Polish Boy: The Cleveland-Style Hot Dog Loaded With Flavor

The pantheon of American hot dogs is far more diverse than most people realize. We all know that New York and Chicago make a great dog, but regional specialties like the San Francisco-style hot dog and Hawaiian puka dog should not be overlooked. Today, let's highlight a specialty from the Midwest, where the history of the Chicago hot dog has tended to overshadow its many regional companions. Elsewhere along the Great Lakes, though, the people of Cleveland are cooking up a unique sausage that you can't find anywhere else.

The Polish Boy is a Cleveland specialty made with a smoked kielbasa, nestled in a hoagie roll and topped with coleslaw, French fries, and barbecue sauce. The kielbasa, also known as a Polish dog, is often made with a mixture of pork and beef. It is heavily seasoned with garlic and other spices, giving it a bolder flavor profile than the average hot dog. Unlike standard hot dogs, kielbasa are smoked, which pairs perfectly with the barbecue sauce atop a Cleveland-style Polish Boy.

Although the Polish Boy regularly features on "best of" lists covering the national hot dog scene, it remains difficult to find outside of Cleveland, an indicator of its close ties to the city and its history. There is some uncertainty surrounding the origin of the Polish Boy. Credit for its invention is widely attributed to Virgil Whitmore of Whitmore's Bar-B-Q, which began serving up sausages in Cleveland's Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in 1942. However, in an interview with Cleveland Magazine, Whitmore's grandson, Virgil III, professed that there were other cooks in the neighborhood making Polish Boys before Whitmore's Bar-B-Q did. Those early versions didn't always include fries, but Whitmore's established the standard toppings and popularized the Polish Boy over the course of the mid-1900s.

The use of a kielbasa in place of a standard beef or pork hot dog is emblematic of Cleveland's history. Around the late-1800s (if not earlier), the city was a major hub for Polish immigration to the United States. Several Polish neighborhoods arose around Cleveland, including Warszawa, Poznan, and Josephatowo. Polish restaurants and groceries became staples of the community, and although some of those historical neighborhoods have been reshaped or disappeared over time, their legacy is still felt in heartwarming dishes like the Polish Boy.