Blogger Nadine has posted a cool sign of a Chicago-style hot dog with the legend "Eat me" that she found in the Windy City's Bucktown Neighborhood.
Nadine knows her dogs and speculates about the absence of poppy seeds on the bun -- de rigeur for Chicago-style dogs.
Although she has not had a hot dog in ages (blame the brats), she blogs fondly about Coney days at the A&W.
I went out for Coneys at lunchtime on Thursday and found temporary fences obstructing the sidewalk around the Lafayette Building. Lafayette Coney Island is not in the building, but a couple doors down.
The fence is a sign that the building may have a short future.
Friend and Free Press copy editor Dan Austin has started a Facebook group called "Save the Lafayette Building."
He explains: "The City of Detroit's development arm is soliciting bids to tear down the Lafayette Building, a 1929 landmark designed by C. Howard Crane (who did the Fox and State-Fillmore theaters). It's V-shaped design makes it unique among the city's architecture. Despite its graffiti-filled windows, the building is not beyond saving, and its location downtown make it a prime piece of Detroit's past to redevelop for Detroit's future. We want to urge the cash-strapped city to clean up the building for thousands of dollars instead of tearing it down for millions.
I stopped by at American Coney Island for two with everything yesterday and met up with race Keros. She was replenishing the donuts -- a morning draw -- and introduced me to the new a.m. attraction: her new Coney Breakfast Sandwich.
She is a creative businesswoman who is always looking for the latest wrinkle. Two Mondays ago, on Dec. 8, she tried a number of variatons before she came up with a new sandwich that she thinks will work for breakfast. It is sausage patties, scrambled eggs and cheese in a hot dog bun. Keros wanted to keep the bun to give it a Coney dog feel. Links did not work out as well as patties, despite their resemblance to dogs.
American serves the same ingredients in a toasted English muffin.
Today's Daily Gazette in Schenectady, N.Y., reviews the restaurant Hot Diggity Dogs, which opened in September.
It has a pack of dogs including the Chicago Dog; Perro Caliente, a hog dog on a tortilla with chili, salsa and rice; and the Pittsburgh Dog, with lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage and provolone. The Babe Ruth has mustard and saurkraut. You can also get a corn dog or that oxmoronish veggie dog.
So far, no big problem.
Our issue is with the house dog, the Diggity Dog, and their version of a Coney Dog.
The Diggity Dog is topped with meat sauce, chopped onions and cheese. The reviewer wrote, "Hot Diggity Dogs’ meat sauce is especially good, a dense ground beef mixture that has been simmered for a long time with the house’s spices, including a whisper of cinnamon I could detect. It was a savory delight." That sounds to Detroiters like the fixings for a Coney Dog. So what are they serving up as a Coney?
We called Hot Diggity Dogs and asked. They said they use a chili sauce with beans in it. No way! That's no Coney. They have the names backward!
The reviewer didn't pick up on that. He seems to be new to Coney dogs, but he's learning. He also wrote, "There is ketchup at the counter and at the tables. So you can add some of your favorite if you like, though I found it interesting and, well, a good thing that none of the hot dogs on the menu come with ketchup."
That's right. The ketchup is for the fries.
Please, Hot Diggity Dog, stop misrepresenting Coneys as beanified.
I took a drive by the recently renamed Nicky D's Coney Island near Livernois and Six Mile Road in Detroit around 11:30 p.m. Sunday to see the sign hat clashes with the signs at the McDonald's right acros the street.
Guess what?
The outside signs, on the pole near the street, were gone. Only the light tubes inside were glowing. The oval faces on each side of the oval sign weren't there.
The signs on the building were still blazing away, but the place is a little less "in your face, McDonald's," than it was just a few days ago. A Detroit Free Press photo juxtaposed the two signs less than a week earlier and the story got some circulation, mostly with broadcast news Web sites, as well as some attention from McDonald's.
The dogs are getting digital over at National Coney Island.
We've noticed more activity on the National Web site -- then a blog.
Just today, we noticed that it has a Facebook page (it's been around since at least September) and a Twitter account.
Seems like a coordinated step in the right direction.
Here they are:
1. Coney dog, fries, 20 oz. Coke product for $3.99
2. Bumpity Bliss Sundae: Sanders Original Bumpy Cake topped with Vanilla ice cream and Sanders Milk Chocolate Fudge for $3.95.
Have it all for a real Detroit experience.
Need we say more? If so, go to National's blog.
This is kind of crazy and I don't quite get it, but the Coney dog has its own MySpace page.
Even more perplexing: so do many, many other foods that seem to be friends with Coney.
We don't think we've heard the last of this.
This photo, by Kimberly P. Mitchell of the Detroit Free Press, shows the proximity of "Nicky D's," Variously described as a corned beef restaurant and a Coney Island to another restaurant.
In her Free Press story, reporter Naomi R. Patton tells how this came to be (Nicky D's came second) and how the owner, Zef Dedvukaj explains it: "They stole my sign."
He says he renamed his restaurant -- formerly Detroit's Finest Coney Island -- after his 7-year-old nephew, the first grandson born in the family in 33 years.
We don't eat Coney dogs just because they're healthy.
Oh, no!
And we don't love Detroit just because it's health, either.
So it surprised us when the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine chose Detroit Metropolitan Airport as tied with Dallas-Ft. Worth for healthiest airport fare. Even more to our surprise, a Coney Island was one reason why.
The report said, in part, "After two years in second place, Detroit increased its score by two points and tied with Dallas for first place. The addition of new low-fat menu items—like the vegetarian pita at National Coney Island Express—drives the Motor City into the number one spot."
OK, so while the dogs are good but not necessarily good for you, there are options ...
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