The Cavalier, Lynchburg, Virginia

Last Friday the gent I was working with in Lynchburg, Virginia, had heard about the hot dogs I’d had at the Texas Inn the previous evening. I’d told him they weren’t all they were cracked up to be. He felt I needed to have something better. He gave me a couple suggestions, including the possibility of a lunchtime pizza, and then recalled a place that served hot dogs having what he called, “A nice red sauce.”

Hmmm, that sounded interesting. Red sauce. I wondered what the Heck that was … So he and I climbed into the company’s white Ford Focus, the one with air conditioning but no cruise control, power windows or power locks (the other car had the cruise control, power windows and power locks, but no A/C) and we headed for The Cavalier.

The place is … unique. From the outside it could be a dry goods store, with its aluminum window frames and glass block halfway up the front wall. Inside, the wood walls were either inscribed with personal graffiti or covered with license plates, flags, and Lord knows what else. For only being there 22 years, it looks a lot older.

Sam didn’t look at a menu … he simply ordered the two hot dogs, “with the red sauce”, including mustard and chopped onion, and a side of seasoned fries. I went ahead and ordered the same.

After probably 15 minutes, the waitresss placed the dogs in front of us, and handed us each a fork and knife saying, “You’re gonna need ’em”. She was right … I couldn’t pick the darned hot dogs up! The sauce looks hot and spicy, but is actually quite sweet. The hot dogs and their sweet sauce were good, and honestly, I could only eat one-and-a-half of them. Why? Well, there were probably two whole potatoes in the basket of fries …

The fries were probably the best part of the meal. Crispy on the outside with tender potato when I bit into them, they were coated with a seasoning mix that wasn’t as powerful as I expected. The seasoning provided a good balance for the fries instead of providing all the flavor. I could taste the potato. That’s quite a change from a lot of fries I’ve had.

Hot dogs and fries. Who’d have thought they’d make the best meals on that part of the trip?

3 Comments

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  1. Cook's Assistant

    That would need a fork and a knife to eat. It almost looks like they used a flat sided hot dog bun and then cooked it like a grilled cheese for a little crunch. It could be possible that the red sauce has some sort of cherry in it.

    From the pictures you’ve shown it looks like this place could potentially show up on Guy Fieri’s show: Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. It looks like it has lot of local color and from what you have written can whip up a mean mean hot dog and side of fries.

  2. I don’t normally like thick cut fries (I’m a shoestring girl!), but those look wonderful! I need to stop looking at the picture; it’s giving me a craving.

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