PROVIDENCE, R.I. March 9, 2014
(AP)
By ERIKA NIEDOWSKI Associated
Press
Don't call them hot dogs and
don't ask for ketchup.
Those are the cardinal rules at
Olneyville New York System, arguably the best-known Rhode Island spot for one
of the state's signature dishes: hot wieners.
"Dish" is probably an
overstatement. These are veal, pork and beef wieners slathered with mustard,
covered in special meat sauce, topped with chopped onions and celery salt, and
served in a steamed bun. Ordering one with all the fixings is called "all
the way." Many say all the way is the only way.
"They're so greasy but
good," said Paula Malone of Glocester, who came in one recent lunch hour
with a colleague from the Providence VA Medical Center to pick up a big order.
As in 33 hot wieners, seven coffee milks — coffee syrup-sweetened milk, another
Rhode Island staple — and 10 orders of fries, for a Mardi Gras office party.
Hot wieners got some national
recognition last month, when Olneyville New York System was named an
"America's Classic" by the James Beard Foundation.
The $2.15 wieners are small so
lots of customers order a few at a time. The grillers prepare them in a way
that's known as "up the arm" — balancing a row of buns and wieners on
their forearms, then adding each ingredient in quick, choreographed succession.
The Food Network's Guy Fieri raved
about Olneyville's hot wieners in a segment of "The Best Thing I Ever
Ate." ''Come for the hot wieners and stay for the show," he said.
"Can't beat it."
Last year, Providence Mayor
Angel Taveras appeared on the cover of The Providence Phoenix's "The Best"
issue behind the restaurant's counter, grinning with a hot wiener in hand.
Rhode Islanders love their
weenies. As co-owner Greg Stevens says, the place has no demographic. It's just
as likely you'll see a state politician at the counter as you will a police
officer, a student or a foodie. A guy driving a Bentley once asked him for a
New York System bumper sticker.
According to Stevens, who with
his sister Stephanie took over the restaurant two years ago when their father
died, the state's first hot wiener restaurant — Original New York System —
opened in Providence in the late 1920s.
His family, then with the
surname Stavrianakos, came to Rhode Island in the 1930s in a wave of Greek
immigrants from New York, one of the hot dog capitals of the world. Olneyville
New York System opened in 1946 around the corner from its current location.
There are plenty of places to get wieners in the state, like Sam's New York
System in North Providence, Wein-O-Rama in Cranston and Moonlight House of
Weiners in Woonsocket.
Not much has changed at the
Olneyville spot, and that's by design. The booths are throwback yellow and
orange, and the tables are 1950s Formica. Jimmy Saccoccio, now the general
manager, has been working there since 1968. The hot wieners are pretty much the
same, too.
"You don't fix what isn't
broken," Stevens said.
During a recent lunch hour, a
couple from Boston sitting in a middle booth are easily identified by the
counter staff as "weenie virgins." It's not uncommon to get a
playful, or embarrassing, shout-out: "Virgin in the house!" Stevens
says he can spot someone who's never had one as soon as he or she walks in the
door.
Call the wieners hot dogs and
you'll be corrected immediately. And ketchup is strongly discouraged. There's a
sign on the wall that says, "It Has Been Said That When You Put Ketchup on
A Hot Wiener, It Is a Sin ... Here It Is Against the Law!'
Bumble Taylor, 38, of
Providence, has been coming to Olneyville New York System since 1981. When he
was a kid, he used to panhandle in the old grocery store parking lot to make a
few bucks, which he'd use to buy hot wieners.
"Everybody comes in — they
got to have a weenie," Taylor said.
