February 7 • 2019 61
jn
Danny Raskin
Senior Columnist
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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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