AJ's Hot Dogs and Gyros (or is it AJS?) is literally touching Route 66 in a can't-miss location, but that doesn't necessarily make it a can't-miss stop along Route 66. We enjoyed the hot dogs here but there are competitors along Route 66 in both directions that do a finer job of making a visit more memorable, something you might be looking for seeing as you probably won't find yourself here unless you are travelling The Mother Road. Two alternatives that come to mind are Polk-A-Dot Drive In (located in Braidwood, 4.2 miles) and The Launching Pad (literally just over the Kankakee River less than a mile away) both of which are also right on the route.

The Red Hot Chicago sausage was fine, the ingredients were fresh but the staff prepping the dogs did not drain the condiments which led to a soggy bun, and we don't like soggy buns here at Hot Dog Critic dot com. As a result our reviewer had BIF (Bun Integrity Failure) and the hot dog quickly became a hand salad.

The ambiance is pretty antiseptic here, there's a tacky-tack Route 66 banner tacked with some tacks to the wall but that's about it. Otherwise this is a straight tables-on-tiles lunch place that is fine for lunch but does create the experience needed to rate this a destination dog.

We tried to get to the bottom of the apostrophe controversy as to whether the name her is AJ's or A-J-S but the staff wasn't sure. We were told that the owners' first names started with the three initials but we see the name represented as the possessive "AJ's" on official places like the Yelp reviews page. Even their website fails to answer the question as the footer clearly shows an apostrophe while the logo in the header does not have one (but provides a gap where one could go) so your guess is as good as the employee's here.

All-in-all it seems that AJS or AJ's hasn't put a lot of thought into their branding or vibe here, and perhaps that's fine for their clientele but if you're looking for something more engaging we'd recommend stopping at the other nearby choices.

AJS has two other Illinois locations in New Lennox and Crest Hill if you are in Chicagoland's remote southwest burbs.