Coney Island Wiener Stand (Since 1914) — Fort Wayne IN

This is another entry in my unintentional series on Coney Islands of the Midwest. A list of other reports can be found at the end of this post.

Coney Island Wiener Stand has been at the same location in downtown Fort Wayne since 1914. One can enter through the front door on Main Street . . .



. . . or park in the rear lot and enter through the back kitchen. The room is long and narrow, with small tables along one wall and a long counter running along the other.





Counter seats provide the best view of the Coney action. The menu is simple: Coneys, burgers, beans and chili. I don't remember seeing anyone with a burger but I'm sure they must sell some.



Wieners get griddled in the front window, nestled in steamed buns (retrieved from an ancient hinged-top steamer) and lined up on long metal trays.



The rack of Coneys is handed off to the owner who applies mustard and the all-important secret Coney sauce.



Onions are added by a third assembler (extra onions are available for six cents additional) and the dogs get plated and carried off immediately. The whole procedure is remarkably efficient.





Coney and beans, a most excellent breakfast.



The beans are most certainly not from a can, distinctively seasoned but almost painfully sweet. The wiener is skinless and nothing special by itself but the sauce is excellent. All things considered, one of the better Coneys I've had.



Chili soup (I'd call it soupy chili) is a really nice old-style Midwestern bowl, with complex spicing but barely any heat. The owner insists no cinnamon is used but wasn't forthcoming about other details. I tasted a lot of clove.





It's heartwarming to see an old family-run restaurant like this thriving as they approach a century in business. It's no accident that they serve tasty food at low prices and take obvious pride in what they do.

Coney Island Wiener Stand
131 W Main St
Fort Wayne IN
260-424-2997

Other posts on pre-1920 Coney doggeries:

Coney Island Hot Dog (1919), Toledo OH

Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island (1917), Detroit MI

Coney Island Lunch (1915), Kalamazoo MI

Todoroff's Coney Island (1914), Jackson MI

Phillip's Original Coney Island (1912), Columbus OH (brief mention)

Edited to restore photo links.

Renee:

I absoultely LOVE this place.....the Coney sauce is indeed a wonderous thing.....and that chili is addicting! This is a must stop at the halfway point driving to familiy in Ohio..

Sadly though....I fear for this gem.....it was up for sale recently....would be a huge loss....

Hi,

You're lucky to have known this place all these years. Of the limited number of Coney dogs I have had, I liked this one best. The chili was more to my liking than Skyline's. The baked beans with its high sugar content was different.

I wonder if Rene G has a picture of the small pot the Coney sauce was scooped from. It was quite a rugged veteran of many years. If this place closed, this is a container the local historical society would love.

When you walked through the kitchen, there were no visible ingredients around to help parse the composition of their sauces. I could tell from how the staff reacted to questions, there have been many, many attempts by customers to divine the ingredients.

I hope it is still there when I am back in a year or two.

Regards,

ParkLaBrea wrote:Sadly though....I fear for this gem.....it was up for sale recently....would be a huge loss....

That's very disturbing news, though somewhat surprising to me. But what do I know? I was only there for about thirty minutes. During that visit I got the impression of a thriving business, in for the long haul. The place was packed, serving Coneys as fast as they could make them. We spoke with a couple family members (one quite young) who seemed enthusiastic about the enterprise. There might be a lot going on that's not obvious but I saw no signs of a business in trouble. In any case, go sooner rather than later but my money is on them making it to the century mark and beyond. There aren't a lot of these old places left so it's important to support them while you can.

Cathy2 wrote:I wonder if Rene G has a picture of the small pot the Coney sauce was scooped from. It was quite a rugged veteran of many years.

Not a very good one, unfortunately, but here's a photo of the old saucepot.



By the way, visitors to Coney Island Wiener Stand will surely want to stop at Stoner's Funstore, right around the corner.



Stoner's Funstore
712 S Harrison St
Fort Wayne IN
260-426-1100
http://stoners.com/

I know Renee....it surprised me too, as I've never seen the place anything less than mobbed......but I actually saw the classified ad for the sale in the local Fort Wayne paper (and I think I read about it on Roadfood as well...but if not there, somewhere else)...so it wasn't just a rumor...

Again, could just be yet another example of the older owners wanting to retire, and the kids having no inclination to take over....popular or not, I doubt anyone is getting rich here.....

Anyway, have not been by in about 6 months, and was not sure it was still there...delighted to see that it is.......for now......must get there ASAP.....

Rene G wrote:

ParkLaBrea wrote:Sadly though....I fear for this gem.....it was up for sale recently....would be a huge loss....

That's very disturbing news, though somewhat surprising to me. But what do I know? I was only there for about thirty minutes. During that visit I got the impression of a thriving business, in for the long haul. The place was packed, serving Coneys as fast as they could make them. We spoke with a couple family members (one quite young) who seemed enthusiastic about the enterprise. There might be a lot going on that's not obvious but I saw no signs of a business in trouble. In any case, go sooner rather than later but my money is on them making it to the century mark and beyond. There aren't a lot of these old places left so it's important to support them while you can.

Russ Choka, the 88-year-old owner of Fort Wayne's Coney Island Wiener Stand died in December. Details can be found in this Journal-Gazette article: Coney Island Fixture Choka Dies. It certainly sounds like his daughter will take over and continue the business with few changes.

Oh that's too bad....he was always there...did not know he was the owner...seemed exceedingly pleasant....

Hope his daughter sticks it out...great little historic joint......

Fort Wayne’s Famous Coney Island turns 100 by Jolene Ketzenberger

...
One hundred years. That’s a lots of coney dogs.

The classic restaurant, which, according the the photos, looks a lot like it did 100 years ago, can go through between 1,500 and 2,000 hot dogs in a day. Employees hand chop 75 pounds of onions each day , and they still serve Coke in the small glass bottles (and female customers are given straws).

But before you go inside and order “three and a bottle,” which is three dogs with everything and a Coke (which is what I had), you have to stop outside and peer in through the front window, where the hot dogs cook on a flat-top grill. I counted more than 175 dogs cooking at a time.
...