Exploring NEPA’s hot dog havens

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by Nikki M. Mascali
Weekender Editor

The origin of the hot dog — or frankfurter or wiener, if you so desire — is almost as mysterious as the contents of a hot dog. No one really knows for sure, but the city of Vienna, Austria, claims to trace the cased wonder’s history back to the 1480s, when it was given to people during royal coronations.

Two cities in Northeastern Pennsylvania, on the other hand, know exactly when their hot dog history began. Ask 10 people from Scranton or Wilkes-Barre what their favorite hot dog joint is, and chances are you’ll often hear “Abe’s” or “Coney Island” as the reply. It’s a reply that poses yet another question: “Which one?”

In about a two-block distance in Scranton, there are two hot dog restaurants with Coney Island in their names. In a 10-mile radius from Kingston to Mountain Top there are five, yes, five, Abe’s.

So what’s in a name?

Coney Island of Scranton

In a world where you can’t look at a menu without seeing something low-cal, low-carb or fat free, a few foods remain gloriously and deliciously untouched. The quintessential American food, the hot dog, is one of them.

Though, Tom Moran, owner of the Coney Island of Scranton on Cedar Avenue might beg to differ.

“(Our hot dogs are) made to very high standards,” he said. “Hot dogs, in general by the USDA, are allowed 29 percent fat content. Our wieners are 20 percent. They’re fat-free — we don’t charge for fat,” he added, laughing.

Moran and his wife Maureen partnered with Ted Karampilas in 1983 to run Coney Island. Ted’s father Steve established the restaurant in 1923.

“It has functioned as the Coney Island uninterrupted for that entire period of time, other than the 18 months of rebuilding after the fire,” Moran explained.

In April 2008, the restaurant was closed after the building was gutted following a fire. It reopened with a new expansion last June. While everything in the building was destroyed, the new Coney Island is still retro looking with exact-replica booths and much of the same artwork that hung on the original walls because those relics had been taken down prior to the fire. A $10,000 reward still stands for the identification of the arsonist.

“The response of our customers has been fantastic,” Moran said of business since reopening. “We’ve probably been busier than we’ve ever been.”

With a limited menu that features only the Texas wiener or hamburger — with chili, mustard and onions — six different ways to have fries, onion rings and a few desserts, manager Jeff Keegan, son-in-law of the Morans, says “the secret’s in the sauce.”

Only the Morans know the recipe. Maureen handles the combination of spices, which is “a couple, two, three,” she said with a sly grin, and Tom and Keegan prepare the sauce, which is made fresh daily. The restaurant goes through approximately 10 gallons of sauce a day. Doesn’t seem like a lot? Consider this: Coney Island of Scranton workers put an ounce of sauce on each hot dog and hamburger.

Everything served at Coney Island is from local purveyors. The hot dogs are from Gutheinz Meats, just a few blocks away on Cedar Avenue; the buns from Scranton’s National Bakery; and Schiff’s supplies the hamburgers, which are a special size to fit on the steamed buns for both the hot dogs and hamburgers. The restaurant splits the hot dogs and fries them on both sides, “which really brings out the taste,” Tom said.

It’s a taste Coney Island will soon make available outside NEPA. Keegan and his wife Maureen (the Morans’ daughter) are about to launch a shipping service on the restaurant’s Web site. People all over will be able to order party packs: a dozen uncooked wieners, a dozen buns, mustard, chopped onions and Coney Island’s special sauce.

“We’ve got the capability to mail them now,” Maureen Keegan said. “We’ll be able to ship our product to people who have left the area.”

Coney Island Lunch

Just a hot dog’s throw away from Coney Island of Scranton is Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue. The restaurant is run by brothers Pete and Bob Ventura, stepsons of Steve Karampilas’ other son Jack. Both Ventura brothers worked at the Cedar Avenue Coney Island before opening the Lackawanna location on March 26, 1988.

Both Coney Islands lay claim to Steve Karampilas’ 1923 establishment date. The similarities don’t end there. While Coney Island Lunch uses Berks hot dogs instead of Gutheinz, the Lackawanna Avenue location also splits the hot dogs and fries them on both sides.

“The reason we split them down the middle is because when we’d stack the buns on our arm, they wouldn’t roll off, and the toppings stayed put,” Pete Ventura explained as he manned the grill last week.

Coney Island Lunch serves its hot dogs and hamburgers Texas wiener-style with mustard, chili and onions on the same steamed National Bakery buns. The bakery delivers the buns whole, and Coney Island Lunch slices them by hand. Ventura, who’s been slicing National Bakery buns since 1973, estimated he’s sliced more than 4 million in his day.

The reason for steaming, said Ventura, stems back to the old days, when buns would arrive uncovered in wooden crates.

“They’d get a nice crust to them,” he said. “Now with them arriving in plastic, we’ve had to adapt because we’ve sort of outlived all our vendors.”

Ventura, who takes his hot dog with everything plus “a pile of jalapeno peppers,” said Coney Island Lunch serves approximately “500-1,000” Texas wieners a day, and he feels the secret to its success is in the ingredients.

“We’ve used the same ingredients from the very start,” he said. “Just about everything we sell in here is probably bad for you … but usually when things are bad for you, they’re good,” he added, laughing.

Ventura shared a recent story he heard about a local man who has a cookbook out and claims to have the recipe for the chili sauce from Coney Island.

“That just goes to show you that, I guess, to say that you have a restaurant where people think its big to have what they say is the recipe, it’s proof enough that we’re pretty unique.”

Abe’s Lunch

Abe’s Lunch on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre carries on the tradition started by Abe Druby in the late 1920s. Third-generation Drubys Scott and Gary own Abe’s, which moved across the street from its original location in 1961. This eatery isn’t affiliated with any of the other area Abe’s.

“It was handed down from generation to generation,” Scott Druby explained. “How we’ve become so famous is because generation after generation of customers come in here, too.”

Abe’s Lunch uses Berks hot dogs — “it’s a good dog,” Druby said — and its chili sauce is made fresh daily, and buns are delivered from a local bakery daily as well.

“We go through a lot, at least a couple hundred (hot dogs) a day,” he estimated.

Like most hot dog restaurants, Abe’s menu is reasonably priced, even during a bad economy.

“With the economy this tough, we’d like not to pass it on to the consumer,” Druby said, “so my brother Gary and I will take the loss for a while, until we can’t do it anymore, and we’ll up the price. We haven’t upped our prices in five years.

“We keep it inexpensive, good food.”

And healthy. Sort of.

“The only thing we do for customers is when they’re on that Atkins diet, we don’t give them the bun, they just eat the hot dog,” Druby said, smiling.

On the difference between his Abe’s and other NEPA Abe’s, Druby thinks it’s all part of which one they grew up eating.

“It’s a different sauce, it’s a different hot dog,” he explained. “It’s whatever people have grown up with. Some people have grown up on Barney Street hot dogs, and others have grown up on ours.”

The South Main Street Abe’s counts Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea on the original “Beverly Hills, 90210” series) and Bill Cosby among its fans, as proven by the autographed photos on the wall. Each time Cosby performs in Wilkes-Barre, Abe’s Lunch makes two hot dogs for the legendary comedian.

“They’ll prepare them and put onions and a teaspoon of chili,” Cosby told the Weekender last year. “In the dressing room, I’ll eat ’em and open up a bottle of Evian and a high-blood-pressure pill.”

So what’s makes Abe’s sauce so good?

“If I tell you, I’d have to kill you,” Druby said, grinning.

Abe’s Hot Dogs

Abe Obeid opened Abe’s Hot Dogs on Barney Street in Wilkes-Barre in 1924. In addition to that location, Abe’s legacy lives on in Kingston, Mountain Top and on Route 309 in Wilkes-Barre. Abe’s grandson Billy Obeid runs all of them.

“(My grandfather) lived in South Wilkes-Barre next to Mr. Kutz who owned Old River Road Bakery,” Obeid said. “I think Abe must have brushed with Coney Island after coming through immigration in New York City because once he got here, there was no place to buy a hot dog. He had Mr. Kutz make buns for him and had somebody make hot dogs for him.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Obeid has been involved since he was a little kid. He now uses Hatfield hot dogs and makes all of the sauce in a 32-gallon kettle in the Barney Street kitchen twice a week and then ships it to his other locations.

“You should see the little spoon they serve it with,” Obeid said, laughing. “Every time I make it, I look at the big jug, and you think you’d be there a lifetime because we’re taking it out one little spoonful at a time,”

Obeid keeps mum about the secrets to Abe’s sauce, but he did share that there are 10 ingredients.

“It’s the same sauce that my dad made, that my grandfather made; I don’t share with anyone,” he said.

When asked how many hot dogs Abe’s serves on a daily basis, Obeid said thousands.

“Here on Barney Street, we probably sell 1,000 a day,” he replied. “I think my order this week was for 1,600 pounds, so that’s 16,000 hot dogs. That’s a weekly order, so it can range anywhere from 14,000-16,000 hot dogs a week.”

Being surrounded by hot dogs his whole life, Obeid doesn’t get much time away from the grill when he’s home on holiday weekends.

“Fourth of July, who do you think’s stuck at the grill? Me, no matter where I go, I can’t escape it! It’s my lot in life,” he said with a laugh.

But it’s a lot that may come to an end someday.

“This will probably be the last generation,” Obeid shared as he stood behind the Barney Street counter. “We were the first hot dog in the valley, and the oldest restaurant in the valley and city. It’s been a good run, 86 years.”

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