Paying Homage to the Holy of Hot Dog
Holies - Nathans Famous !!!
Main Page >
Hot Dogging It Intro >
Now any hot dog connoisseur knows that
the "hot dog" was created at Nathan's of Coney Island. Now despite eating only
an hour and a half before, the boys decided that the trip, nay their very lives
would be incomplete if they didn't sample from the wellspring of hot dog
holiness.
Nathan's Famous of Coney Island
Nathan's Famous is truly the original home of fast food. Is there a more famous food outlet?!
Nathan Handwerker was born on June 14, 1892. He travelled to Belgium from Poland at the age of eighteen and two years later he stepped foot on American soil. He washed dishes and later worked the counter at Max's Busy Bee in Manhattan. He started to work weekends at Feltman's; splitting rolls and making deliveries for the famous restaurant. Although Feltman invented the hot dog, Handwerker brought it to the masses.
Even today you can still see deep lines at the windows to Nathan's on a sunny summer day. Let's go back and see how this hot dog Mecca began. The hot dog was invented by Charles Feltman in 1874.
Although his fabulous restaurant (where Astroland Park currently sits) is gone the hot dog lives on at Nathan's on the corner of Stillwell and Surf Avenues. It is here that a resourceful immigrant bested Feltman's (the island's most successful restaurant). Between the first and second decades of the Twentieth Century Feltman's grew from serving 900,000 to 2,000,000 customers. One famous postcard depicted a clam, lobster, fish, an ear of corn, a hot dog, a crab and a mug of beer all walking to "Feltman's famous restaurant." One additional person who walked in was Nathan Handwerker (German for hand worker, or "day labourer"), a Manhattan restaurant manager. He responded to the HELP WANTED ad in the window and within a year (thanks in part to his ability to eat hot dogs for free while on the job) Handwerker had saved over $300 that he invested into the rental of a building at the corners of Stillwell and Surf Avenue. Here all those years later, the boys had shown up to indulge in another famous America Icon.
Two Weiner's stuffed with Hot Dogs
Man !! That was one heckuva Hot Dog
@ Nathan's !!!
Main Page > Hot Dogging It Intro >
Now any hot dog connoisseur knows that the "hot dog" was created at Nathan's of Coney Island. Now despite eating only an hour and a half before, the boys decided that the trip, nay their very lives would be incomplete if they didn't sample from the wellspring of hot dog holiness.