The Hot Dog That Started It All
The hot dog that gave Michigan Fest its name. It also gave Plattsburgh, NY its own culinary legacy.
What It Is
A Michigan, sometimes called a Michigan red hot, starts with an all-beef hot dog on a steamed, split-top bun. It's finished with a spiced ground-beef sauce (no big chunks of meat, no beans, no cheese), plus mustard and onions. Want your onions underneath the sauce instead of on top? Order it "buried."
Our History
The story starts with Eula and Garth Otis, a couple originally from Michigan who opened Plattsburgh's first Michigan hot dog stand in 1927, with an ad running that year in the Plattsburgh Daily Republican. Exactly how the sauce recipe came together, and why it carries the name of a state hundreds of miles away, is still debated locally almost a century later. What's certain: it stuck.
The original stand eventually passed to Jack "Nitzi" Rabin, who ran Nitzi's Red Hots and had local bakeries bake the specific split-top bun that's still standard on a Michigan today. When Nitzi's closed, Clare & Carl's, open since 1943 just across the street, became the name most associated with the dish, a reputation it still holds.
Michigan Fest's Own Tradition
No two Michigan sauces are quite alike: some lean tomato-based with a hit of vinegar and brown sugar, others skip the tomato entirely for a straight seasoned-meat sauce. Every stand in the region treats its recipe like a trade secret. It's exactly why Michigan Fest runs its own Sauce Boss Showdown. Come see whose sauce takes the crown.
See the Sauce Boss Showdown