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When the weather turns cold in December, thoughts turn to comfort food, ,,, like hot dogs! So in early December 2018 Mike and Bone headed down to Jackson to knock off two more of the Michigan Coney Island lists, starting with Jackson Coney Island !

The Jackson Coney Island!!

According to Jackson history, it all began in 1914 under the guidance of the city's legendary coney godfather George Todoroff at a place now known as Jackson Coney Island, 615 E. Michigan Ave. No one really knows why Jackson became his home. Some say he and others from his native Macedonia were on a train bound for Detroit that stopped in Jackson. They got off, liked what they saw and stayed.  

It is known that Todoroff's first restaurant, near Jackson's train depot and where the current restaurant's parking lot is now, had a dirt floor, very little elbow room and a counter that served crowds of working trainmen quickly and cheaply. Todoroff's eatery doesn't show up with the name Jackson Coney Island until the 1931 city directory.

 By then, fellow Macedonians Tom and Charles Christoff also had joined him in the thriving eatery.

Macedonian Boys

After World War II, Todoroff and the Christoffs' widows, Magda and Sophia, sold the business for $5,000 to Andy and Don Lazaroff, twin sons in a family whose bakery made the restaurant's hot dog buns. Their set-ups were similar, simple and timeless - one wall typically lined with booths, the other with stools and a counter. Seated at them every day were families, couples and singles, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and laborers.  

The atmosphere, they said, was like visiting friends for lunch and sitting in their kitchen talking. Jackson Coney Island became the training ground for restaurateurs who launched other eateries in town people remember and love, said Phil Lazaroff, Andy's son, who grew up working there.   

Mike and Bone, chowing the Dry Chilli the Jackson Coney's