Happy Friday, everyone! The Corndog Days of Summer, an annual one-day festival at the Stillwater Bar in Olney, kicks off tomorrow at 2 p.m.

The event will feature live music, food, drink, a raffle and a cornhole tournament. It’s a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Northwest Montana, and is also intended to be a way for locals, especially those who work in the service industry and as seasonal workers, to kick back, relax and have a goofy time after the craziness of another Flathead Valley summer.

“It’s such a funny type of event to do, but I think just the wacky nature of it has garnered the attention of the Valley,” one of the festival founders, Sam Basset said of the event as it heads into its fourth year. “We just feel the love from the community, and people just want to come out and have a good, goofy time. We always position it kind of at the tail end of summer, because it feels like locals holiday now.”

Consequently, I’ve got corndogs on my mind. Heading into this weekend, I was already having something of a corndog summer myself. It all started on day two of the Glacier Museum’s Arts in the Park festival back in July. Full on art, but still hungry for food, I made my way over to the trucks and vendors, and eventually settled on Carl’s Corn Dogs.

I’ve long been a bit of a corndog skeptic. Something about the woody taste of the dog’s stick that can sometimes permeate the dog itself had left me over the years with a less than enthusiastic view of this iteration of the hot dog.

But Carl’s Corn Dogs helped me see the golden, battered light. Despite it being the middle of the summer, they were determinedly dipping and frying dogs, and it made all the difference. Thank you, Carl. 

Bassett, one of the founders of Corndog Days of Summer, and the executive chef and co-owner of Forage Catering, is something of a corndog aficionado himself.

And so, dear readers, this is where I will challenge you to choose, if only hypothetically, from the gourmet dogs that Bassett said they’ll be serving at Corndog Days of Summer this Saturday at the Stillwater Bar in Olney.

There’s your classic dog, of course. Not much more for me to say on that one.

And then there’s the okonomiyaki dog. It’s a play on okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake. This dog comes topped with okonomiyaki sauce, Kewpie Japanese mayo, aunori and bonito flakes.

Also on the menu this year is the “Thai dog.” It’s made with sai oua sausage that Forage makes in collaboration with Perfect Cuts Specialty Meat Shop in Columbia Falls. This dog comes with green chili jam, cilantro and chicharrónes.

Both the okonomiyaki dog and Thai dog have been offered at the festival in years past. But there’s a newcomer this year, which I think will sorely tempt quite a few festivalgoers. Called the Lila Dog, in honor of the 11th birthday of Bassett’s niece, which happens to fall on the auspicious day of this year’s Corndog Days of Summer, this corndog will look to pack the best parts of breakfast onto a stick.

The Lila Dog will be made with breakfast sausage dipped in pancake batter, and then served with warm maple syrup and butter.

So, which one is it? I’ll tip my hand here and reveal that if you asked me to choose from among these delicious dogs, I’d have no choice but to pick all four. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made, but I accept my duties here with no complaint.

Aside from this specialty dog, this year’s festival should be mostly business as usual. One small tweak to this year’s festival is that they’ve brought in the Badrock Baggers, a Flathead Valley cornhole club, to help organize the festival’s cornhole tournament. It should streamline the tournament, and even impose a little uniformity to the boards in play as the Baggers will be bringing eight sets for tournament play. There have been “some funky boards,” in years past, Bassett said.

The festival is also doing away with its silent auction, and will instead be focused on the raffle component.

“Newfoundland sponsors,” which helped get the festival started and continue to support it include Borealis Natural Gardens, Big Mountain Botanicals, Wild Sky Designs and Forage Catering.

Corndog Days of Summer will start at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30 at the Stillwater Bar in Olney and go until 10:30 p.m.

The raffle will start at 3 p.m. and winners will be announced starting at roughly 6:30 p.m. Cornhole tournament signups start right away, with last call at 3:30, and the tournament kicking off at 4 p.m. The tournament is $20 per team, and includes prizes and trophies. Teams will consist of two people. Per organizers, team names are required and costumes are encouraged.

Live music will start at 3 p.m. This year’s lineup includes Carbon Halo, Analog Armada, Surfbat,, Hotdäyum! And Schticky. More information can be found at foragecatering406.com.

I’m Mike Kordenbrock, pulling on my leash and chasing the weekend, bringing you the Daily Roundup…