ROCK HILL — Sitting in his SUV at an Exxon in rural Rock Hill, Nate Mallard took a chomp out of the hot dog slathered in chili and coleslaw.
He chewed, licked his fingers, dabbed his mustache with a napkin, raised his eyebrows and looked into the iPhone camera behind the car wheel.
“I was a little leery, I don’t know why, but this is a juicy- this is a great hot dog,” Mallard said in the Sept. 13 video posted on Facebook. “…It’s got red onion, which is nice. Plenty of chili. It’s got the fish-camp style chopped-up slaw, not chunky.”
For the next four minutes, the Rock Hill hot dog reviewer analyzed the meal like it was a piece of art. He praised the saltiness of the beef, the “nice and crunchy and tangy…creamy” slaw and the dash of tomato in the chili. He gave it a 9.2 out of 10, even though it didn’t have mustard, a staple of the Carolina-style dog.
“This is the best $1.99 I’ve had at a gas station yet,” he said of the Crossroads Exxon in McConnells. “Hands-down.”
Mallard, 36, is not a full-time, professional food critic. Rather, he is a realtor who eats hot dogs in his SUV, sprinkling chili onto his hands and beard, improvising his breakdown for Facebook videos.
But in the eight months since posting his first review, he has turned into a York County hotdog expert who has released over 20 reviews, created a local hotdog map and visited anywhere from classic restaurants to random gas stations. The Facebook videos have received tens of thousands of total views, making him a mini-Rock Hill celebrity who regularly gets recognized.
“I thought it would get buried or maybe someone would flame me and be like, ‘Oh, no, the hot dog’s terrible,” Mallard said over lunch at Ebenezer Grill recently. “… And then it just turned into this little mini behemoth of hot dog information.”
In doing so, though, Mallard tapped into a deep history of hotdogs in Rock Hill and the area. Since the mid-1900s, the region has been known for its signature Carolina-style hot dog topped with coleslaw, onions, mustard and, especially, chili.
“The chili is made of finely ground meat with the consistency of thick oatmeal,” North Carolina food writer Sheri Castle Maugans told Men’s Journal. “No beans, of course. No one eats hot-dog chili from a bowl, and no chili that goes in a bowl belongs on a hot dog. They are different things.”
To Mallard, it’s not the bun or pork and definitely not the ketchup that makes a Carolina dog. It’s the finely-diced, tangy, vinegary coleslaw and the meat-centric chili.
“People get so upset here that we don’t worry about the actual quality of the hotdog,” Mallard said, referencing those who visit from elsewhere. “…Here, the hot dog is the vehicle to get the chili and the slaw.”
But it’s not just regionally.
In Rock Hill, it’s the food that mill workers ate during break, the food that convenience stores in Rock Hill serve and the food that defines neighborhoods. It seems like every establishment in Rock Hill offers a Carolina-style dog — and it seems like every person has an opinion on which is the best.
“There’s so many people around here that hotdogs are tied to every point in their life,” Mallard said.
Growing up in Rock Hill, hotdogs were a special lunch for Mallard. He got them during road trips or after a dentist’s appointment. He enjoyed them, but he wouldn’t have called it his favorite meal.
Initially, he planned to work in media or entertainment. He graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in business and broadcast journalism and ran the student radio station. He directed a documentary about the South of the Border restaurant in Dillon, which won an award at the Charleston Film Festival.
After college, he helped produce a low-budget movie and spent one day doing props for The Vampire Diaries. But he didn’t want to grind his way through the entertainment industry.
Instead, he returned to Rock Hill, did marketing for Bethelwoods Camp & Conference Center and then transitioned into real estate for the last nine years.
In late 2022, he wanted something new for his real estate business — a spark that could tap into his creativity, “up his social media game” and attract clients to York County by highlighting something that makes the area unique.
“And I was like, ‘Well, everyone is always up in arms about hot dogs on Rock Hill Eats,’” he said, referencing the Facebook group with over 30,000 followers.
In March 2023, he published his first review, based off Barstool founder Dave Portnoy’s “One Bite” pizza reviews. He first visited a Sunoco on Indian Hook Road, formerly known as Sawyer’s, where he once visited after elementary school.
Almost instantly, likes and comments streamed onto his page. People listed their favorite hot dog places, from a QuikTrip to a convenience store in Chester. Thousands viewed the video — “a lot,” Mallard said, for the Rock Hill food scene.
He couldn’t believe it.
Since then, in between selling homes, he has continued posting videos, combining humor with a thoughtful critique of what makes a good hotdog. He records them live from his SUV, edits them on CapCut, adds in special effects and posts them on Facebook, where he waits for more recommendations.
He hit some of the most-visited establishments, like Ebenezer and Sonny’s Dutch Mill. But he also visited the smaller places — the many random gas stations, for example, which he describes as an integral part of the York County hotdog scene for people taking road trips or living in rural areas without multiple restaurants.
In the future, he hopes to expand to sit-down interviews, where visitors can discuss the history of their restaurants or hot dogs in Rock Hill.
“There’s really interesting stories here,” Mallard said. “I feel like the reviews haven’t been able to convey it well.”
But Mallard doesn’t plan to start reviewing wings or pizza. He chose the format specifically: to share a piece of what makes Rock Hill special — hotdogs.