February 7 • 2019 61
jn

Danny Raskin
Senior Columnist

raskin
the best of everything

Coney Hot Dog Debate 
A

nd the beat continues to go on and 
on … Into another year … Still a 
hang-up as to where the good ol’
 
Coney Island hot dog came from as it is 
today … and how it got started.
Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’
t a 
Detroit restaurant as supposed by many … 
Or even New York … According to much 
talk, it was said it might have been in 1914 
at Todoroff’
s Original Coney Island in 
Jackson, Mich. 
Detroit’
s American Coney Island, which 
opened a few years later in 1917, grew to 
be of large note also with people coming to 
Detroit looking for the place to have that 
delicious Coney hot dog so many folks talk-
ed about.
Nathan’
s Famous opened a little hot 
dog stand in Coney Island, N.Y., in 1916, 
but it wasn’
t a Coney Island dog with the 
yum yum inside … Just a very good hot 
dog.
The fact that George Todoroff, who 
owned Todoroff’
s Original Coney Island 
never registered a trademark on the name, 
allowed an untold number of restaurants 
that followed with all-meat, beanless and dry 
chili, chopped onions and mustard on a bun 
to claim the name … The Detroit style of 
chili with its own cumin powder is said to be 
slightly heavier and soupier.
They may have had small menus but 
big national reputations … It was regular 
occurrences for entertainers galore, sports 
stars, millionaires, politicians, newspaper 
people, etc., to be found at the counters of 

both as they savored the delicious tastes of 
their Coneys.
The ground beef was not hammered 
into a patty and flopped on a greasy grill 
… It was stirred loosely in a large pot until 
cooked into numerous crumbly pieces of 
tasty offerings … This was spooned out with 
a wooden spoon over the hot dog … Many 
folks, however, had the cook ladle some 
of the slightly creamy and heavier sauce 
with cumin powder on open hot dog buns 
without the hot dog, enjoyed with chopped 
onions, relish, mustard or catsup.
There are many self-styled variations of 
Coney Island hot dogs, including the name 
… In Flint, they are, or were, called Flintoids 
(slang by people from Flint) whose Flint-
style Coney Island with their dry sauce is 
what Philly cheesesteaks are to Philly cheese-
cakes and what Chicago deep-dish pizzas are 
to numerous Chicagoans with a relish-based 
sauce on their doggies … Many places in 
New York state also call their Coneys a 
“Michigan” or “Red Hot” and, in some areas, 
just plain Coney dogs … At Baltimore’
s G 
& A restaurant, along with a Coney Island 
hot dog is a Coney Island hamburger topped 
with chili and fried onions … In Cincinnati, 
the “Cheese Coney” takeoff of the Detroit 
Coney Island, is topped with chili, onions 
and shredded cheese, which nearly hides its 
smaller-sized hot dog.
What’
s next in the way of Coney Island 
hot dogs? … Few want to change it … and 
with delicious reasons.
MANY READERS may remember when 

owner Nerio Lelli used to make his own 
chocolate ice cream at his former Lelli’
s Inn 
on Woodward, north of Grand Boulevard in 
Detroit … It was like a tradition for numer-
ous ice cream lovers to order his premis-
es-made specialty … Former customers and 
others may again order the thick creamy 
ice cream from Nerio’
s own recipe … It is 
being made by Executive Chef Chris Merritt 
at Steven Lelli’
s Inn on the Green, 12 Mile, 
between Halsted and Haggerty, Farmington 
Hills.
REAR VIEW MIRROR … Herman “
Ace” 
Korman singing “I Wish You Love” softly 
into the ear of Shirley Canvasser at the orig-
inal London Chop House on Congress in 
Detroit … whom he married two years later. 
DATE HAS BEEN set for Variety The 
Children’
s Charity’
s, honoring Andiamo 
and Joe Muer restaurateurs Joe and Rosalie 
Vicari for “changing the lives of children” … 
It will be Saturday, May 4, at the Townsend 
Hotel in Birmingham.
OLDIE BUT GOODIE …Two men walk 
into a restaurant and ask for tea. “
And make 
sure the glass is clean,
” one tells the waitper-
son. 
Returning with the two glasses of tea, the 
waitperson asks, “Which one asked for the 
clean glass?”
 CONGRATS … To Ruth Talmer on her 
70th birthday … To Mel Firestone on his 
birthday. ■

Danny’
s email address is 

dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.

Variations abound, 
but they’
re all 
delicious. 

TOP: Todoroff’
s,

a loose-meat coney and 

a Detroit-style coney.

 TODOROFF GROUP LLC

STEVEN DEPOLO/FLICKR, AMERICAN 
CONEY ISLAND, DETROIT

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