It takes a serious dog to beat out Fenway Franks, but Spike’s late hours, cheap prices and wild toppings do the job. Timid diners can stick to ‘the Mutt’ (plain dog), while the courageous should order ‘the Junkyard Dog’: tomato, pickle, scallions, pepperoncini and Spike’s mustard.

Spike’s Junkyard Dogs was everything Alex and Sarah had sworn it would be. The all-natural grilled dogs were tops. Ditto for the poodle fries and homemade sweet red pepper and onion relish. Though there are all kinds of offbeat toppers from Russian dressing and Swiss to barbecue sauce, cheddar, and bacon, this crowd went au natural. Sarah was disappointed that they were out of hubcaps a jumbo chocolate-chunk cookie, but brightened when she saw all the goodies in the car.