Holes-In-The-Wall

If you ever go to a PawSox night game, a trip to Olneyville New York System is a must. One of Rhode Island’s most famous hole-in-the-walls features Hot Wieners: an Ocean State specialty. If you go to Olneyville and order a hot dog, they won’t know what you’re talking about. In fact, they’ll probably bust your chops. It may be embarrassing to order a hot wiener, but the dish itself is worth any brief humiliation you may suffer.

The NY System is a Weiner smothered in hot mustard, celery salt, chili, and onions. Messy, greasy, heavy, absolute bliss. The perfect meal after having a few drinks at McCoy Stadium or hitting up the bars in Providence.

Hot wieners aren’t the only state specialty available at Olneyville NY System. Coffee Milk (the official state beverage of Rhode Island) is proudly served, and the perfect beverage to accompany your meal. A good preventative measure before partaking in any of these Rhode Island delicacies is to take a Prilosec. You don’t want to be tasting chili dogs and coffee milk on your ride back home, if you catch my drift.

The inside of Olneyville is a typical late night diner, a perfect hole-in-the-wall, but a relatively famous one. Olneyville has three locations in Rhode Island, but as is most restaurants, the original is still the best. Olneyville NY System is a ‘can’t miss’ restaurant for anyone visiting Rhode Island.

Olneyville NY System: Providence, RI: A Rhode Island tradition, the Hot Wiener is a grilled beef, pork and veal natural casing wiener served "all the way" on a steamed bun covered in meat sauce (don't even think of calling it "chili") with onions, mustard and celery salt. Then washed down with sweet coffee milk, another Rhode Island original.

There are dozens of different stands with the words "NY System" and "Hot Wiener" in the Providence area, but Olneyville is considered one of the best, where cooks line 10 or 20 dogs "up the arm" dressing them with mustard and sauce at a lightning pace.

Olneyville NY System: 18 Plainfield St, Providence RI;

Top Wieners

By WJamesWood32 in USA
May 16, 2011
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Do you love hot wieners? What a dumb question, of course you do! What about the best hot wieners in all of Rhode Island? Hey, you! That’s enough! Wipe that drool off the floor this minute—have some class! We all know how much you love hot wieners, so never fear. We here at Let's Go love hot wieners, too. So, as always, we've got you covered on your wiener-hunt through Providence. But do us a favor: don’t call them hot dogs. Never. Ever. Ever. You can call them wieners and you can call them “gaggers”—so of course, you should call them gaggers (pronounced "gaggahs")—but you absolutely cannot call them hot dogs. No excuses. Now that that’s out of the way, here we are: the three best wieners in Providence!

1. Olneyville N.Y. System – “R.I.’s Best Hot Wieners” is their slogan, and they aren’t kidding. Even though Olneyville is about a five minute bus ride from downtown, the wieners are absolutely irresistible. The quality of the wieners coupled with the unbeatable price (less than two dollars per wiener, but let’s be real: no one’s going home after eating just one) puts Olneyville’s pride and joy at the top of the wiener charts for Providence. Order up two or three wieners—despite being “gaggers,” they really aren’t that big—topped with the “special” wiener sauce and mysterious chili-onion-like substance, a plate of fries, and a large coffee-milk and dig in. Wieners don’t get hotter (or better) than this. It might have a New York name, but this baby is all Rhode Island.
Traveler’s tip: It’s marketed as “hangover food” and the place stays open almost until dawn, but go earlier. Some travellers report that Olneyville is not a place you want to be past midnight.

2. Haven Brothers Diner — Imagine a diner, then put that diner on wheels, and then put that diner-on-wheels at the intersection of Dorance and Fulton Streets for over two hundred years. And there you have it, folks: Havens Brothers. Everything that was said for the Olneyville “gagger” can be applied here, except the wieners are a little more expensive, but the price is easily surmounted by the diner’s location in the middle of downtown. All in all, one of the neatest places I’ve been—Haven Brothers is the only place that you can order “in” and still eat in a car.

3. Modern Diner — This diner is technically in Pawtucket, R.I., just ten or twenty minutes outside of Providence. But if you’re a diner junky, you can’t pass this one up. It's the first diner in American history, and their hotdogs are still remarkably fresh. Shoot, I said hotdogs! Their wieners I mean, and they're are delicious. If you get a chance to head north to Pawtucket, these wieners are the only real attraction, so you’ll probably end up at Modern whether you want to or not.

Here's how they make NY System Hot Weiners:

You would walk in and take a seat on a stool at the counter, to order you say something like, "Twelve "all duh way.". And then you sit and watch an amazing single hand assembly. First the steamed buns are skillfully lined up duh ahm from finger tips to elbow, and with swiftness a Rhode Island hot weiner is placed inside each bun.
Next came the stick, mustard was quickly slapped onto each weiner. Then, the top came off the steaming secret meat sauce the mini ladle was filled and meat sauce was spread over each weiner, the ladle went down and the lid was replaced. If you ordered your weiners "all duh way" finely chopped raw onions were dropped on each one by spoonfuls and celery powder was sprinkled over from elbow to finger tip.
Hot Weiners to go
The weiners were removed, usually by twos and placed on wax paper that was laid out and waiting. With quickness and precision the steaming hot weiners were wrapped in the wax paper, and almost instantly a brown paper bag was shook opened and the hot weiners wrapped in waxed paper disappeared into the bag.
You could order your hot weiners "all duh way" or "wid out duh onions." If you ate at the diner you always had a nice big glass of cold coffee milk.
When you ordered your hot weiners to-go (which we normally did) by the time you got home the paper bag was nice and greasy, you poured a glass of milk added some coffee syrup and devoured your hot weiners in three to four bites.
Tip: Never call a New York System Hot Weiner a Hot Dog
Interesting info about RI Hot Weiners
RI hot weiners have nicknames, such as gaggers (gaggahs), belly busters, weeners, and weenies
It's "E before I" when you spell NY System Hot Weiners
Don't call them hot dogs they are hot weiners
The secret meat sauce is a Greek immigrant recipe; it's greasy and a little runny
The drink of choice when eating RI hot weiners is coffee milk
Rhode Islanders speak with a unique accent; Up the arm - Up d'ahm; Three - Tree; Coffee - cawfee; car -cah

Hot Weiner Spots in Rhode Island

The RI hot weiner is unique in a few ways, its taste, its name, its size, its meat sauce, its nicknames, the way it's put together or assembled, the type weiner and the fact that it originated in the smallest state in the United States of America, Rhode Island.

I'm a rather picky eater, but there are a few foods that are favorites and the NY System Hot Weiner is on my list. To simply say they taste good would be an understatement because it's everything about hot weiners that appeals to me. The size is great, not too big and filling. The meat sauce is spicy and goes great with the finely chopped onions. The buns are soft and small like the weiner. Watching how they are made is interesting and builds up your appetite for that first bite. The wax paper and paper bag is soaked and greasy by the time you get home. And the combination of a cold glass of coffee milk and hot weiners is amazing.

A Rhode Island weiner is made with veal and pork not beef, and it has a reddish color. Originally it did not come in links. The weiner was long and would be cut into 4 inch pieces, that is how it got its distinctive flat ends, but today they are made in links. The buns are steamed and hot when served. To topping of an all the way NY System weiner has mustard, the secret meat sauce, chopped raw onions and is sprinkled with celery powder.

Rhode Island Hot Weiners

Why are they called New York System Hot Weiners

The origin of NY System Hot Weiners started as far back as 1927, some say even further back to 1915. Greek immigrants who landed at Ellis Island and lived in Brooklyn's Coney Island area later headed north and relocated up in Rhode Island. It is said that they opened up eateries and named their specialty weiners New York System Hot Weiner because of how popular New York was, they believed using New York in the name of their product would be an advantage when it came to marketing. However, over the years many businesses have opened that serve NY System hot weiners. Whether or not they all serve the original "secret meat sauce" is unclear.

One article found, it's written by a Christopher Martin and based on his research of the origin of the famous RI hot weiner he states in part, "...I talked with the owners...scoured microfilmed newspapers for articles and obituaries...and turned to old Providence city directories."

The Providence City Directory is an accurate list of residents with addresses, their occupations or businesses. It has been published annually since around the 1900s, so Christopher's research is pretty thorough and may have narrowed down which business was the first to open.

Many would agree that nothing matters except preserving that unique flavor and style of a NY System Hot Weiner. You really have to take one bite to understand why the Rhode Island weiner is so tasty.

It's not a Hot Dog it's a Hot Weiner

Do you have a favorite food that you grew up eating? Have you moved away from your hometown to a place that doesn't have the food you miss and crave from time to time? New York System Hot Weiners that is one food that makes me homesick. Who wants some weeners? Or "How many gaggers you want? Those words were music to my ears growing up.

As a matter of fact, going to get hot weiners was a treat. John's New York Systems was a small diner, you'd walk in and the smell of the spicy meat sauce would fill your nostrils. Hot weiners were laid out on the grill, the buns were steaming, a pot of the special meat sauce was always ready and freshly chopped onions, mustard and celery powder were waiting. Your taste buds would wake up, at least mine did.

It was fascinating watching the man behind the counter as he moved non-stop. He was like a one man assembly line. Hot weiners are made in a very unique way, up dah ahm in Rhode Island speak. It's quick and takes concentration, balance and skill to put together a New York System Hot Weiner.

People ordered dozens at a time, and the small sandwich shop was always packed. Cars lined up along the curbside and no sooner one car pulled away with its weiners in tow another car would pull in. Sometimes you'd see cars doubled parked, and lined around the corner on side street. That is no exaggeration.

Where to eat the best hot dogs in the US

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• New York System wiener, Rhode Island

In Rhode Island, you can find the delicious ‘New York system’ wieners (which of course you can’t find in New York). These are very similar to the Coney hotdogs, only the frankfurter is long and thin, made of pork and veal instead of beef. The wiener is served with an aromatic hot sauce that contains cumin, allspice, chili and paprika, and topped with chopped onions, celery salt and mustard.