Feltman's Coney Island Original Hot Dog (2024)

FAQs

What is the original Coney Island hot dog? ›

The Coney Island developed in Michigan is a natural-casing beef or beef and pork European-style Wiener Würstchen (Vienna sausage) of German origin, topped with a beef heart-based sauce, one or two stripes of yellow mustard and diced or chopped onions.

In 1867, German immigrant Charles Feltman invented hot dogs to give beachgoers a convenient way to snack, sans silverware. Then, in 1916, Feltman's employee Nathan Handwerker quit to open up his own shop nearby. While Nathan's frankfurters became famous, Charles' original Coney Island stand shuttered in 1954.

It all started in 1867 on Coney Island, New York, when Charles Feltman, a German immigrant and baker by trade, invented the first hot dog as a convenient way for beachgoers to enjoy frankfurter sausages on a long sliced bun without the hassle of plates or silverware.

Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, is traditionally credited with originating the frankfurter. However, this claim is disputed by those who assert that the popular sausage - known as a "dachshund" or "little-dog" sausage - was created in the late 1600's by Johann Georghehner, a butcher, living in Coburg, Germany.

It is unsure how Coney Island got its name. It may be because when the Dutch people arrived in New Netherland , this island had many rabbits, so they named it 'Konijn Island', which became 'Coney Island', using the archaic term for rabbit in English.

Historians disagree on the hot dog's origin story, but many credit Charles Feltman, a Coney Island pie-wagon vendor, with inventing the fast food, serving hot dachshund sausages in milk rolls as early as 1867.

More than 150 years later, Brooklyn native Michael Quinn, current owner of Feltman's Hot Dogs, has made it his mission to change that.

About Feltman's of Coney Island: Charles Feltman, a German immigrant, invented the hot dog in Coney Island during the summer of 1867 as a convenient way for beachgoers to enjoy quality sausages on a bun without plates and silverware, by turning his pie cart into a hot dog cart.

But one thing is certain: While one might logically assume that the coney dog originated on New York's Coney Island, it is widely considered to be a Michigan original. (Coney Island is, however, the birthplace of the American hot dog.)

This is because the flavor of the red sauce, which is sweet and tangy, can overwhelm the taste of a good hot dog, pulling focus from the flavor of a quality sausage and covering up the taste of a subpar, or potentially spoiled, dog.

What do they call hot dogs in Chicago? ›

A Chicago-style hot dog, Chicago Dog, or Chicago Red Hot is an all-beef frankfurter on a poppy seed bun, originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois.

As one story goes, Greek immigrants passing through New York and its famed Coney Island, appropriated the Coney Island name for their Coney dog version. While no one place can definitively claim to be the birthplace of the Coney dog, Michigan, by sheer volume and duration of its Coney restaurants, makes a strong bid.

Hot dogs were called 'red hots' or 'dachshund sausages' before it took its current elusive name. When vendors in the New York Polo Grounds in 1901 were screaming, “They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!”, the cartoonist observed and drew barking dachshund sausages in a warm roll.

The reasons for the great popularity of the American Coney Island is the high quality, specially-seasoned, natural skin casing hot dog from Dearborn Sausage and our own Keros family secret recipe Coney Island Chili Sauce developed decades ago.

Coney Island In Detroit

The first Coney restaurant in Michigan, Todoroff's Original Coney Island in Jackson, Michigan, was founded in 1914. Detroit's American Coney Island opened just a few years later in 1917 on West Lafayette Street in downtown Detroit.

Both are prepared with Koegel's Viennas and buns, however, the Flint-style coney is then topped with loose beef, mustard and onions while the Detroit-style coney is more of a chili dog with mustard and onion.