Feltman's or Nathan's?
BBC article here
As many Americans fire up the grill to celebrate Independence Day this Fourth of July, we're revisiting one of our favourite stories about the unlikely origins of one of the nation's most popular foods: the humble hot dog.
"If there's any food that represents Americana, it's the humble hot dog. Today, these bunned frankfurters are sold at every baseball game, grilled at nearly every backyard barbecue and available at roadside convenience stores from the Carolinas to California. In fact, this most archetypal of American foods originated as the US started to stitch itself back together in the 1860s following the American Civil War...
But while you can now find these seasoned sausage sandwiches across the American heartland, the hot dog's iconic home is on the boardwalk at New York City's Coney Island.
...I spotted another sign attached to a small shop directly beside the historic Cyclone rollercoaster that read: "Feltman’s of Coney Island: The original hot dog – 1867."
Up to that point, I'd thought that Coney Island hot dogs began and ended with Nathan's, whose name has been synonymous with the seaside theme park for as long as anyone can remember. But...according to Brooklyn native and Coney Island historian Michael Quinn, a German immigrant named Charles L Feltman was serving hot dogs along the bustling strip decades before Nathan’s was conceived...
In 1916, one of Feltman’s former employees, Nathan Handwerker, opened his own hot dog shop just blocks away from his old employer
BBC article here
As many Americans fire up the grill to celebrate Independence Day this Fourth of July, we're revisiting one of our favourite stories about the unlikely origins of one of the nation's most popular foods: the humble hot dog.
"If there's any food that represents Americana, it's the humble hot dog. Today, these bunned frankfurters are sold at every baseball game, grilled at nearly every backyard barbecue and available at roadside convenience stores from the Carolinas to California. In fact, this most archetypal of American foods originated as the US started to stitch itself back together in the 1860s following the American Civil War...
But while you can now find these seasoned sausage sandwiches across the American heartland, the hot dog's iconic home is on the boardwalk at New York City's Coney Island.
...I spotted another sign attached to a small shop directly beside the historic Cyclone rollercoaster that read: "Feltman’s of Coney Island: The original hot dog – 1867."
Up to that point, I'd thought that Coney Island hot dogs began and ended with Nathan's, whose name has been synonymous with the seaside theme park for as long as anyone can remember. But...according to Brooklyn native and Coney Island historian Michael Quinn, a German immigrant named Charles L Feltman was serving hot dogs along the bustling strip decades before Nathan’s was conceived...
In 1916, one of Feltman’s former employees, Nathan Handwerker, opened his own hot dog shop just blocks away from his old employer
So the flare gun is an appropriate response when presented with a hot dog. The only thing hot dogs are good for IMHO, is target practice.
