Coney Island Baby

(We at the Biz are proud to have our very first “guest post” written by former Coal Region resident KG, all about our beloved downtown Coney Island Restaurant!)

Traveling to Green Bay sucks.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice place with extremely friendly people, but you can never get there directly. You always end up with a connection at some spirit crushing, shitty place like a bus stop in Gary, Indiana or a train station outside of Milwaukee, or the place where I find myself right now: Detroit International Airport.

This place is vast: it has a full internal light rail system and Asian script is everywhere since it is an international hub to the Far East.

If you dimmed the lights a bit, this place could have probably been used as a set piece for the movie Blade Runner.

I just got in from Baltimore and I’m extremely hungry. I keep passing by soulless chain restaurants and fast food joints before I’m astonished to notice a place called National Coney Island.

Now, I’ve never seen another Coney Dog joint outside of the Coal Region, and always figured our downtown restaurant was a relic of culinary style that died out in most parts of the Eastern United States in the late ‘40s or early ‘50s.

As I continued to ride along the mile long moving walkway, I spot another Coney eatery called Coney Island Express. Soon I saw another and realized the beloved Coney dogs are a hit elsewhere besides the Coal Region.

But how and why is it popular somewhere that is so far away not only from Shamokin but Coney Freaking Island, NY?

The TRUTH about Coney Island

Everything you know or assume about Coney Island hot dogs and burgers is probably wrong.

For starters, if you ordered a Coney dog in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn NY, you would likely receive a plain Nathan’s hot dog. If you asked for fried yellow onions and all meat/no beans chili on top you would be greeted with a puzzled look.

The Coney Style hot dog and hamburger that most Coal Region folks are familiar with—meat sauce, mustard, raw or fried yellow onions—originated in Detroit, Michigan. There are hundreds of these types of restaurants throughout Michigan and parts of the Midwest, and different variation of Coney dogs depending on the area.

For instance, the chili sauce used in the Detroit restaurants is very runny to the point where you’re practically fishing your Coney Dog out of a meat soup. Meanwhile in Flint, the chili sauce is much more firm and less messy. Cincinnati is renowned for the “Cheese Coney,” which is referred to as Cincinnati style at the Coney Restaurants in Michigan.

Most of these restaurants were started by Southeastern European (Greek, Albanian, and Macedonian) immigrants who wanted to make good cheap food for the blue collar working class folks that populated their neighborhoods.

Shamokin Coney Island Still Hot Spot

Fortunately, no one ever trademarked the name or the business plan. That’s why there is a Coney Island Restaurant on Independence Street pumping out burgers and dogs for the good working class folks of the Coal Region.

I eventually caught my flight to Green Bay with stomach full of Coney Dog and the reassurance that maybe there are other parts of the country—urban, metropolitan areas that are as old fashioned as the Coal Region.

Imagine that!

Photo copyright 2007 Christopher Wallish

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