"Coney Island ~ Fine Dining in Detroit" Detroit Local Custom Tip by mdchachi

As you travel around Michigan, particularly Detroit, you are bound to see restaurants named Coney or Coney Island. Or you may see Coney as an item on a menu.

A Coney Island as a food item is a hot dog covered with chili, mustard and onions. A Coney Island as a dining establishment is a restaurant that serves these chili dogs.

So in Michigan, you can go to a Coney to eat a Coney. In other parts of the country these things are usually called chili dogs. Sometimes, though, you might see (out-of-state) restaurants offering a Michigan-style hot dog.

So now you are wondering how this amazing tradition might have been born...
Presumably the chili-covered hot dogs born in Coney Island, New York migrated to Detroit a century ago. People opened restaurants named after this namesake and at some point the name Coney Island-style hot dog got shortened to Coney Island or just Coney.

Usually Coney restaurants serve a variety of items such as sandwiches, burgers and typical American entrees. Since the Greek community is very prominent in this business you will frequently find Greek items such as Gyros and Greek salads on the menu as well. I highly recommend trying out a coney restaurant. Service is usually fast and prices are economical and these places often have character lacking in the typical chain restaurant.

If you were to go to just one coney island in your life, I recommend the Lafayette Coney. This is venerable coney dating back to the earliest days. (Don't go there if you don't want to eat hot dogs, though. That's pretty much all this place offers. The American coney next door has a couple additional items.)