Dogtown Opens Second Location in Bethel With Killer Comfort Food Menu

Four years ago, when I first covered Bobby Manere’s Dogtown in Milford—where Cali-inspired fast casual and a little bits of his dad’s lower Fairfield County famous Swanky Franks meet—he talked about wanting to open a Dogtown sequel.

That time is now, and Bethel, you’re the lucky recipient.

Manere broke the Bethel news on my friend, Jeff Spencer’s Sweet’N Up Podcast, when he was a guest alongside Kyle Marcoux, aka, The Vulgar Chef.

Piggybacking (a proper term given that hot dogs are involved here) off of Manere’s announcement, it felt like a good time to catch up with him and see what his Bethel spot is doing and what’s new with Dogtown.

The space, located on Library Place, is something Manere, a Bethel resident, had noticed a while back.

“It was Céréale Town before and I saw it two years ago when it closed,” he says. “When a sign went in the window about a year ago, I contacted the owner and signed a lease last September. Getting the place up took like nine months because of gas line issues. I would have jumped on it a lot sooner had I known (about the issues). We had to get a high-pressure line, but the town doesn’t dig in the winter, so it got held up by five-plus months.”

Spicy chicken

Loaded tots w/cheese, bacon, and sour cream

Manere said he had considered Shelton for a second Dogtown, but when that fell through, the puzzle pieces in Bethel just fit, especially being that he lives a few minutes away.

“Milford is manageable on its own now; I haven’t been there in a month!” he says. “My kids wake up super early, so I can get here at six or seven in the morning. We’re prep heavy, so I can get all that done.”

Making the menu trip over from Milford to Bethel are Dogtown’s greatest hits; three different fried chicken sandwiches—including their spicy chicken with Boom Boom Sauce (think in terms of a sweet, spicy bang bang sauce in mayo form) and three burgers, namely, the Dogtown Burger that’s a mockup of In-N-Out’s Animal Style Burger, grilled in mustard, then topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, pickles, and burger sauce.

An homage to his dad’s popular Swanky Franks, the “Swanky” is decked out with Swanky’s recipe chili and spicy mustard, cheese, bacon, kraut, and diced raw onion.

But this is Dogtown, after all, and in Bethel, dogs are front-and-center.

“I’d like to adapt the menu in Milford closer to what Bethel is, leading with the dogs,” Manere says. “We’re trying to figure that out in Milford because of customer pushback. I have a whole burger menu up there. In Bethel, we’re cranking out a ton of dogs early on.”

Dogs like the “Zephyr” (chili, American cheese, raw onion, hot pepper relish), “Mongo” (chili, creamy coleslaw, bacon), and the rest of Dogtown Milford’s “Tricked Out” section all make the trip over to Bethel, but Bethel’s got, at least so far, an expanded dog section.

The “McWeenie” is a hot dog dressed like a Big Mac. “Dixie” is topped with BBQ pulled pork, pickles, and slaw. There’s a Chicago style dog called “Duster.” “Elote” is a wiener with grilled corn, chipotle mayo, cotija, Tajin, and cilantro.

And like I told you in 2021, Dogtown uses Martin Rosol franks, a blend of beef, veal, and pork, but they’ve since added a Hummel Bros. all-beef option.

“I prefer the Rosol, personally,” Manere says. “It’s a traditional Connecticut hot dog. Even though it (the Hummel) says ‘kosher’ on the menu, it’s not. Nothing here is kosher. I just know an all-beef dog as a kosher dog. It’s what we always called it.”

For sides, tots (some order with toppings are a meal by themselves), fries, and onion rings are now fried in beef tallow.

“We might be one of the early ones doing it in Connecticut,” Manere says. “Nothing here is vegetarian anymore, but I think it will catch on more soon. It tastes the way old McDonald’s used to taste. It’s more expensive and has a shelf life, but it makes a huge difference. It’s got a higher smoke point and gives it a richer flavor, and it holds the crunch a lot longer on the tots and rings. Milford isn’t quite there yet with frying in tallow since we only have two fryers there, three here, so we can dedicate one to chicken because it’s the flour that kills the tallow.”

In-N-Out, eat your heart out.

With local ice cream legend Dr. Mike’s in town, Manere scrapped the idea of doing shakes or floats in Bethel, as he’d rather send his customers to another local business.

But what he hasn’t scrapped are his own legendary roots.

Manere’s chili at Dogtown is still his dad’s recipe, as is the spicy mustard, and he’s made sure there’s a proper homage on the menu in the “Swanky.”

“People are starting to get the Swanky Franks connection,” he says. “In the Danbury area, people might not know about Swanky Franks because the hot dog scene there was always JK’s, even though there was a Swanky’s in Newtown. But the ‘Swanky’ is my dad’s Cruiser Dog (American cheese, chili, raw onion, sauerkraut, bacon, homemade spicy mustard). It’s as close as I can get to my dad’s dog.”

I say this as someone who grew up eating Swanky Franks: If you miss it, this hot dog will transport you back in time.

4 Library Place, Bethel
203.616.5054, dogtownct.com