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| Founded | 1965  |
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National Coney Island is a Coney Island-style restaurant based in Michigan that specializes in Greek-American cuisine. It is a corporation that has more than 20 National Coney Island locations in the Metro Detroit area. [1]
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| Founded | 1965 |
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National Coney Island is a Coney Island-style restaurant based in Michigan that specializes in Greek-American cuisine. It is a corporation that has more than 20 National Coney Island locations in the Metro Detroit area. [1]
The first establishment opened in Macomb Mall in Roseville, Michigan. [2] James Giftos, a Greek immigrant, was the founder of National Coney Island in 1965. At that point, the menu was very limited, only including Coney Island hot dogs, Coney Island style loose hamburgers, a few sandwiches, potato chips, and soda pop. The item selection was hand-painted on wooden menu boards, advertising a 35 cents hot dog. [3] In the late sixties, shoppers traveled from a great distance to patronize regional malls, therefore National Coney started implementing new locations in those areas. Giftos was able to open two new stores in St. Clair Shores (1969) and Detroit (1971), due to the success of the Macomb location. Years later, Giftos thought to expand his menu (which was the same for all three locations). He wanted to make his restaurants more family oriented, as well as updating the decor to set his chain apart from other Coney Island style restaurants in the area. [4] In following this new change, the expansion of this Coney Island chain did not explode until the mid-1980s to early 1990s. This is when the chain really grew to eleven locations, each with unique interior, some implementing drive-thrus, and others offering beer and wine. [3]
National Coney Island hosts Coney Island hot dogs. Other items on the menu include French fries, loose burgers, and a various list of burgers and sandwiches. Some Greek items on the menu are gyros, rice pudding, and saganaki. [5] The most famous sandwich of National Coney Island is the “Hani”: a chicken-finger pita, which National Coney Island offers in different variants with different kinds of sauces and cheese. A regular hani special contains American and Swiss cheese, while a southwest hani uses pepperjack cheese and chipotle sauce. [5] Another popular item on the National Coney Island menu is the Mr. Pop Burger. This burger is named by the company mascot, Mr. Pop. The burger is made up of sourdough bread, a 1/3 lb. patty, lettuce, tomato, red onion, 1000 island dressing, and pickles on the side. National Coney Island produces its own chili. The chili is available cooked and ready for the customers or frozen and sold separately. The chili is often sold within a Coney Kit as well. This kit contains a brick of chili, two dozen frozen hot dogs, two dozen buns, a bowl of onions, and a bottle of mustard.
National Coney Island in efforts to gain market share from competitor Leo's has started to offer limited-time items including the "Coney grilled cheese" and adding pineapple to hot dogs. National is considered the "Foodie" coney island.
National Coney Island locations are usually on the East side of Michigan. Some cities that host National Coney Island are: Clawson, Clinton Twp., Grosse Pointe/Detroit, Macomb Twp., McNamara Terminal Wayne County Airport, North Terminal Wayne County Airport, Rochester Hills, Roseville, Royal Oak, Shelby Twp., St. Clair Shores, Sterling Heights, Troy, Utica, Warren, and Waterford. [6] In the future, Giftos’s son, Tom Giftos Junior, who has been currently running the business plans to drift away from sit down restaurants to a lot more “express” style National Coney Islands which will be opening up in places like airports, stadiums, and colleges. [7] The corporate business plans on expanding the company at least two units per year. Stores can range from 6,000 to 9,000 square feet. Several stores also contain a drive-thru. [8] The corporate headquarters is located in Roseville, which is where the first National Coney Island was established. [2]
The I-696 (11 Mile Road)/Gratiot Avenue Roseville store has an interior wall mural that echoes the style and is an homage of the Diego Rivera Detroit Industry Murals that is in the Rivera Court of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Instead of producing cars on an assembly line, chili hot dogs are a depicted as a work in progress. It implicitly depicts the change of the economy from manufacturing to a service economy. The underlying real life irony is that the headquarters/plant of National Coney Island, went from auto parts to producing product (e.g., hot dogs and chili) for the chain. [upper-alpha 1]
Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the American Midwest. It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas, and is influenced by regionally and locally grown foodstuffs and cultural diversity.
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A Coney Island is a type of restaurant that is popular in the northern United States, particularly in Michigan as well as the name for the Coney Island hot dog after which the restaurant style is named.
A Coney Island hot dog, Coney dog, or Coney is a hot dog in a bun topped with a savory meat sauce and sometimes other toppings. It is often offered as part of a menu of classic American "diner" dishes and often at Coney Island restaurants. It is largely a phenomenon related to immigration from Greece and the region of Macedonia to the United States in the early 20th century.
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Greek-American cuisine is the cuisine of Greek Americans and their descendants, who have modified Greek cuisine under the influence of American culture and immigration patterns of Greeks to the United States. As immigrants from various Greek areas settled in different regions of the United States and became "Greek Americans," they carried with them different traditions of foods and recipes that were particularly identified with their regional origins in Greece and yet infused with the characteristics of their new home locale in America. Many of these foods and recipes developed into new favorites for town peoples and then later for Americans nationwide. Greek-American cuisine is especially prominent in areas of concentrated Greek communities, such as Astoria, Queens and Tarpon Springs, Florida.
The Hani or chicken finger pita wrap is a sandwich from Detroit made from fried chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and mayonnaise, all wrapped in pita bread. The cheese is usually a combination of Swiss and cheddar. It is often served with a side of ranch dressing. It was invented in 1985 by a line cook named Hani who worked at the National Coney Island at Mack Avenue and Seven Mile Road in Detroit. The Hani may have started as a staff meal where the cook would prepare it for his co-workers, but later it was added to the menu. It eventually spread to other restaurants in the area. In May 2023, National Coney Island launched a spin-off restaurant called Pop’s Hani Shop dedicated to the sandwich located in Royal Oak, Michigan. Although the Coney Island hot dog has a longstanding popularity locally, the Hani grew in popularity to rival it at National Coney Island. National Coney Island even trademarked the name in response to various establishments serving the dish and calling it the Hani. Consequently, it can be found in other menus in the region as a “chicken finger pita wrap”. It has a reputation as a late-night food favored among younger people. However, as of October 2023, outside of Metro Detroit, the dish relatively unfamiliar.