Blood Bros. BBQ offers a bacon-wrapped hotlink-style dog call the Ripper.

Barbecue menus are expanding with new items, including tacos, burgers, fried chicken and enchiladas.

More recently, another culinary staple is popping up: hot dogs.

Of course, hot dogs are ubiquitous in any city’s restaurant landscape. Houstonians of all ages can recall their first visit to James Coney Island, or JCI Grill as it is now called.

A visit to New York City isn’t complete without a trip to a hot dog stand, where the classic boiled hot dog covered in yellow mustard and sauerkraut will set you back about seven bucks when you throw in a can of soda.

Heading to a baseball game? A hot dog and a beer are as popular as ever, and the combo will cost you $13-$15 nowadays.

For the cost-conscious, the real pro tip is to get the hot dog at any Costco outlet, forever priced at the inflation-busting figure of $1.50.

And for true connoisseurs who need their fix at any time of day or night, there is always the convenience store hot dog, spinning in perpetuity on those roller-grill appliances near the drink station.

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Much like barbecue in the past decade, hot dogs have gone through something of a culinary upgrade. Good Dog in the Heights is well-known for a deep selection of handmade hot dogs of all styles and flavors.

YoYo’s Hotdog stand in Rice Village has recently become known for its barbecue-joint-like lines of customers waiting as long as an hour on weekend nights to get their Instagram-worthy dogs topped with crunchy fried onions and other accoutrements.

The Sonoran-style hot dog, or the MexiDog, has made inroads over the past decade, too.

Made famous in food stands along the borderlands of Arizona, and specifically in the city of Tucson, these bacon-wrapped hot dogs are topped with condiments such as chopped onions, tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, mayonnaise and ketchup. “Hotdogueros” — the hot dog equivalent of barbecue pitmasters — build the hot dogs to order while you watch.

The key to Sonoran-style hot dogs is the bacon wrapping. These are cooked on a griddle, so the bacon becomes a crispy container for the hot dog inside. In Houston, Sonoran-style hot dogs can be found at food stands in many Mexican American flea markets around the city. Good Dog also has a version called the Ol’Zapata.

Because everything is better with bacon, several of the hot dogs showing up on barbecue-joint menus are derived from this style. For instance, Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew in Austin occasionally offers a special called the Tijuana Dog, with a bacon-wrapped, smoked hot dog topped with an arbol-chile mayonnaise, queso fresco, fresh pico de gallo and diced avocado.

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In Houston, Blood Bros. BBQ now offers a bacon-wrapped hotlink-style dog called the Ripper that’s topped with a sweet-and-spicy ghost pepper relish, made with Steen’s syrup and mustard, and served in a toasted bun. It’s available daily and a great deal at $9.

Don’t be deterred by presence of the famously hot ghost pepper in the relish — it’s actually a clever mix of moderated heat from the pepper as well as sweetness from the syrup and spiciness of the mustard.

Combined with the crispy bacon and the snappy casing on the smoked, house-made pork-and-beef hotlink dog, it’s the perfect combination of classic barbecue flavors and the beloved tradition of American hot dogs.

A native of Beaumont, J.C. Reid graduated from the University of Southern California after studying architecture and spent his early career as an architect in New York City. He returned to Texas in 1995, retiring from architecture but creating his own Internet business in Houston. As his business became self-sustaining, he began traveling Houston and the world to pursue his passion: eating barbecue.

He began blogging about food and barbecue for the Houston Chronicle in 2010 and founded the Houston Barbecue Project in 2011 to document barbecue eateries throughout the area. Just last year, Reid and others founded the Houston Barbecue Festival to showcase mom-and-pop barbecue joints in the city. The 2014 event drew 2,000 guests to sample meats from 20 restaurants.

You can view more of J.C.'s work at jcreidtx.com.

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