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Restaurant review: Arbetter's in Cocoa serves hot dogs and nostalgia

Lyn Dowling
For FLORIDA TODAY

The topic under discussion on the ever-growing Facebook group 321 Flavor: Where Brevard Eats was hot dogs: New York hot dogs, Chicago hot dogs, Cincinnati hot dogs; “dirty water” dogs, Coney dogs, Texas weiner (That’s the way it’s spelled.) dogs; good dogs, mediocre dogs and bad dogs.

Venues at which hot dogs could be bought came up too, and in the midst of the discussion, a lone typist wrote “Arbetter’s.” That brought a smile; we hadn’t been to Arbetter in ages, and maybe, with the all-American holiday fast approaching, it was time to partake of the all-American . . . What is it? Sandwich? Meal? Snack?

Arbetter’s, for the uninitiated, is possibly the least pretentious restaurant in Brevard County: a very old counter-service place with sign-plastered walls, booths and tables that show their age and ceiling tiles that don’t match.

A hot dog, fries and a shake at Arbetter's in Cocoa make a satisfying lunch for not a lot of money.

One suspects that’s intentional, a kind of good-natured nose-thumbing, because behind what looks like clutter, the place is immaculate, and the people who handle food seem to constantly wash hands or change gloves.

What Arbetter’s serves is posted on its walls, and though it includes everything from nachos (meh) and cheese steak sandwiches (again), its specialty is hot dogs, and you can get them in 100 percent beef or plain old franks, with more add-ons than can be named here, plus soft-serve ice cream in beverages, cones, sundaes, et al.

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Having heard days of discussion about how a hot dog with some form of chili sauce, onions and cheese should be — and being a New Jerseyan, my opinions are as strong as anyone’s (a ripper all the way, please) — Job One was a chili dog: chili, onions, mustard and cheese, for a grand total of $2.40. It came wrapped in paper and accompanied by extremely hot fries ($2.15) and a cherry milkshake ($3.05).

The hot dog was very hot, as was everything on it, including what clearly was a relatively meaty, in-house-made sauce that tasted like nothing from Ohio, Michigan, Northern Kentucky, Rhode Island, West Virginia or New Jersey; a lot of fresh onions; and a scant amount of shredded cheese on a nicely steamy roll.

The chili dog at Arbetter's in Cocoa comes with a generous helping of onions and meat sauce.

No, it wasn’t like any hot dog anywhere else, but isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Aren’t frankfurters supposed to differ from region to region? I would have loved a Cincinnati four-way, with cheese piled high; spend five minutes in the Queen City and you will dream of Empress, Skyline or Gold Star all your days. But this was Cocoa, and this is the way hot dogs in Cocoa have been for decades.

The milk shake was colored a lovely shade of deep pink, but I’m afraid coloring was the only thing that separated it from a plain vanilla shake; it had virtually no cherry flavor. But on a hot, sticky day, it was brain-freeze-inducing cold, so that was all right.

The second dog of the afternoon was stolen from the pushcart playbook, a plain dog with New York-style onions in red sauce ($2.20). This wasn’t a lot like the stuff it imitated, which usually has thinner, more translucent onions, with a bit more cinnamon, but again, “different” does not equal bad, and there was a lot of it.

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That was it. A fair enough lunch, when it came down to it, for less than $10.50, and a Cocoa tradition, alive and well and serving so many people that it has its own traffic light.

Look for us at Arbetter’s. I’m the one in the FLORIDA TODAY cap.

Of note: At the time this is being written, 3,300 Brevardians and others are talking about food in FLORIDA TODAY’s Facebook group, 321 Flavor: Where Brevard Eats. Get in the conversation. Join us.

Arbetter’s Hot Dogs

Three stars

Address: 816 Dixon Blvd., Cocoa

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Saturday; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday

Call: 321-806-4857

Online: Search "Arbetter Hotdogs" on Facebook

WiFi: Yes

Other: Shakes, malts, specialty desserts; low-fat and gluten-free items

About our reviews

Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.

Five stars: Excellent. A rare establishment to which you’d be proud to take the most discerning diner.

Four stars: Very good. Worth going out of your way for. Food, atmosphere and service are routinely top notch.

Three stars: Good. A reasonably good place with food and service that satisfy.

Two stars: Fair. While there’s nothing special about this establishment, it will do in a pinch.

One star: Not recommended. Don’t bother.

Want to talk food? Tweet @lyn_dowlinsg or email 321foodreviews@gmail.com, or join our group on Facebook, facebook.com/321FlavorWhereBrevardEats.