Hot Lirpa's, 2803 W. Addison

It appears Hot Doug’s has some competition on its hands (if not sincere imitation or blatant infringement).

A quirky new sausage stand, Hot Lirpa’s, has opened a couple of blocks from Hot Doug’s at the corner of Addison and California.

I went yesterday. There’s an interesting story behind the owner, Lirpa, a one-man whirling dervish plowing full-steam ahead in his pursuit of fine and exotic sausage--trademark infringement or not.

Here’s just a snippet from my two-hour conversation with him.

As a second-generation German-Chicagoan, sausage was always in Lirpa Dummkopfer’s blood. His father and grandfather both ran sausage factories in Munich and were famous for what is known as the “Nürnberger Bratwurst,” the smallest sausage in Germany at less than two inches in length.

Lirpa graduated with honors from the Harper College Culinary School in 1973 but the demands of a wife and two young children steered him to the security of insurance. He’s built a steady clientele at the Allstate branch at Addison and California--a mix of auto and property coverage.

When the motorcycle shop next door to Allstate went out of business last month, Lirpa decided it was now or never to open his own sausage stand. He’d been carrying on the Nürnberger tradition in his basement for years selling the sausages to family and friends.

Lirpa’s opened Monday, March 28. It’s mostly a take-out setup but there are stools lining the window. Lirpa hand-cures the famous family bratwurst and a variety of other sausages like ones made with guinea fowl and spur-winged geese imported from Botswana. There are some bizarre sausages there!

I had two Nürnberger Bratwursts, snappy and juicy with rich flavor. I tasted pepper, ginger, mace (?), coriander, and nutmeg. (Photos to come.)

I asked Lirpa about the name and how closely it resembles Hot Doug’s. Lirpa said, “Hot Doug’s? Never heard of ‘em. Besides, I’m doing more interesting sausages than the average hot dog stand here--and everything’s homemade! Besides, a Thuringer isn’t that interesting after the 3rd Thuringer.”

There really is a great (and, again, bizarre) variety of different sausages at Lirpa’s. There’s even a “Clam Dog.” It’s a mix of pork and clams.

Lirpa said Allstate (where he now works part-time) has been extremely supportive of his new venture. The Allstate sign that read, “Drive-in Claim Service” has been altered to read, “Drive-in Clam Service” and some of the guys at Allstate even pitched in to buy a neon arrow affixed to the sign to point customers to Hot Lirpa’s.

Hot Lirpa’s
2803 Addison (at California)
No telephone yet
11:00 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. M-S; closed Sunday

He's even open until 4:05pm - such a distinct advantage over the overly punctual Doug.

For some reason this reminds me of a post concerning Bob Chinn's and walleye or northern pike....

Happy April Fools! to you too.

PT:

I'm surprised you didn't immediately recognise the Dummkopfer family name as one of the oldest and most revered names in sausage in central and northern Bavaria. While doing research on the inflexional morphology of the written German of teenage women in 16th century Nürnberg, I had the opportunity to examine a vast array of documents produced by members of three different branches of the Dummkopfer clan. In one letter I examined (Gunhild Dummkopfer to Ursula Krummfuss, 18 January 1588 -- incidentally, a letter with some shocking morphological innovations), one of the clan alludes to the impaling and burning at the stake of one of the Dummkopfer women for witchcraft, Kriemhilt Katzenjammer née Dummkopfer, wife of Gernot Katzenjammer, alleged inventor of the "Katzenwurst." Folk belief is that these sausages were made with, hmm, how you say, feline flesh, but the origin of the name has simply to do with the length and diameter of the sausage -- obviously resembling a cat's tail -- and the name of the original sausage maker.

I'm puzzled by the firstname 'Lirpa'; it doesn't sound very manly to me. Are you sure you got the spelling right and that it's not Lörpe? Or has the family Americanised?

A

P.S. I hate to drop names... BUT... one of my Prussian ancestors was the famous Anton Fleischwolf, inventor of the meat grinder!

Paul Tyksins wrote:Hot Lirpa’s
2803 Addison (at California)
No telephone yet
11:00 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. M-S; closed Sunday

BTW, next time, you would be better served to understand the Chicago numbering system. The place just west of the Allstate claims center that does motorcycle work is, like the Allstate center, on the north side of the street and therefore has an even numbered address. 2803 Addison would be growing out of the head of the ComEd building on the SW corner of California and Addison and unless they built it after 8:30 PM when I drove past it on the way home tonight I'm guessing, nay betting, not.

Jeez, Kman - tough crowd!

I for one bought it entirely (as embarrassed as I am to admit to believing the clam-dog bit...) and give it a A++ for effort and execution!

Thanks for the April Fools!

I've also heard that Hot Lirpa's is going to be distributing Google Gulp- sounds like great stuff! Read more about it here: http://www.google.com/googlegulp/faq.html

But is it an authentic Providence-style clam dog?

Nice, Paul. A fresh DiGiorno's pizza for you!

No, I'm sorry. I'm as much of a Chicago booster as the next guy, but there's simply nothing in this town that can compare with an authentic Providence clam dog. Need I remind anyone of the ill-fated Pro-Dog in the Clybourne Corridor that had to add a miniature gold course just to make ends meet? Yes, I know; clams can be flown in at a moment's notice, horseradish can be ground fresh by hand here, too, and the recipe for Portuguese sweet rolls is not a state secret. But fuhgeddaboudit! It's all about the WATER!

Damn. I was looking forward to having a couple of those brats.

Kudos.