Coney Detroit

A Quick Trick with Qwiki

Check this out. It is here not so much to tell you about coney islands (Coney Detroit can do that better), but to show you how a cool tool called Qwiki.com can build you a mini report on almost any subject.

Try it.

My Coney Space

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.

East Side, West Side

We at Coney Detroit have been nettled by questions about how large Coney Detroit is.

Certainly, Jackson and Flint are part of Coney Detroit.

I would even argue that the Motor City Coney Island in Henderson, Nev., is part of Coney Detroit, at least  psychically. 

But it is clear that Coney Detroit does not encompass the whole of Michigan.

In his blog, "Brian-Food: I know it's not good for me, but seriously, I  don't maintain this figure by watching what I eat," Brian Atkinson bemoans the dearth of Coney joints on the west side of Michigan.

A Lafayette Coney Island man, Atkinson writes, "Living in Western Michigan as I do, there's a huge hole in my diet. Namely, the Coney Dog."

Check him out on Coney Dogs, Peanut Butter and Banana Dogs and leftovers.

New Year's Nation and Coney Dogs

One of the best New Year's Eves to be had in Detroit will be at the Fillmore, according to The Detroit News.

The Fillmore will be one of eight locales nationwide -- across four time zones -- to link up via video screens for New Year's Nation.

Ticket prices range from $115 to $265 and include red carpet reception, an open premium bar, food stations, pizza, chocolate, cgampagne, party favors, balloon drop laser light show -- and a midnight buffet of sliders and Coney Dogs.

Coney Family's Christmas Food Tradition

Grace Keros, the first woman in the Keros family to help run the family's American Coney Island restaurant in downtown Detroit is featured in Sunday's Detroit Free Press Twist magazine talking about her family's holiday food traditions.

Recipe for a Stomachache

In a column about "high fives," the executive editor of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus wrote "Five foods I will never turn down: Coney dogs, deviled eggs, cookies, shrimp, marinated herring."

When I asked Rich Perlberg if he has ever eaten them all at one sitting, he replied, "I'm not saying that it's never happened."

The Queen of Coneys

Loved, loved, loved the St. Paul Pioneer Press obituary headlined "A toast to the queen of coneys."

Phyllis Kappas, 87, died June 30 after a fall in her White Bear Lake home. The bar she founded has become a local tradition.

The article says, "They moved the bar to its present location, at East Seventh and Wacouta streets, in 1955. The coney, a nickname for a Coney Island chili dog, was a big draw early on and still draws a lunchtime crowd. The coney was discontinued shortly after the 1955 move because homeless working men who lived at the Union Gospel Mission, then located across the street, wanted full meals. The coney was brought back in 1981."

You can find the obit on the Queen of Coneys here.

Not a Pretty Sight

There should be some kind of warning with this, but the people at Hot Air have posted the ESPN video of Joey Chestnut's winning performance (66 hot dogs with buns in 12 minutes) at Coney Island in the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Monday.

Copydogs

A newbie at a Detroit Coney Island restaurant: "You know, they have a Coney Island in New York, too!"

Too Many Chefs

For a good time call ... Coney.

Brother Bill is getting married this month, so we took him out for a classic bit of Detroit tomfoolery. (That's Bill, way down the line, second from the end.)

A great day of baseball and a Tigers win over the Mets at Comerica Park, silly fun at the Greektown Casino that netted him about $50, a walk through Greektown, a stop for Coneys at Lafayette and a few games of pool at the Anchor Bar, followed by a rippin' ride on the People Mover.

Hoo! What a party.

And what's with the chef hats in the photo at Lafayette? We wore them instead of the usual T-shirts opr ball caps because of Sheffield's popularity at the park and had them enbroidered with "86 the single life," a salute to a former restaurant worker soon to be an ex-confirmed-bachelor.

Next week: Some amazing Coney feats.