What's The Meaty Sauce You Always Find On Coney Island Hot Dogs?

If you only have 24 hours to eat in New York City, then besides the necessary bagel and New York pizza slice, it's probably worth taking the trip across Brooklyn to visit Coney Island for a hot dog. The amusement area's boardwalk is the home of Nathan's Famous, which first opened over a hundred years ago. However, even if Nathan's Famous is the big dog that hosts Coney Island's annual hot dog eating contest where Joey Chestnut earned his glorious victories and helped popularize Coney Island-style hot dogs, you can easily find one outside of New York, especially in the Midwest. The Coney dog, as it's often called, is a specific recipe that is almost — but not quite — a chili dog.

A Coney dog is a frank on a steamed bun topped with a thin layer of ground beef sauce (referred to as Coney sauce), which is cooked with chopped onions, mustard, chili powder, cumin, and lots of optional additions like garlic, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, or ketchup. Unlike a regular chili dog, which uses thick chili that piles up on the hot dog, the ground beef or hamburger meat used to make a Coney dog should be much runnier. Typically, the beef is finely ground up and cooked with extra water to accomplish this.

Funny enough, the Coney dog may not have been invented in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Its exact history isn't known, but the legend goes that the recipe was invented by Greek immigrants who arrived in the United States through Ellis Island and simply borrowed Coney Island's name. After they arrived, they sampled local cuisine — which likely included hot dogs — and eventually traveled to Michigan, where the first Coney dog popped up in 1914 at Macedonian immigrant George Todoroff's Original Coney Island in Jackson. Three years later, the Detroit restaurant American Coney Island was created by Greek immigrant Gust Keros. His brother William opened the rival Lafayette Coney Island just next door in 1924. Both are still open and beloved for their Coney dogs.

In the Midwest, it's not uncommon to hear arguments over Detroit versus Flint Coney dogs. Naturally, Flint, Michigan, has its own history here: In 1926, the Flint Coney Island restaurant was opened by Macedonian immigrant Simion P. Brayan. It's probably not accurate to say there's an exact recipe for either style, but usually a Detroit Coney is soupier and juicier, while a Flint Coney is more dry and slightly less messy. Neither counts as a dressed-up chili dog though, because neither version's sauce includes beans. Both are entirely unique Michigander-New Yorker-Greek-Macedonian creations.