Pretend You're Local.

The Salted Cod is never one to turn down a roadside stand. We’ve spent a lot of time in Maine this summer and this is the one establishment that we kept hearing and reading about but never had a chance to make it there. Finally we did.

Flo’s Hot dogs in Kittery Maine has been in operation since 1959. Flo dogs have been revered by locals, tourists, truckers and food critics alike. This is a one woman operation working out of a simple shack serving up dogs, soda, and chips. The floor slants upwards as you get closer to placing your order. We heard rumors that the older lady behind the counter has been compared to the soup nazi in Seinfeld, turning away customers who don’t order fast enough or leave the door open. One story goes a trucker stopped in to get a cup of coffee; she asks “how about a dog?” The trucker says “I ate down the street.” She says “you can get your coffee down the street too.” We unfortunately did not see her on our trip.

Inches away from hitting the ceiling at 5’8, the line was long and crowd was hungry. One larger (honestly large) man in line ahead of us suggested we order the house special. This consists of a steamed dog and bun topped with mayo, sauce and celery salt. We ordered 2, our friend ordered six.

The dogs were quite tasty and very soft, we were hesitant to order mayo on a dog but it worked quite well and we will never turn down the advice of a man of that stature. As for the sauce, from what we could take it was onions reduced in a molassesey sauce giving it the taste and look of Boston baked beans.

Our belly was quite happy and was actually barking for one more. This is a great stop for some classic American road food.