Billy’s Gourmet Hot Dogs — Restaurant in Denver

To say this place was a disappointment would be understatement.

We called for a take out order from the website, straightforward right? The establishment has two locations, as we lived in Englewood, we called the number from the website and placed our order. When I walked into the store to pick up my order, I was greeted with a friendly 'we don't have an order for you'. I stated that I had called in 15 minutes ago... 'ok, we still don't have an order for you' ... I then learned that there is another location, I had called the downtown location, the website only has one phone number, I was then advised to go downtown and pick up my food because they did want them to throw it out... the gentleman then yelled at the teenager in the back to come and make more fries (there were only 4 people in the restaurant).

And there I was, and that was the solution, so I acquiesced, and drove downtown... after all, I guess I had made the mistake and called the only number available. When I did go downtown I was greeted by a friendly team of individuals and explained my situation they said I had met Billy... the owner, apparently heavy on business, light on service and quality. And that would explain the $38 for 3 hot dogs, 2 fries and 3 shakes and nice little commute back to Englewood where I was then able to enjoy my 'gourmet hot dog'.

Now, I'm not picky, but gourmet to me implies quality or something else besides 'bad'. Maybe this is tough with a hot dog, but I feel at the minimum it should fill the bun, and have a nice 'snap', right? My dog was boiled, the dogs on pedestrian mall downtown, in fact, even the grocery store put this to shame... mediocre would be a compliment, also it appears that Billy does not like to distribute tips to his employees, not sure what the Yelp ramifications are for that but it certainly notches him higher up on the jerk scale. So there you have it... if any of this sounds appealing, by all means, prove me wrong, but if I was able to dissuade you to try a different restaurant with your hard earned dollars, maybe check out another small business that cares about customer service, and quality and most importantly,...

I've never had a worse experience at a restaurant in my life. This is for the Colfax location, but our experience was so awful and so strange it should be known.

10pm on a Friday, Colfax is bustling, and we walk in to every single chair stacked, tables dirty and pushed in the corner, and no music--just the cackling voice of the meth-ed out Front of House manager screaming about being too busy. We were the only people in there, mind you. After ordering two hot dogs and fries, we went upstairs to find floors that hadn't been swept or mopped maybe ever, a sticky stain on the floor so old it ripped my shoe off, and windows closed on the Summer night covered in gunk and fingerprints.

While we waited for 20 minutes in silence upstairs it became apparent that our food was not coming up there. We went downstairs only to be told our food was taking so long (over 30 minutes at this point and no one else is in there) because the special bun I ordered was extra work.

Normally I wouldn't care, I would write off this experience as a weird one and walk away. But then the Front of House Meth Head started shouting about too many orders being placed, being too busy, and no one having any work ethic. She had a catering order she needed to tend to and thus CLOSED the garage doors on us (literally, on us) and announced that she would only accept orders that were to go and for the basic dog. Then 20 seconds later she deemed the restaurant as totally closed and that anyone who questioned it could "call Billy."

Now, I don't know Billy, I don't know his restaurant model, but I do know that if you're the owner of a very successful chain like this in Denver you don't want this to be how your restaurant is represented on a busy Holiday weekend. I will never go back here, but I sure hope they get rid of the two drug addicts running that place so not everyone has to feel as uncomfortable and...

Billy’s downtown restaurant is located at the triangular intersection of Broadway and Larimer, with a patio that offers a panoramic view of downtown life. It also offers the intersection of two pursuits: an affection for Chicago-inspired nostalgia, and the contemporary trend toward exotic meats and artistic accents in our comfort food.

Billy’s standard is the Chicago standard: an all-beef Vienna dog with the steamed bun, but they also offer housemade Italian and Polish sausages. And many other dogs and sausages, such as corn dogs, duck sausage, Cajun sausage, and chicken mango jalapeno sausage. There are vegan dogs, apparently well-regarded by the vegan community. There are also “not dogs,” a clever name for other alternative sandwiches: not just burgers, but grilled salmon and thin-sliced Italian roast beef.

Billy’s has nine (nine!) varieties of fries. The Garlic Pesto Blue Cheese fries seems the most interesting, but I haven’t had them yet. Billy’s also has ice cream and sorbet, all made in-house.

I ordered the Billy Dog, a traditional Chicago dog - Vienna beef, mustard, relish, onions, pickle spear, sport peppers, tomato slices, and celery salt, steamed bun with sesame seed. It was very good. I also had one of the specialties, the White Hot Dog. It’s basically a Coney Island, but the “White Dog” is a combination of uncured and unsmoked pork, veal, and beef. The chili was good, thick and meaty like I prefer, but it masked any unique flavor the meat may have had.

Billy’s is the pride and joy of Billy Feid, a Chicago native. He had what might be humorously seen as a mild middle-age crisis, and the result was that he opened a hot dog joint. Well, there are two or three of them now. It’s a great outcome for all hot dog lovers - the fancy artistic kind, and the old-time...