Best Drinks to Serve with Hot Dogs

Do you remember singing along with the commercial, "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. They go together- like the good old USA! Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet"?

It's a fun song and it reminds me a lot of summer. Then I got to thinking: You can't have a hot dog without a drink! What about the drinks? So if we had to add a drink to the song, what would it be?

Beer: Baseball, hot dogs, and beers- now they go together! When you're at a ball game you're stuck with whatever beer company has the stadium contract, but out in the real world you can choose your own beer. I recommend a pilsner, lager, or a lite beer with a hot dog.

Budweiser, Labatt Blue, or Coors Light are very popular choices and make a nice compliment to the hot dog. Because the hot dog is so flavorful, you'll want to stick with a mild beer. Avoid dark, weizen, or stout beers- they just don't go with hot dogs.

Lemonade: Hot dogs are "the" summer food and lemonade is "the" summer drink, so they totally go together! You can make your own lemonade by squeezing fresh lemons into a pitcher and adding sugar and water to taste. It's kind of expensive and time consuming to make your own lemonade. It's much cheaper and faster to buy a powdered mix. Country-time and Crystal Lite are two of my favorites, but most of the time the store brand is just as good. If you're in a situation where a pitcher of lemonade just isn't going to work, go ahead and by the ready-made. The 12 ounce cans and bottles are so convenient. I recommend Tropicana Lite lemonade- it's delicious and at only five calories per serving it's guilt-free, too!

Pop: (Yeah, we call it pop.) A hot dog and an ice cold pop go together like...uh... oh, I've got it: apple pie and Chevrolet! When I think of a pop I usually think of Pepsi or Coke. A hot dog and a Coke- that's totally baseball food. But for picnics grape pop and orange pop seem to be a better bet, especially for kids. I think it's the combination of savory and sweet that makes it got together so well.

Wine: What color wine do you serve with a hot dog? Actually, the truth is that you kind of don't serve wine with a hot dog. But then again, it's your party and you can serve wine if you want to, wine if you want to... (Ooh, bad joke.)

In seriousness, I'm pretty sure I've had Lake Niagara and hot dogs on more than a few occasions. (I'm not saying that it's a culinary delight, I'm just sayin'.) But let's put it this way: you would never have hot dogs at a wine tasting, but a little wine at a hot dog roast never hurt anyone.

If you want to play it safe, the best drinks with hot dogs are beer, lemonade, and pop.