
tasteless, and in the midst of all these daily snapshots of culinary
delights,
hot dogs became the Holy Grail. |
Granny says,
"That boy concerns me, so does my crazy Dr Schliefke" |
It's a poorly kept secret the Mexican in the trailer in the Home Depot
parking lot sells a pretty mean
dog . But those dogs aren't camera
worthy. A trip to the
Shady Grove, located on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Texas, served
as inspiration for the mythical white whale of Chris' website.
With inside knowledge of the unusually high percentage of people who do
not come close to finishing the one pound foot long chili dog, Chris made a
plan to do lunch at the Shady Grove just to try his hand at the epic
wiener.
And then with an engagement up the road on Red River, plans fell into
place to begin the evening at
Casino El
Camino - a bar famous for great crowds, and big-ass delicious
burgers. A quiet, almost unspoken treat on their menu is the foot
long chili cheese dog. Chris was familiar with the size and
unhealthiness of the 100% 2/3 pound Angus beef burgers, and just knew
the hot dogs had to live up to Casino's reputation. The movie
showing was
The Magnificent Seven, its music and roughneck cowboys building,
building anticipation as the dogs cooked on the grill. A report
filtered in: two dogs, looking done, were almost ready to go.
Not a moment too soon, Chris'
late lunch had
arrived. The size, sloppiness, and smell was overwhelmingly
beautiful. With an artful eye, Chris carefully composed a shot of
the dog, and then dug in. It was nitrate heaven.
|
