Tubby Dog

Jon Truch’s mission is to make the hotdog cool again. For over a decade, his Tubby Dog diner has heaped – and we mean heaped – gallons of cheese, bacon, mustard, wasabi, horseradish, peanut butter and numerous other toppings in uproarious combinations on top of substantial, grilled wieners to the astonishment of hipsters, teenagers, professional athletes, nuclear families and Food Network hosts. Throw in some video games, pinball, rock ’n’ roll and movie screenings to the tiny diner on the 17th Avenue Southwest strip and its easy to understand why Tubby Dog has endured as a little palace of kitschy, pop cultural fun of Warholian proportions.

“I do everything extreme. That’s how I live my life,” Jon says, half joking as he sits at one of the diner's counter stools. He explains why it is that the diner's dogs, such as the A Bomb (smothered in cheese, mustard, bacon, mayo and potato chips), The Sumo (topped with wasabi, seaweed salad, pickled ginger and sesame seeds) and the Slaw Dog (stacked with coleslaw, chili, cheddar and pickles), are so over the top with toppings.  “It’s just how it evolved,' he says. "I’m pretty much all or nothing. There’s no low bar. Aim high.”

Among Tubby Dog's legion of fans are members of the Calgary Stampeders who hail from the southern U.S. and can’t otherwise find a chili dog of such excessive proportions in Calgary.