Chicago has enough hang-ups about hot dogs. The last thing our homegrown dog Nazis need to do is get into Detroit’s business. But that’s precisely what Humboldt Park’s Lola’s Coney Island confronts Chicago with: Detroit-style hot dogs, which were established neither in Detroit nor New York, but more likely in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the home of the oldest operating coney purveyor anywhere. Fort Wayne’s Famous Coney Island Wiener Stand was opened 106 years ago by Macedonian immigrants who, like many of their kind, trafficked in a hot dog delivery system that featured a mildly spiced natural casing wiener blanketed in a beanless but hearty chili sauce.
Fakhoury is the force behind Lola’s, named for his two-year-old daughter. He has a keen appreciation for the ridiculousness of the regional hot dog wars. Don’t ask him what body fluid he’s heard some dickheads compare coney sauce to. He’s called Chicago home for 19 years—selling cars mostly—but for the last 15 or so he’s dreamed of opening a Coney Island stand. He has two goals. One is to please the population of Michigan transplants that yearns for the coneys of home, and two: “I don’t want to give anyone from Chicago a reason to make fun of me.”
Yes, OK, in a city that celebrates bitter wormwood liquor and sausage intolerance that might sound ridiculous. But sometimes a hot dog is just a hot dog and there’s nothing to make fun of at Lola’s Coney Island. v
2858 W. Chicago 773-687-9459lolasconeyisland.com
