Tots and bacon-wrapped dog at Stumpy’s.

Over the years, Chef Jim Stump has run many restaurants in the South Bay.

Stumpy’s is his tiniest.

The veteran chef and restaurateur, who helped founded the Los Gatos Brewing Company, now draws in the crowds at The Table in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood and his just-opened Campbell bar, The Vesper. Coming soon will be his seafood restaurant, Forthright in Campbell.

In 2014, he opened Stumpy’s hot dog and burger joint on Willow Glen’s well-trafficked Lincoln Avenue. It’s a slip of a place, with just enough room to order your food at the counter and load up on a few condiments at the back station.

Order the food inside; pick it up outside at the window.

When your order is ready, you pick it up at the window outside. There’s really no place to eat inside Stumpy’s. But the old movie theater next door has a few patio tables set up so you can enjoy your food there. Or you can opt to get it to-go and take it home, as I did when I paid my own tab there recently.

I can never pass up tater tots ($2.50). They’re just so cute, right? And they possess that perfect ratio of crunchy exterior to fluffy, soft interior. These fit the bill nicely, and were salted just enough.

The Rachie ($6.50) is a BLT version of a hot dog. The tube steak is spiraled in bacon, then fried, before snuggled in a bun with lettuce, tomato and mayo. The bacon was crisp-chewy and the dog had a nice snap to it, though I think the frying tends to toughen it up a bit.

The Chicken Run ($8.85) is messy but juicy. Two slabs of chicken breast are stacked on a garlic butter-slathered whole wheat bun, along with caramelized onions, tomato, “sinister sauce” (a creamy concoction), and Hungarian peppers. I appreciated the pop of spiciness the peppers gave, as sometimes chicken sandwiches can be rather boring and plain without something to give it a kick.

The chicken sandwich.

The Pastrami Burger.

A special that day was the Pastrami Burger ($8.80). The moderate-sized beef patty is topped with pastrami, along with cheese, sauerkraut, and pickles. The pastrami was fatty and indulgent, as it should be. Its flavor also fairly overtakes that of the beef patty. That’s fine if you are craving more of a pastrami sandwich than a burger. But if you’re jonesing for the full-on beefy mouthful of a burger, this one might not be for you.

The food at Stumpy’s goes down easily. In fact, the only headache will be finding a parking space on bustling Lincoln Avenue.