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"  Not long after Brooklyn&amp;#039;s own Anthony Weiner unleashed a media frenzy over sexts and Twitter crotch shots, Chicago has a weiner controversy of its own. This one involving actual, all-beef franks. Vienna Beef, widely accepted to be the Windy City&amp;#039;s best and most beloved hot dog brand (and these people know a good dog when they snap into it), is suing rival Red Hot Chicago. Vienna alleges that Red Hot Chicago has either ripped off its recipe or is willfully misleading customers into believing that it&amp;#039;s affiliated with the storied Vienna brand. To start, as Grub Street Chicago notes, the 25-year-old Red Hot Chicago&amp;#039;s tagline bills itself &amp;quot;a family tradition since 1893,&amp;quot; which should send off some alarm bells for anyone who completed second-grade math. This type of conduct would certainly seem to violate the unspoken code of charcuterie ethics, if not federal law. As for any Vienna/Red Hot connection: While the two brands are in no way affiliated from a business standpoint, Red Hot Chicago founder Scott D. Ladany is the grandson of Vienna founder Samuel Ladany and himself once worked for Vienna. As the lawsuit would indicate, Vienna CEO Jim Bodman is none too pleased by what he sees as Red Hot Chicago&amp;#039;s attempts at piggy-backing on his company&amp;#039;s reputation. You can get more details about the whole matter here. In search of some weiner guidance on this whole issue, we called upon Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug&amp;#039;s, the legendary Chi-Town &amp;quot;encased meats emporium&amp;quot; (their term, not ours). Sohn didn&amp;#039;t want to comment on the suit but noted that he himself proudly serves none other than Vienna Beef franks, though he also uses &amp;quot;some other Red Hot Chicago products from time to time.&amp;quot; Sohn credits Vienna&amp;#039;s tastiness to &amp;quot;really good raw ingredients, and the fact that they take the time and care to make them properly.&amp;quot; As a hot dog connoisseur, does Sohn think the recipe has been ripped off by Red Hot Chicago? He won&amp;#039;t say. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s been a while since I&amp;#039;ve had a Red Hot Chicago dog, and I&amp;#039;ve never tasted one side-by-side with a Vienna,&amp;quot; Sohn says. &amp;quot;I wouldn&amp;#039;t be able to compare them from memory.&amp;quot; So: The jury is still out. UPDATE: Red Hot Chicago Wins One Over Vienna &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a10097/chicago-hot-dog-wars-5890744/>