Nic Macri barely entertains the question. Is a hot dog a sandwich? “No,” the Royal Tavern chef says. “I don’t think so. It’s its own entity.” But can a hot dog be a hoagie? Or a Cubano? Theoretically, ...

In my family, hot dogs have a reputation as "kids' food" at cookouts. It's an easy, fairly low-effort way to feed a lot of people-and fast. That is why we grill a whole lot of hot dogs in the summer.

At a summer cookout, I prefer a snappy hot dog to a juicy burger. It might be a controversial take, but my love for these links started when I learned how to make them by hand. During culinary school, ...