Hot Dogs and Fries for Breakfast?

Hank’s Haute Dogs is serving breakfast at its new Kaka‘ako location.

December 10, 2015

Catherine Toth Fox,

Chef-turned-hot-dog-entrepreneur Henry “Hank” Adaniya in the kitchen of Hank’s Haute Dogs, now located at 324 Coral St. He’s offering breakfast now.

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox

There really are no rules for breakfast.

At least not at Hank’s Haute Dogs in Kaka‘ako.

Since it reopened at 324 Coral St.—steps away from its previous location—chef/owner Henry “Hank” Adaniya has been offering breakfast items you can only find here: a breakfast-style hot dog and French fries topped with Hollandaise sauce. (He calls the menu “Hankfast.”)

“People come for hot dogs, so they don’t usually think about breakfast,” Adaniya admits.

But he decided to serve breakfast anyway. That’s not a surprise to anyone who knows Adaniya, who manages to figure out new flavors and toppings for something as seemingly simple as hot dogs.

“We always play with something and see what we come up with,” he says.

The Breakfast Dog, with a pork banger sausage, is new at Hank’s Haute Dogs.

This is a tasting portion of the new Breakfast Fries, served with cheddar cheese, sautéed onions, a jiggly poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. (The regular serving is twice as large.)

The Breakfast Dog ($5.50) features a Broadleaf pork banger sausage wrapped in an egg omelet and cheese and served in a toasted bun. It’s really everything you’d want in a breakfast plate—maybe minus the bacon—but served in a bun instead.

The scene-stealer, though, is the Breakfast Fries ($8.50), a decadent dish that’s an entire meal in itself. It features a box full of crispy, beef-fat fries topped with melted cheddar cheese, sautéed onions, green peppers with garlic, a perfectly poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. You can even add Portuguese sausage ($2 more), avocado ($1.25) or sautéed mushrooms ($1) to make your fries even that much more filling.

The surprise hit for me is the Ice Coffee Whip ($2.50), a coffee slush of sorts inspired by the coffee granita drinks in Italy. The coffee is slightly sweetened with sugar and topped with a dollop of whipped cream. It’s like a cup of coffee-flavored shave ice.

A sample serving of the Ice Whipped Coffee, which is reminiscent of Italian granita and cream.

The menu at Hank’s new location—which is, at 840 square feet, slightly smaller than his previous space—also features the char-grilled Hank Burger with onions, lettuce, tomato and Hank’s sauce, now served daily; and the rabbit sausage dog with sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions and a Dijon-truffle cheese sauce, served on Wednesdays.

What’s next for Adaniya? He’s looking into bringing in Icelandic hog dogs. Surprisingly, hot dogs are a beloved food in Iceland, sold at gas stations, convenience stores and malls. These dogs are made mostly from Icelandic lamb—there’s a lot of sheep in Iceland!—along with some pork and beef. But the shipping cost from Iceland to Hawai‘i would be so high, Adaniya would likely have to charge $20 per dog.

But he’s still thinking about doing it.

Of course he is.

Breakfast at Hank’s Haute Dogs, served from 10 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday, 324 Coral St., 532-HANK (4265).