Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener

Dining Out: Best Brunches in Rhode Island

May 2, 2018 at 4:12 pm

Airy omelets, fabulous French toast, wonderful waffles, perfectly poached eggs, clever cocktails, hot doughnuts and house-cured bacon. These are a few of my favorite brunch things.What makes a stellar brunch? It must be delicious, but it should also be fun. That’s what you’ll find at these 11 spots, which brought fabulous food -- and fun with a capital F. - GAIL CIAMPA, Providence Journal Food Writer

MILK MONEY, Providence

Providence’s Milk Money brings clever versions of favorites to the brunch table. If you enjoy a good clam cake, you will adore Andouille fritters with Halloumi cheese and pepper aioli for dipping. It’s spicy comfort food at its best.

Like French toast? You will love, love, love these French toast sticks. They’re a little crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and have powdered sugar for good measure. [The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach]

Brunch is served Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The menu here offers the Andouille fritters and French toast sticks as First Bites. Options under Eggs and Things include Quinoa “Fried Rice” with a farm egg, bok choy and mushrooms. Other must-haves include executive chef Marisa Walachy’s Creamy Polenta and Chicken ’N Biscuit.

Even the green, purple and blue mason jars used as water glasses are fun here. And Milk Money handles big parties beautifully. [The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach]

Details: Milk Money, 566 South Water St., Providence, (401) 649-4667, milkmoneyri.com

ROGUE ISLAND, Providence

Nestled in Providence’s Arcade, Rogue Island Local Kitchen & Bar had my allegiance before I tasted a single bite. When you make reservations (mine was made by my husband, using his name), your table is adorned with a chalkboard bearing your name. What a simple, but lovely and fun, way to begin brunch.

So too was the suggestion of Irish coffee, which was perfect and served in a big mug. It went perfectly with the homemade doughnut of the day. Mine was yummy strawberry. [The Providence Journal, file / Sandor Bodo]

Brunch is served on a bonus day, Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Don’t miss the breakfast sandwiches, which are excellent, and I may have had the best one of all during my brunch tour: It starts with a homemade bagel, and layers on fabulous housemade sausage, two eggs, honey mustard, arugula and Cabot cheddar cheese.

The menu also features a unique Tater Tot Poutine. Cool. [The Providence Journal / Gail Ciampa]

Details: Rogue Island Local Kitchen & Bar, 65 Weybosset St., Suite #108 in the Arcade, Providence, (401) 831-3733, rogueislandgroup.com

BAYBERRY BEER HALL, Providence

They may be new to the Providence scene and specialize in beer, but Bayberry Beer Hall gets brunch. Big time. What a delight to start with a Nitro Stout. This drink starts with Nitro Cart creamy cold-brew coffee, which is mixed with a rotating beer and Amaro, and then topped with whipped cream and crushed nuts.

But that’s only the beginning. Choose from small bites that range from fresh fruit to slab bacon drizzled with a maple bourbon glaze. I did not choose the fruit. The bacon was a meal, and a perfect sweet and salty one at that. [The Providence Journal / Gail Ciampa]

Brunch is served Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Then there are handheld options, like a breakfast sandwich or a chicken schnitzel sandwich, and savory platters, including a seasonal frittata, shakshuka and huevos ranchero.

If you choose the sweets category, and I did, you might get an amazing fresh-baked pastry, like this cinnamon bun that filled a dish and served two or three easily. [The Providence Journal / Gail Ciampa]

Details: Bayberry Beer Hall, 381 West Fountain St., Providence, (401) 383-9487. Bayberrybeerhall.com

Owners Natalie and Tom Dennen at their new restaurant on West Side.

Communal tables make this a perfect place for big gatherings. [The Providence Journal/Sandor Bodo]

Details: Bayberry Beer Hall, 381 West Fountain St., Providence, (401) 383-9487. Bayberrybeerhall.com

PERSIMMON, Providence

Brunch at Persimmon is everything you’d expect from chef Champe Speidel. The food is beautiful to look at and twice as delicious. The menu is small but ranges from smoked salmon to a spaghetti Bolognese. This is a place where you really could start with breakfast and end up ordering a lunch dish if you sit visiting with friends long enough, as I did. The service is always so stellar it’s hard to say goodbye. Brunch here is served only once a month, making it even more special. [The Providence Journal, file / David DelPoio]

Brunch is usually served on the first Sunday of the month, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. In May, it will be served on Mother’s Day instead of the first Sunday. In June, it will be served on the first Sunday, plus on Father’s Day.

The surprise here was the perfect vanilla sugar doughnuts, so nice for a table to share. They were as light as air. The elegance of the drinks, a virgin coffee milk martini included, matches the elegant dishes. The French omelet with Gruyere created an omelet texture I’ve never had, so light and airy. But I wouldn’t pass up the dark rum and vanilla waffle with banana and caramelized walnuts even for the eggs covered with a beautiful classic Mornay sauce that a dining companion enjoyed. [The Providence Journal / Gail Ciampa]

Details: Persimmon, 99 Hope St., Providence, (401) 432-7422, persimmonri.com

AVENUE N AMERICAN KITCHEN, Rumford - East Providence

Brunch at Avenue N in Rumford comes with the best bonus: You can shop at the Avenue N Pantry afterward and stock up on the best from Rhode Island’s artisan food producers.

But first you must eat, drink and be merry. That’s what the crowd does in the lovely rustic dining room. [The Providence Journal, file /Kris Craig]

Brunch is served on Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Spring cocktails are light and balanced and feature beautiful combinations of fresh juices, liqueurs and sparkling wine. The bloody mary is one of the best you’ll ever have anywhere.

This dish of sunchokes, leeks and bacon hash was beautiful and deliciously unique, as many of chef Nick Rabar’s dishes are. [The Providence Journal / Gail Ciampa]

Farm-fresh eggs made an omelet shine, and these lemon ricotta doughnuts with creme anglaise for your sweet tooth. I wish I had one now.

I loved the pace of the brunch here as much as the food. Service is fast and warmly efficient. You aren’t rushed in any way, but the food comes out at a perfect pace. It allows those on the go to enjoy a delightful brunch and then do other things with their day.

OCEAN MIST, Matunuck - South Kingstown

To some, Matunuck’s Ocean Mist may be a dive bar — and an excellent one at that. But I see beautifully prepared breakfast dishes, created with imagination by chef Chris Olivo. And to think that they come with an ocean view worth a million bucks, well, it’s a hard concept not to embrace. [The Providence Journal, file / Frieda Squires]

Breakfast is served Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

They call it breakfast at Ocean Mist, but it’s very much brunch. On the day of my visit, while I enjoyed Kahlua French Toast, another diner was having fish and chips. We both had an ocean view. I’m pretty sure she enjoyed her meal as much as I did mine. This French toast dish offers moist, tasty slices of Texas toast dipped in a Kahlua batter and served with two eggs any style. I suggest poached as they do a beautiful job with eggs.

Brunch with a water view is what you get in Matunuck at Ocean Mist. This Mexican Omelet is made with avocado, beans, fresh tomato salsa and pepper-jack cheese served with homefries and English muffin. [

Take a look at the California Benny, two poached eggs on an English muffin with fresh avocado slices, tomato, crispy bacon and chipotle hollandaise. It’s pretty as a picture.

Best of all, you can have your brunch seven days a week at Ocean Mist, and never break the bank, all while having that perfect ocean view. [The Providence Journal / Kris Craig]

Details: Ocean Mist, 895 Matunuck Beach Rd., South Kingstown, (401) 782-3740, oceanmist.net

TROOP, Providence

If you are hip, or want to feel hip, brunch at Troop in Providence is calling your name.

The Laughing Gorilla catering team of chef Jason Timothy, manager Leigh Vincola and Revival brewer Sean Larkin and two other partners earlier this year took over the Valley Street space that had been the cavernous Cuban Revolution restaurant. They shared a concept with Kyla Coburn, who created a homage to ’90s hip-hop and skateboarding culture with murals, boomboxes and so much more. [The Providence Journal / David DelPoio]

Brunch is served Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

But what you want to know is that they make an excellent Hangover Burger, with a fried egg, bacon and cheese. [The Providence Journal / David DelPoio]

I first ordered a Revival White Electric Stout, but then a frozen drink caught my eye: the Magical Unicorn. Like everything about Troop, it’s not what it seems. This frozen pink drink is hardly as harmless as it looks, since it’s made with Bacardi rum paired with Bailey’s Strawberry and Cream (and strawberries). But what fun it is to imbibe as your senses overload with the music, the décor, the food and the drink. [The Providence Journal / David DelPoio]

I liked the crowd, too, which was diverse in every way. I think there was even a birthday party going on in one corner. Everyone is welcome to the party. [The Providence Journal

THE DISTRICT, Providence

I thought my favorite thing about brunch at The District, in Providence’s Jewelry District, would be the chicken and waffles. I was wrong. It was the Bloody Mary bar that enchanted me, in every way. They bring you a glass with ice and vodka and then it’s your turn to build your drink. All the fixings are there at the bar: tomato juice, horseradish, Tabasco, olives, celery, and on and on. [The Providence Journal / Kris Craig]

Brunch is served Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

They also offer a bottle of sparkling wine for $20 for mimosas. But I will say that chicken and waffles is today’s quintessential brunch food. [The Providence Journal / Kris Craig]

OCEAN HOUSE, Westerly

It’s hard to argue with the views at Watch Hill’s Ocean House. They are stunning. As for the Champagne Brunch at the hotel’s Bistro each Sunday morning, it’s almost overwhelming, with a seemingly endless lineup of food. There’s the raw bar and the fruit bar and the soup and salad bar. There’s a crepe station, an antipasto table and a dessert table that includes macarons in many colors. Brunch is served Sundays, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Then a server brings a menu for guests to order their plated main course from selections that include seafood en croute, a corned beef panini and assorted egg dishes.

The cost is a hefty $62 a person, but they don’t skimp on a thing. The Champagne or mimosas keep coming as long as you like.

I think Ocean House is a great choice if you have a multigenerational family gathering, or as the start of a day in lovely Watch Hill. [The Providence Journal, file / Steve Szydlowski]

Details: Ocean House, 1 Bluff Ave., Westerly, (401) 584-7000, oceanhouseri.com

DUCK AND BUNNY, Providence

Brunch is served in cozy elegance seven days a week at the Duck and Bunny in Providence. In the winter and spring, you can be warmed by the fireplace.

The Duck and Bunny also serves the best latkes, pictured. You just don’t see potato pancakes at every brunch — and after eating these, I think we should. [The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo]

Brunch is served daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In summer, you can sit out back in their secret garden. You just can’t lose here. [The Providence Journal, file / Sandor Bodo]

The menu also features many unique, delicate and beautiful crepes. They fulfill the promise to be light whether filled with salmon or veggies. [The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo]

Details: Duck and Bunny, 312 Wickenden St., Providence, (401) 270-3300, the duckandbunny.com

COOK AND BROWN PUBLIC HOUSE, Providence

Providence’s Cook and Brown Public House does all the little things well. They make a great cup of coffee. They mix a perfectly balanced bloody mary. They make the best blueberry scones. All this adds up to a lovely brunch experience. [The Providence Journal, file / Sandor Bodo]

And — drumroll please — they have a killer dessert. The Brown Butter Waffle Ice Cream Sandwich comes with bacon ice cream and maple syrup for dipping. It is, simply put, awesome. And meant for sharing.

The Chocolate Babka French Toast isn’t bad either, but it doesn’t have bacon ice cream.

The search for the best brunches in Rhode Island was thoroughly enjoyable, with some of them served seaside and others run by some of Rhode Island’s most talented chefs. Most of the best places are in Providence, where chefs elevate the most common of brunch dishes. Details: Cook and Brown Public House, 959 Hope St., Providence, (401) 273-7275, cookandbrown.com

Rhode Island Chowder

The rich broth of this delicious clear broth Rhode Island clam chowder is loaded with potatoes, bacon, and either cherry-stones or quahogs.

Yankee Magazine

No wonder Rhode Islanders prefer clear broth over cream—at every turn, they’re surrounded by saltwater. To savor the Ocean State’s take on clear broth clam chowder, visit Matunuck Oyster Bar, overlooking the eddies of Potter Pond in South Kingstown. The rich broth of this clear broth Rhode Island clam chowder is loaded with potatoes, bacon, and either cherry-stones or quahogs (same species of hard-shell clam, quahogs being bigger than cherrystones), depending on what’s fresh that day. Owner Perry Raso is so fastidious about his shellfish that he operates his own seven-acre oyster farm right by the restaurant.

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Hands-On Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Matunuck Clear Broth Clam Chowder

Ingredients

8 pounds small quahogs or large cherrystone clams
7 cups water
6 cups clam broth (from steaming) or 4 cups clam broth plus 2 cups bottled clam juice
3 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into ¼-inch cubes
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium-size onions, cut into ¼-inch cubes
3 ribs celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes
2 bay leaves
2 pounds Yukon Gold or other all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 teaspoon minced fresh dill
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Scrub the clams and rinse them clean.

Add 7 cups of water to a large stockpot fitted with a steamer basket or colander, and bring to a boil.

Add half the clams to the basket and cover. Steam until the clams open, 5 to 10 minutes. (Discard any clams that don’t open.)

Repeat with the second batch of clams. Reserve 6 cups of the broth. Set aside.

Cool the clams; remove the meat from the shells and dice it into ½-inch pieces. Keep them covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

Put the bacon in a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat, leaving the bacon in the pot. Reduce the heat to medium-low.

Add the butter, onions, celery, and bay leaves, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened but not browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add the potatoes and reserved clam broth to the pot. Continue cooking over medium heat until the chowder begins to simmer. If it begins to boil, reduce the heat slightly. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Just before serving, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the clams and herbs, discard the bay leaves, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve hot.

Note: Steaming the clams might seem laborious, but it’s actually easy and makes a briny broth. Aim to extract 6 cups of broth from the clams; if not, you’ll need to have some bottled clam juice on hand to round it out.

Red Flannel Hash | Yankee Recipe Archives

Made with boiled dinner leftovers like corned beef and potatoes, a classic side of Red Flannel Hash comes with the added bonus of beets.

In New England, what do you get when you take a recipe for corned beef hash and swap out some of the potatoes with beets? A savory dish, known as Red Flannel Hash, which is named for the (so-called) flannel-esque patches of red made by the beets. We say crack in a few eggs, and just call it Sunday breakfast.

England hash variation, especially popular on diner menus, but had never made a batch. Fortunately, Yankee Magazine‘s 1972 cookbook, Favorite New England Recipes, had not just a red flannel hash recipe, but also one for the New England boiled dinner needed to produce the necessary leftovers.

A traditional boiled dinner — the kind with corned beef, cabbage, and veggies — often has leftovers, and it’s these “next day bits” that make the tastiest hash, be it plain corned beef or red flannel with beets.

Our recipe is a simple one — just leftover corned beef, potatoes, beets, butter, cream, and a few shakes of salt and pepper. Yours, however, may include onions, peppers, cheese, fresh herbs… whatever you like or happen to have on hand.

Boiled dinner and the leftover hash (no matter the variety) are both New England comfort food classics, but in a 1991 Yankee food feature by Malabar Hornblower titled “Some of Our Frugal Classics Actually Taste Better the Morning After,” the author gives an extra nod to today’s featured variety:

The early settlers knew how to salt cod and beef, preserving them for use when food was scarce. From corned beef evolved one of New England’s favorite meals-in-one: New England boiled dinner (actually a version of the classic corned beef and cabbage). But there are many who maintain that the only reason to eat a boiled dinner is in order to enjoy the leftovers, chopped up and fried as red flannel hash.

How about you? Are you a fan of red flannel hash? Do you consider it to be as good (or maybe even better?) than the boiled dinner it comes from? Let us know in the comments!

New England Food Festival

MAINE LOBSTER FESTIVAL | Aug. 1–5, 2018

Rockland, Maine

From creamy lobster chowder to buttery lobster rolls to grilled lobster with savory sides and toppings, it’s hard to go wrong with this classic seafood treat. To find it all, look no further than the internationally recognized Maine Lobster Festival at Rockland’s Harbor Park. With entertainment, fine art, and 20,000 pounds of lobster in the world’s largest lobster cooker, what’s not to love?

VERMONT CHEESEMAKERS FESTIVAL | Aug. 12, 2018

Shelburne, Vermont

With rolling fields and meandering cows alongside Lake Champlain, Shelburne Farms provides a stunning backdrop for the annual Vermont Cheesemakers Festival. Crowds flock to the festival grounds every year to learn more about cheesemaking at workshops, taste world-class cheeses and local products, and meet the chefs and producers that make it all happen. With dozens of artisan food producers setting up shop, be sure to bring your appetite.

CHOWDAFEST | Sep. 30, 2018

Westport, Connecticut

Finish your summer with a bang and make your way to Westport for one last flavorful celebration before the cold weather sets in. Join award-winning New England chefs as they try to prove they have the best chowder, soups, and bisques in the region. Sample the competing recipes and help select the winner of each category: classic New England clam chowder, traditional chowder, creative chowder, soup/bisque, and vegetarian.

The Hot Wiener: A Rhode Island Icon

By Grace Lentini

Hot wieners are firmly planted in Rhode Island’s culinary psyche. They’re to the Ocean State what cheesesteak is to Philly, what barbecue is to Kansas City and what street tacos are to Los Angeles. Everyone has the wienie joint (their words, not ours) they grew up with, their gold standard against which all others are judged. There’s The Original New York System on Smith Street in Providence, Olneyville NY System, Sparky’s Coney Island System in East Providence (now closed), Wein-O-Rama in Cranston, Rod’s Grille in Warren, New York Lunch in Woonsocket, Sam’s New York System in North Providence, Snoopy’s Diner in North Kingstown and plenty more scattered throughout.

We wanted to know who served the very first hot wiener, so we asked wienie joint owners across the state, and the answer was always the same: hot wieners started at the Original New York System (424 Smith Street, Providence. 331-5349). It’s the OG of the wienie.

No matter where you go, getting them “all the way” is always the same: steamed bun, wienie, mustard, meat sauce, onion, celery salt. Of course you don’t have to get them all the way, but what fun is that? That’s like getting a cheesesteak without the cheese: you just don’t do it. However, what differs joint to joint is the meat sauce, with each place remaining as true as possible to their original recipe, some over 70 years old.

Iconic Ingredients

There are distinct differences between hot dogs and hot wieners: hot dogs are typically very processed, with a hodge podge of different cuts of meat. Hot wieners on the other hand are made with beef, pork, veal, spices and one preservative. There are two types of hot wieners that wienie joints use: ones in a natural casing, and ones without. According to Greg Stevens, the owner of Olneyville NY System(18 Plainfield Street, Providence. 621-9500, OlneyvilleNewYorkSystem.com) who is directly related to the family who first served hot wieners in RI, it’s tradition to serve hot wieners that have a natural casing. The wieners with a casing come as one long rope, meaning that each wiener must be cut by hand. Most joints get theirs from either Little Rhody Brand Frankfurts and Wieners (831-0815, LittleRhodyHotdogs.com), which makes skinless and rope wieners, or from All American (294-5455, All-American-Foods.com), who carry Marcello’s skinless, pre-formed wieners.

The consensus on hot wiener buns is that Homestead Baking Company of East Providence (145 North Broadway, Rumford. 434-0551, HomesteadBaking.com) bakes the buns that virtually everyone uses. “We make [the buns] sweeter than the typical hot dog roll,” says Homestead General Manager TJ Pascalides. “Restaurants are super particular about how they steam them up. Everyone has a different steamer and everyone leaves them in for a different amount of time, so we have to use a strong flour.”

To get an idea of the demand for the buns, Homestead receives shipments of 200,000 pounds of spring wheat flour at a time via railway. Three railway cars fit alongside the bakery, where the flour is then moved to three flour silos. One silo holds 150,000 pounds of flour, the other two hold 125,000 pounds each. Just as the meat sauce recipes never change at the restaurants, the bun recipe has also remained the same: sugar, water, flour and yeast.

As far as the onions sprinkled on top of the wieners, survey says that white onions are used. Everyone uses celery salt, although any information about the brand was held close to the vest. The mustard? Well, it’s not French’s. That’s about all the info the owners were willing to reveal. Same with the sauce. Everyone is tight lipped about their secret recipes, but some said that one of the most important factors in making a perfectly spreadable meat sauce is to use 70/30 ground beef. Fat is flavor, and no one’s eating a hot wiener for its health benefits.

Who Served them First?

It was in the early 1900s that Greek immigrants came to New York, passing through Ellis Island and settling in Brooklyn (most likely in the Coney Island section). As the Greeks moved out of Brooklyn and across the country, they brought with them and served up a form of hot dog or hot wiener which they covered in a Coney Island meat sauce.

We caught up with Greg to learn about his family history, and where the first hot wiener was served. As the story goes, Augustus Pappas and his son Ernie opened the Original New York System on Smith Street in Providence in 1927. In the late 1930s, Augustus Pappas fell ill, so Ernie called on his cousins Anthony and Nicholas Stavrianakos (Greg’s great grandfather and grandfather, respectively) to help run the restaurant. In 1933, Greg’s father, Peter, was born in New York where his name was shortened from Stavrianakos to Stevens. In 1946, Ernie no longer needed help running the Smith Street location. His son Gus eventually took over in the ‘60s, running the place until he retired in 2014. Once Gus retired, the business changed ownership and eventually had its doors closed for ten months. This past July, restaurateur Taner Zoprak bought the business, and plans to keep to the original recipes.

Back to Anthony and Nicholas. The father and son team branched out on their own after leaving the Original New York System and bought a small restaurant located at 11 Olneyville Square (where the bar Lonely Street is currently located). The restaurant was located right next to a taxi stand, which in 1954 was built over into a restaurant (the current location of Olneyville NY System). Anthony and Nicholas bought that space in 1964, and have been there ever since. In 1957 Nicholas passed away, and in 1958, Anthony passed away at age 97, working until his last day. Greg’s father Peter took over the business in 1958. Greg was born in 1960, and when he was old enough he worked at Olneyville NY System on weekends and during the summers. At the ripe age of 15 he knew he was going to join the family business, and in 1979 he started working full time, side by side with his dad until the early ‘90s when Peter retired. Greg and his sister Stephanie Stevens-Turini have operated the restaurant ever since.

More Wienie Joints

The Original New York System and Olneyville NY System opened their restaurants with the express goal of being hot wiener joints. Of course there’s plenty else on their menus, but folks typically go there for the wienies. Other restaurants have followed suit, while others have simply added hot wieners to their menu to get folks through the door.

Rod’s Grille in Warren in one of the restaurants that has had hot wieners on their menu since the day they opened in 1955. Meghan Rodrigues is the fourth generation to work at Rod’s Grille and credits her great grandmother with creating the meat sauce they use until this day. “My dad, grandmother or I make the sauce,” she says. “No one else knows the recipe. You have to follow every single step of the recipe or the taste will change.” Unlike the sauce at either the Original New York System or Olneyville, there is a touch of spice in it, which slowly builds as you eat it. Meghan also puts less onions on it compared to other places; she doesn’t want the onions to overpower the secret sauce. The sauce is so popular that their regulars regularly add it to other menu items, like the burgers.

The Future of Hot Wieners

One thing that rings true at every hot wiener restaurant is the need to stay true to the ingredients. “We’ve tried other products and they just don’t taste the same,” says Meghan Rodrigues. Greg Stevens of Olneyville is of the same mind. “Do not change a thing. That’s the theory with Olneyville NY System,” he says. “When people come in and have their hot wiener and coffee milk I’ll ask, ‘does it taste exactly as you remember?’ If they say yes, that’s the best compliment I can get. Keeping everything the same… it’s harder than it looks.”

The Origin of the Coney Island Hot Dog Is a Uniquely American Story

They also have very little to do with the New York City amusement park

By Erick Trickey

SMITHSONIAN.COM

This July 4, as with every July 4 going back to the 1970s, an all-American display of gluttony will feature rubber-stomached competitive eaters once again gorging themselves in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Brooklyn’s Coney Island. This year’s gastronomic battle, at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues, will honor the 100th anniversary of the founding of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs at the same corner in 1916.

It’s a patriotic event, and not just because it’ll be echoed at holiday barbecues across the country. The hot dog, that quintessential American food, has been associated with Coney Island, America’s most storied amusement resort, since frankfurter first met bun. But Nathan’s century-old triumph of entrepreneurship is only part of the Ellis-Island-meets-Coney-Island story. Thanks to immigrants from Northern and Eastern Europe alike, the name “Coney Island hot dog” means one thing in New York, another in the Midwest and beyond.

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. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Councilsays Feltman opened a hot dog stand on Coney Island in 1871 and sold 3,684 sausages that year. Wieners took Feltman far. By the turn of the century, he’d gone upscale, with Feltman’s German Gardens, a huge complex of restaurants and beer gardens on Surf Avenue that employed 1,200 waiters. Though seafood became Feltman’s specialty, he still had seven grills dedicated to hot dogs, which he sold in the 1910s for ten cents apiece.

Nathan Handwerker, a Polish immigrant with a day job as a restaurant delivery boy, worked Sunday afternoons at Feltman’s German Gardens, slicing rolls. According to Handwerker’s 1974 New York Times obituary, Jimmy Durante and Eddie Cantor, who worked as singing waiters on Coney Island before they found fame, encouraged Handwerker to strike out from Feltman’s and sell hot dogs for a nickel instead of a dime. In 1916, he did just that, opening a small hot-dog stand at Surf and Stillwell with his wife, Ida. The subway’s extension to Coney Island in 1920 brought countless New Yorkers to his stand. “Society people, politicians, actors and sportsmen flocked to Nathan’s,” the obituary recalled, “brushing shoulders with truck drivers, laborers, and housewives.” Franklin D. Roosevelt famously served Nathan’s hot dogs at a 1936 lawn party for Britain’s George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth (mother of the now-reigning Queen Elizabeth II).

Meanwhile, outside New York, the Coney Island name evokes an entirely different hot-dog tradition. In Michigan, “Coney Island” doesn’t mean an amusement park, but one of an estimated 500 diners in the Metro Detroit area alone that serve Greek food and “Coney dogs” -- hot dogs smothered in chili or ground beef, plus mustard and onions. There are plenty more elsewhere in Michigan, across the Midwest, and beyond.

The Coney dog was spread across the eastern U.S. by various Greek and Macedonian immigrants in the 1900s and 1910s. The restaurateurs were part of the great wave of Greek migration to the U.S. – 343,000 people between 1900 and 1919 – who fled the economic desolation caused by Greece’s 1893 bankruptcy and a crash in the price of currants, then Greece’s main export. “Many of them passed through New York’s Ellis Island and heard about or visited Coney Island, later borrowing this name for their hot dogs, according to one legend,” wrote Katherine Yung and Joe Grimm in their 2012 book Coney Detroit.

In that era, Americans associated New York’s Coney Island with hot dog authenticity. Back then, the name “hot dog” was out of favor; amid the concern about meat-packing standards inspired by Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, it still carried a hint of suggestion that the cheap sausages were made of dog meat. Handwerker called then “red hots,” others “Coney Island hots.”

Naming the inventor of the Coney dog – the first person to slather chili or sprinkle ground beef on a sausage – is a fool’s errand. Various Coney Island restaurants in Michigan and Indiana vie for the title, claiming founding dates in the mid-1910s, but they don’t appear in city directories from the era until the 1920s. Many Greeks and Macedonians likely hit upon the idea of dressing hot dogs in variations on saltsa kima, their homeland’s spicy tomato-based meat sauce. “The Coney Island’s formidable beef topping with a sweet-hot twang has a marked Greek accent,” wrote Jane and Michael Stern in their 2009 book 500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late.

It’s easy, though, to locate the Coney dog’s ground zero, the Midwest’s version of Surf and Stillwell: the corner of West Lafayette Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in Detroit.

There, Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island have carried on a sibling rivalry for 80 years. For generations of Detroiters, their chili-topped weiners have been the ultimate urban-diner experience, the workingman’s lunch and the late-night craving after last call. Brothers William “Bill” Keros and Constantine “Gust” Keros, former sheepherders from the Greek village of Dara, founded the two diners to serve hot dogs to autoworkers. Each restaurant boasts it opened first, with American Coney staking a claim to a 1917 founding, Lafayette Coney to 1914. But city directories tell a different story than family and business oral history: the Coney Detroit authors say the brothers opened Lafayette Coney together in 1923, and Gust Keros opened American Coney in 1936 after a falling-out with his brother.

Outside metropolitan Detroit, Coney dog variations abound. In Michigan cities such as Flint, Jackson and Kalamazoo, their topping isn’t chili, but a sauce that’s mostly ground beef, often including beef hearts. A few Coney Island restaurants still exist outside Michigan, from the Coney Island Grill in St. Petersburg, Florida, to George’s Coney Island in Worcester, Massachusetts. Cincinnati’s version of Coney sauce is a chili, invented in 1922 by Macedonian immigrants Tom and John Kiradjieff as their own spiced version of saltsa kima. That iteration doesn't just go on hot dogs-- it's also served with spaghetti or as a stand-alone chili.

Closer to New York City, the names change. Rhode Islanders call their Greek-immigrant chili-dog diners “New York System” restaurants, and they serve “hot wieners” – never hot dogs. “They are made in a systemic way,” wrote the Sterns in 500 Things to Eat, “by lining up all the dogs in buns and dressing them assembly-line-style.”

But in far upstate New York, around Plattsburgh, they’re called Michigans, probably thanks to 1920s Detroit expatriates Eula and Garth Otis. From there, they smuggled themselves across the Canadian border, where the Montreal-area hot-dog chain Resto Lafleur offers a steamed or grilled “hot-dog Michigan” and poutine with “la sauce Michigan.”

Today, Nathan’s is an international chain, with more than 300 restaurants and stands, mostly on the East Coast. It’s added a chili dog to its menu. In another example of hazy hot-dog lore, Nathan’s apocryphally claims it’s about to host its 100th hot-dog-eating contest – actually a creation of carnival-barker-style bunkum that started in the 1970s. Meanwhile, Coney Island blogger and historian Michael Quinn is reviving the Feltman’s red-hots brand, which went extinct with Feltman’s restaurant in 1954. He’s teamed up with a sausage-maker to make a red hot in homage to the original, which he’s selling at pop-up events. In a history-minded revenge, Quinn sells hot dogs for half of Nathan’s price.

Travel Channel's 'Bizarre Foods' focuses on R.I. cuisine

The state's cuisine is featured, from seafood to Italian and Portuguese specialties.

Journal Food Editor

Rhode Island's iconic foods and its history of ethnic specialties will be celebrated on television Tuesday night when Andrew Zimmern hosts "Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations" on the Travel Channel at 9 p.m.

Producers for the badly named show came calling back in September to film hot wieners, coffee milk, quahogs, jonnycakes, snail salad, chowder, stuffies and salt cod. Though the show's "Delicious Destination" is billed as Providence, food was featured from around the state. The show was available for screening by critics.

It's a wonderfully produced melange of the delicious and the quirky. It begins with a burger at the Haven Brothers food truck. It includes that famous pizza at Al Forno being made by chef David Reynoso, the thick ice cream drinks Awful Awfuls from Newport Creamery, and wieners all the way at Olneyville New York System.

There's a big focus on seafood, clams on the half shell and other preparations that bring with them flavors that reflect a sea-to-table cuisine. Hemenway's Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar plates some lovely clams early on in the hourlong show. Perry Raso makes stuffies at his Matunuck Oyster Bar in South Kingstown.

Don't watch this show on an empty stomach, by the way.

Portuguese soul food, salt cod or bacalhau, is given plenty of screen time, both at O Dinis in East Providence and at North American Salt and Fresh Fish Corp. in Pawtucket, where fish is turned into dry, salted cod.

In his commentary, which was filmed after production in Rhode Island wrapped up, Zimmern talks about how the state attracted seafaring people from Europe, and with them came many traditions.

To show one of those traditions, a production team arrived at O Dinis to film second-generation restaurateur Natalia Paiva-Neves, who works with her father, Dinis Paiva. Producers had seen YouTube videos of her cooking and called. Since she's dreamed of stepping up to the granite counter in a TV kitchen, she was on board.

They filmed her talking about how cod is soul food here in New England and of the importance of sharing her Portuguese traditions with her children. Those two passions intersect when she heads into the kitchen to cook Bacalhau ne Brasa, a taste of Portugal on a plate, with accompanying boiled potatoes and onion and garlic sautéed in olive oil.

The visit to the salt cod production facility is fascinating. It reveals how whole cods caught in cold sea waters are butterflied before salt is shoveled over them to remove all liquid and moisture. That's why they have to be de-salted to make cod dishes.

Italian traditions are shared from Champlin's in Galilee, where they make a scungilli, or snail, salad.

Native Americans are credited with their role in local foods, not just with johnnycakes, which are featured from Jigger's Diner in East Greenwich, but also for their role in creating Rhode Island's clear broth chowder. If you didn't know or remember that local quahogs have purple in the shell, you will now because you'll learn they were used for wampum due to their color.

Throughout the hour, regular Rhode Islanders star in "Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations" as they are interviewed while they sip, slurp and savor all the treasured foods of their home.

— gciampa@providencejournal.com

The hot wiener or New York System wiener

The Olneyville New York System

Olneyville New York System, in Providence's Olneyville neighborhood, is often cited as the "definitive" or "quintessential" vendor and dates to its opening by Greek immigrant Anthony Stevens in 1946. Stevens' cousin Gust Pappas ran Original New York System in the Smith Hill neighborhood, which claims its own founding as 1927. Still another institution, Coney Island System, claims an earlier date of 1915. There are dozens of establishments across the state that offer wieners, and the question of which is "best" is often contentious among residents

Modern Diner

Modern Diner: The first ever diner was invented in 1872 in Providence by an entrepreneur, Walter Scott. He decided to serve food from a freight wagon, which was horse-drawn. The diner's mobility lead to it being a great hit. Scott, soon had a roaring business, because he was moving his shop to where ever the people needed food. The meals served in diners are simple and hearty. The Modern Diner, at 13 Dexter Street, in Pawtucket is one such place, and it has made it to our list of top restaurants in Providence, by the sheer taste of the historic food served.

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