Brat summer might be winding down on TikTok, but we're not going demure just yet. We're still "wearing wired headphones while listening to Charli XCX," gorging on sausages and hot dogs, and not caring what anyone else thinks.
Here in Southern California, our brat summer doesn't end in August or on Labor Day. It stretches into mid-October. (Oktoberfest, baby!)
Fortunately, there are a lot of top-tier brats (and hot dogs and sausages) to be found around greater Los Angeles.
No, this list of the best brats, sausages, and hot dogs in SoCal is not exhaustive. It doesn't get into the hot dog carts outside most Home Depots or the bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors outside every major event. It doesn't include the many Asian bakeries that offer all manner of sausages wrapped in dough, or the BBQ joints with links on their menu. It touches on chorizo. It scratches the surface of Chicago dogs, South American dogs, Sonoran dogs, and so many other regional and national iterations. After all, our time isn't unlimited, but our love for brat summer is.
What do you put on top of your hot dog? Photo credit: Elina Shatkin/KCRW
Classic Hot Dogs
Carney's
Want a hot dog served in an old train car that's been painted bright yellow? Head to Carney's, which has been making Angelenos happy since 1975.
West Hollywood, Sherman Oaks
Costco
Bless Costco for holding firm on the price of its $1.50 hot dog in the face of all the inflation and price gouging we've seen these last few years. In May 2024, the company's new CFO, Gary Millerchip, confirmed that the price of its iconic hot dog and soda combo will remain $1.50, which is what it has cost since the 1980s. You don't have to be a member to get this deal, you just have to be willing to brave the parking lot.
Various locations
Chroni's Famous Sandwich Shop
Don't let the name fool you. In addition to burgers and pastrami, chicken, and fish sandwiches, Chroni's Famous Sandwich Shop, which has been around since 1945, is famous for its hot dogs.
East LA
Cupid's Hot Dogs
Opened in 1946 in North Hollywood (as Walsh's Hot Dogs), Cupid's is home to the San Fernando Valley's signature chili dog. At one point, the company expanded and had several locations but it has contracted and now has three spots.
Winnetka, Simi Valley, Newport Beach
Earle's On Crenshaw
A Crenshaw staple, Earle's On Crenshaw was founded by two Brooklyn transplants, brothers Cary and Duane Earle. The menu offers halal beef dogs, turkey dog and a chicken dog as well as several vegan options including a vegan hot dog, a Beyond Meat burger, a Jamaican veggie patty, and vegan chili cheese fries.
Leimert Park
Fab Hot Dogs
The extensive hot dog menu features many regional favorites like the deep-fried New Jersey Ripper, the Carolina Slaw Dog, the bacon-wrapped Kansas City dog, the dragged-through-the-garden Chicago Dog as well as mild and spicy Polish sausages. Fab Hot Dogs also has a not-so-secret secret menu with items like the Mexicali dog and the Chimichurri dog.
Reseda
The Fat Dog
The Fat Dog is a gastropub with one hot dog on its menu. It's a long, juicy dog that goes way past the ends of the poppyseed bun. The toppings are Chicago-esque minus the neon green relish and the classic Vienna sport peppers.
North Hollywood
Flooky's
Flooky's has 10 hot dogs on its menu including a Chicago dog, a New York dog with sauerkraut, mustard, and a pickle spear and a California dog with mustard, pico de gallo, avocado, and cheese. Don't like any of the listed options? You can build your own.
Woodland Hills, Chatsworth
Hot Dog On A Stick
Those red, yellow, white, and blue striped outfits. The sweet-tart lemonade. That cornmeal batter. There are lots of reasons you'll find Hot Dog On A Stick's corn dogs all over Southern California.
Many locations
Chili and cheese are popular hot dog toppings. Photo credit: Shutterstock
Larry's Chili Dog
With almost 20 types of hot dogs on its menu, Larry's Chili Dog has some funky options, like the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which includes a spicy Louisiana link, chili, and cheese.
Burbank
Marty's Hamburger Stand
Serving basic burgers, dogs, and sandwiches, Marty's Hamburger Stand is a hidden West LA gem.
Cheviot Hills
Pink's Hot Dogs
Located at the corner of Melrose and La Brea, 85-year-old Pink's is an LA institution. Opened in 1939 as a pushcart by Paul and Betty Pink, it serves all the standard hot dogs — plain, chili, cheese, Chicago-style, New York-style — as well as their own concoctions like the El Cucuy, a 12″ jalapeno dog piled with bacon, grilled onions, mayo, mustard, ketchup, and more jalapenos, or the SHAQ, a 9″ stretch dog topped with mustard, onions, chili, nacho cheese, and four onion rings symbolizing Shaquille O'Neal's four championships with the Lakers.
Hollywood
The Stand
You'll find 15 locations of The Stand throughout SoCal. Amid the burgers, sandwiches, salads, and wraps, you'll find two hot dogs on the menu — a basic dog and a classic chili dog. Add whatever condiments and toppings you desire.
The renovated Tail O' the Pup now sits on Santa Monica Blvd. near the corner of La Cienega. Photo credit: Elina Shatkin/KCRW
Tail O' the Pup
Drive down Santa Monica Blvd. in WeHo and you can't miss the 18-foot-long hotdog-shaped building near the corner of La Cienega. That's the new Tail O’ the Pup hot dog stand, which reopened in July 2022 after closing in 2005. You can thank Bobby Green and the 1933 Group for the renovation. Opened in 1946, this is the iconic stand's fourth location and the hot dogs still taste great.
West Hollywood
Vicky's Doghouse
Located on the fantail of the Battleship USS Iowa, which is a museum, Vicky's Doghouse has a large local fanbase in the San Pedro area. No, you don't need to buy admission to the museum to eat at Vicky's.
San Pedro
Walt's Bar
Pinball machines, pretzels, and beer. What more could you want from a neighborhood watering hole like Walt's Bar? How about surprisingly good hot dogs?
Eagle Rock
World Famous Oki-Dog
The Oki-Dog that was located on Pico Blvd. was a legendary hangout for countless punk bands and their fans who might've shoved its namesake offering — two hot dogs, pastrami, chili, and cheese wrapped up in a large flour tortilla — down their gobs. The existing Oki-Dog, an orange shack on Fairfax Ave. a couple blocks south of Santa Monica Blvd., is leaving its current location at the end of August 2024 and plans to return to a new spot in January 2025.
Fairfax
If you can dream it, you can probably put it in or on top of a hot dog. Photo credit: Likemeat/Unsplash
Funky Hot Dogs
88 Hotdog & Juicy Korean Street Food
If you want a Korean-style hot dog, which is really a corn dog coated in a crisp rice batter, deep-fried, and served on a stick, this is your spot. At 88 Hotdog & Juicy Korean Street Food , the dogs might be filled with gooey mozzarella, battered in potato chunks, dusted with sugar or drizzled with honey mustard. You can also get fruit smoothies, boba drinks, tteokbokki on a stick and Dole pineapple whips.
Koreatown
Dirt Dog
Nope, it's not the most appetizing name for a food business but Dirt Dog specializes in bacon-wrapped hot dogs which you can top with pastrami, carne asada, bacon bits, chili, onions, and peppers, among other items. The menu also features smash burgers, fries, and a carne asada taco.
Downey, Long Beach, Gardena, Commerce
Dog Haus
Since opening in Pasadena in 2010, Dog Haus has expanded to more than a dozen locations in LA and Orange counties. Served on King's Hawaiian rolls, these dogs are topped with bacon, caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos, chipotle aioli, and cotija or arugula, avocado, tomato, onion crisps, and basil aioli.
Many locations
El Churrasco Chapin
El Churrasco Chapin is a small spot specializing in Guatemalan food, which includes shucos aka Guatemalan hot dogs. Here's how Bill Esparza describes their shuco for Eater LA: "The large rectangular bun is toasted, then covered with guacamol (avocado spread), topped with grilled, a sliced wiener, pickled cabbage, and onions. It’s then well dressed with mayo, ketchup, and mustard, each bite popping with sweet and salty notes."
East Hollywood
Kosteat/POCHA
Located in Mid-Wilshire Plaza, Kosteat/POCHA focuses on Korean street food such as hot dogs, sodduck and noodles.
Koreatown
Mochinut
Mochinut is mostly known for its mochi donuts but the chain also makes Korean corn dogs with a crispy/chewy rice flour batter. They use the same rice flour as batter for their corn dogs.
Many locations
The Squid Ink & Mozzarella Hot Dog at Myungrang Hotdogs is a popular option. Photo courtesy of Myungrang Hotdogs
Myungrang Hotdogs
As its name implies, Myungrang Hotdogs specializes in one thing, hot dogs. Aside from the usual options (mozzarella cheese instead of meat, coated in potato chunks), you can get a corn dog dusted with Flamin' Hot Cheeto powder. Or you can try the Squid Ink & Mozzarella Hot Dog, which is half-hot dog and half-mozzarella, coated in a batter made black by squid ink.
Buena Park, Chino, Garden Grove, Irvine, Long Beach, Palmdale
Pedroca's Burguer
Pedro Carvalho launched Pedroca's Burguer in 2020, selling Brazilian burgers from his Culver City home. Now, at his Lawndale restaurant, he offers a Brazilian hot dog — an all beef dog topped with mashed potatoes, bacon, tomato sauce, ham, mozzarella, corn, potato sticks, and vinaigrette.
Lawndale
Two Hands
With 10 locations around Southern California, Two Hands offers seven kinds of Korean corn dogs. Its signature dog is a sweet and savory combo that's coated with its proprietary Two Hands seasoning and ranch dressing. Drizzled with a sweet creamy sauce, the Injeolmi is described as "melt-in-your-mouth soft and snowy." Two Hands also makes a standard American corn dog.
Koreatown, Northridge, Little Tokyo, East LA, Torrance, Downey, Lakewood, Whittier, Cypress, Buena Park
Vivi's Gourmet Cuisine
Food truck Vivi's Gourmet Cuisine offers Colombian street food such as arepas, empanadas, dedo de queso (cheese sticks), burgers, and hot dogs. That last item is served on a locally made bun then heaped with onions, lettuce, tomato, potato sticks, and five sauces: pineapple, cilantro, mustard, mayo and ketchup.
Van Nuys, Pasadena, Reseda
Sausages, including but not limited to bratwurst, are perfect for brat summer. Photo credit: Hasmik Ghazaryan/Unsplash
Sausages
A Cut Above
At A Cut Above, they usually put the sausage out on Friday so supplies typically dwindle by Tuesday but you can call in advance to reserve the ones you want. Their housemade options include breakfast sausage, sweet Italian, bratwurst, calabrese, hot links, spicy Thai, turkey rosemary, chicken tarragon and a currywurst made with pork, onions, garlic, curry powder, and other spices.
Santa Monica
B&N Ranch Market
B&N Ranch Market is a Pico Rivera gem that's known for its carne asada and chicken (marinated or non-marinated) but don't sleep on the sausages. You'll find pork breakfast sausage, beef and pork links, and housemade chorizo.
Pico Rivera
Continental Gourmet Sausage Co.
This Glendale shop has a wealth of sausages on offer, from spicy Italian, Irish bangers, and andouille to Hungarian kolbasa, landjaeger (a semi-dried sausage), and classic wieners. Continental Gourmet Sausage Co. also sells Bavarian pretzels, rye breads, salami, cold cuts, tinned herring, and other Germanic delights.
Glendale
European Deluxe Sausage Kitchen
Run by actual Germans, this small butcher shop on the outskirts of Beverly Hills has a variety of wursts, salamis, and cheeses. It's also known for its biltong, soft, chewy South African beef jerky. European Deluxe Sausage Kitchen is so old school it has no website or social media but it has a nice selection of German foodstuffs such as pickles, candy bars, and Knorr seasoning packets.
Beverly Hills
The butcher case at Gwen in Hollywood features an assortment of delicious sausages. Photo by Quentin Bacon
Gwen Butcher Shop
Curtis Stone's Hollywood restaurant, Gwen, has a top-notch butcher case that showcases its in-house charcuterie program, which produces a wealth of terrines, pates, confits, salamis, cured meats, and sausages.
Hollywood
Hermosa Butcher Shop
Specializing in "handmade sausages and fine cuts of meat," Hermosa Butcher Shop sells at least a dozen kinds of sausages, from Vietnamese lemongrass and loukanika to merguez and chorizo verde.
Hermosa Beach
Huntington Meats
The Original Farmers Market at Fairfax and Third has not one but two high-quality butcher shops. Huntington Meats has a wider array of sausages with roughly 20 options, most of them housemade. They include Portuguese linguica, Sicilian sausage, wild boar, Cajun jalapeno, smoked andouille, bratwurst, basil and tomato chicken, lamb merguez, garlic artichoke, Mexican chorizo, and pheasant.
Fairfax
Jeff's Gourmet Sausage Factory
This kosher shop is known for its "snappy, spicy" hot dogs, which you'll also find in one spot in Dodger Stadium, underneath the Right Field Pavilion (although not on shabbat or other Jewish holidays). At Jeff's Gourmet Sausage Factory on Pico Boulevard, you can also find a spicy beef and lamb merguez, a chicken bratwurst, and a non-pork Polish sausage.
Pico-Robertson
Link 'N Hops
Link 'N Hops is a bar with a selection of a dozen or so sausages, from Bavarian bratwurst and Hungarian kielbasa to lamb merguez and rattlesnake with jalapeno.
Atwater Village
Marconda's Meats
Located in the Original Farmers Market at Fairfax and Third, Marconda's Meats specializes in organic and hormone-free meat and poultry. You'll find chicken links, chorizo, mild Italians, breakfast sausage and housemade beef hot dogs in the butcher's case.
Fairfax
McCall's Meat & Fish Co.
From fennel thyme sausage and breakfast links to big city reds hot dogs and spicy Italians, McCall's Meat & Fish Co. is butcher shop with a small but thoughtful selection of sausages, among its many other meats.
Atwater Village, Santa Monica
Old World
As one might expect from a biergarten, the menu at Old World is heavy on sausages like wieners, wursts, and kielbasas. You'll also find chicken jalapeno and one vegan option.
Huntington Beach
Peads & Barnett's
Pork and flowers, that's what Peads & Barnett's specializes in. As Virgil Chao tells it, the grandfather of the current farmer at P&B came from England to teach American farmers how to raise pigs. Located on the mountainside of Valley Center in San Diego County, the farm doesn't have its own brick and mortar space but you'll find their pork sausages at the Wednesday and Saturday Santa Monica farmers markets and the Sunday Hollywood farmers market.
Rabbi's Daughter
As you might expect from the name, Rabbi's Daughter is an entirely kosher operation. They have an array of sausages — Mexican-style chorizo, bratwurst, bourbon apple, Polish — all made with beef. They also have a few plant-based options including hot Italian and Spanish-style chorizo.
Westwood
Red Lion Tavern
Red Lion Tavern has been a Silver Lake stalwart for more than 60 years. You come to this pub for a beer, a warm pretzel, and a sausage, maybe a weisswurst (a Bavarian white sausage) or a smoky krakauer or Hungarian bratwurst.
Silver Lake
Seoul Sausage Company
Operating out of a window in Echo Park, Seoul Sausage Company offers doshirak (lunch boxes) featuring rice, banchan, salad, and a protein such as kalbi pork sausage, sweet and spicy chicken sausage, smoked pork belly or Korean fried chicken.
Echo Park
Schreiner's Fine Sausages
Schreiner's Fine Sausages offers 10 kinds of sausage, from Portuguese and jalapeno cheddar to applesauce and chicken lemon cilantro.
Glendale
Standing's Butchery
Despite the death of founder and owner Jered Standing in early 2024, Standing's Butchery remains in business. Known for a wide selection of ethically sourced chicken, duck, beef, and pork, the shop also offers a few sausages, made with either beef or chicken.
Hancock Park
Wirtshaus
A restaurant and pub, Wirtshaus presents a full complement of German food with a focus on sausage and beer. Yes, you can get a pork bratwurst or a käsekrainer but you can also get a chicken sausage with mango and jalapeno or a wild boar sausage with garlic and wine.
Fairfax
Wurstkuche
A "purveyor of exotic grilled sausages," Wurstkuche offers standards like Louisiana hot links, Filipino maharlikas, hot Italians, and bockwursts alongside funkier sausages like buffalo with Luxardo cherries and mint, pheasant with Herbs de Provence, and rattlesnake and rabbit with jalapeno. The restaurant also has some good vegetarian options including a Mexican chipotle sausage, a plant-based veggiewurst, and a smoked apple sausage.
DTLA, Venice
The plant-based Dodger dogs made by Field Roast are popular with vegan baseball fans. Photo courtesy of Field Roast.
Vegan Sausages & Hot Dogs
If you don't see many spots listed in the Vegan Sausages section, it's because many of the other places we've listed in other — like Earle's On Crenshaw, Wurstkuche, and Rabbi's Daughter — also offer plant-based and vegan options.
Dodger Stadium
You'll find plant-based Dodger Dogs at nine spots in Dodger Stadium. The dog is made by Seattle-based company Field Roast.
Elysian Park
Maciel's Plant-Based Butcher & Deli
Since opening in Highland Park in 2022, Maciel's Plant-Based Butcher & Deli has offered a wealth of plant-based meats and cheeses including salami, chorizo, pastrami, camembert and queso.
Highland Park