Happy Birthday, Ricky. Whatever it is, I bet it's good.

Clever! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday and Happy Dog Making, Ricky!!!

Happy Birthday, Ricky! Someone out there knew how to make you happy. :)

Looks like a vacuum packed hard roll but the description says otherwise.

Happy Birthday!

@JoanM - soft rolls, perfect for an Italian hot dog.

A taste of home is always appreciated by those who have moved away. I'd always get bag of Wise potato chips in my Christmas box from home.

My mother was born in East Orange NJ but moved to the Hudson Valley around the time Jimmy Buff's opened so I never heard of an Italian hot dog. What has surprised me the most since moving to the West coast (California and Oregon) is that no one has heard of sausage and pepper sandwiches.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday from me as well! Hope your dogs are everything you hope for 😃

And this card seems apropos...

You and my husband Elizabeth. All he does is complain about the local pizza. I lived out east for over a decade, so I know the pizza can be just as good or as bad as it is here in the midwest. My home town happens to be a bit of a pizza desert, but some of this is improving now that the pandemic is over. The competition now seems to be stirring a heightening of the bar. But still hubs complains. I think it is his thing to do now . . . We tried a lot of pizza out east before we found our delicious "go tos." So far we haven't had much luck here. A couple of our favorites closed up shop. I mostly make it at home now . . . we got used to the cost savings . . . A thin chewy crust still mostly eludes me though, with my home made. I had do medium thickness or deep dish, but thin not so much . . .

Perhaps there is such a thing as a mail-order White Castle burger?

@John Liu - you can buy them in the freezer case at Costco, BJs, and most larger supermarkets. Not that they're any good, but you can buy them.

The frozen White Castle's are very bland. Maybe you first need to go out for the evening with your friends and then eat them at 2AM ?

FYI - For all who may care.

We finally got White Castle in Florida! I have to drive two hours to Orlando but we now have a few up there. Funny enough, they have been awful each time I went. It turns out that quality (freezer burned/stale) and ability to execute a tiny little burger, is not guaranteed. Who knew? I tired a few times and they were consistently awful. Such a bummer since I waited 30 years. The upside is that they have a chicken and waffle sandwich now that is pretty good.

If you had told me so many years ago that one day I would go to a White Castle and pass on the burger for chicken and waffles, I would have laughed you out of the room.

Joan, I have no personal experience with White Castle, but when I was in college some of my friends moaned in longing for this thing we didn't have in California. For the last many years, howver, I've only heard, including from people chatting on TV, moaning about how terrible and inedible the burgers are. I don't know if the burgers have lost something or if more people generally have become used to something so much better that the burgers revisited can't live up to the memory. Either way, you're not alone.

I lived in Bergan county, NJ for a few years back in the late 80s and never heard about Jimmy Buff's. It seems strange to me to use a hot dog instead of an Italian sausage for such a sandwich. I make Italian Sausage sandwiches often in the mid to late summer when my peppers are producing and I have an abundance of onions harvested about now.

We used to go to White Castle when we lived in Minneapolis back in the late 60s. It was always a treat for us kids. I hadn't had their sliders for about 50 years until I saw Aldi selling the frozen version and bought a box. I ate 2 of them and tossed the rest. Just awful!

I don't know if Jimmy Buff's had any locations outside Essex County.

Jimmy Buff's website

A used to be Jersey-ite......loved White Castle. Remember as a very little girl their burgers were just my size. Haven't had one in easily 60 years. perhaps they are better in memory than actuality.

I have vivid White Castle memories and as a kid I remember that you could watch them being made thru a glass window. They were tiny little patties with 5 holes in them and not much beef to speak of but they were gently cooked on a flattop with grilled onions and a little steamed bun. Heavenly little belly bombs.

Fast forward 50 years. They kept the concept where you can theoretically watch the burger be prepared. However, there is no glass window and no cooks gently cooking these little babies. Instead it is a gigantic flattop griddle in the center and a bunch of kids standing around that do not understand the delicate nature of a beef patty that tiny. Freezer burn? Dried out corners from overcooking? Probably a little of both. Every time! The cooks at the new white castle have never ruined the chicken patty and Belgian waffles. So far anyway LOL. They must be easier to cook?