My friend Van from Georgia paid a visit to Michigan recently and I was lucky enough to be able to spend an entire day with him back in our old hometown of Flint, Michigan. Since time was short, we combined the two things that we loved to do into one – which is sitting down in front of two up and a side of fries from Angelo’s and playing a game of Scrabble.
Van and I take Scrabble pretty seriously. For the last eight years or so, a Friday night doesn’t go by where the both of us aren’t online taking each other on in a game of Scrabble. We connect to some Scrabble playing board located in Romania (I’m serious) and we use Yahoo or Google Talk for live audio chat to talk trash to each other as we play. His wife and my girlfriend think that the both of us are nuts and neither Van or I will correct their opinion of us, because we know that despite our weirdness that they still love us.
The date was August 21, 2010. I drove over to Flint from the Port Huron area (where I now live) to pick up Van at the motel where he was staying on Hill Road in Grand Blanc. We were both hungry for coneys and playing a game of Scrabble and I decided that the best place to play and eat would be at Angelo’s Dort Hwy location – not only because the place isn’t as busy as the Franklin and Davison location – but this Angelo’s is located in the old Wendy’s restaurant location (next to where Ember’s use to be) and we had spent many hours soaking up alcohol with burgers and fries there in the early 80s.
You might think that people might say something to you or give you an odd look or two when two normal looking guys sit down in a coney island restaurant and set a Scrabble board before the drinks and menus are brought to the table – you might think it – but nothing whatsoever happened. No stares, no comments, no nothing. As a matter of fact, our waitress was nice enough to take a picture of the both of us playing and enjoying our coneys and who said the people in Flint aren’t friendly. Hahaha!
To make a long story short – I am proud to say that I won what we titled “The Flint Angelo’s Scrabble Challenge” by a score of 348 to 283. I should have taken a picture of the winning board – but it totally escaped me.
What didn’t escape Van or I was something that we saw posted on a sign at Angelo’s. Angelo’s was introducing a new menu item and Van and I took it as a slap the Flint coney dog and something that we felt embarrassed that Angelo’s would stoop to doing just to sell a few more dogs. The item that they were selling: ‘HARD SHELL CONEYS” – which is nothing more than coney island tacos. What the…..
If you were born and bred in Flint, Michigan – there is one thing that we could always be proud of and that’s Koegel hot dogs. Koegel hot dogs aren’t your everyday hot dog made with animal parts that you wouldn’t feed to your pet. Koegel’s were (and still are) made to some pretty high standards and anyone who has ever eaten a Kogel coney longs to hear and feel that snap of the dog when you bite into it. It’s that snap and the high quality that we have come to expect in a coney made with a Koegel hot dog – but now Angelo’s (of all places) is cheapening the coney experience by turning it into a taco.
I have had arguments with coney island cooks in the Port Huron area about the Flint coney versus the Detroit style coney. I don’t care what these slap-happy grease pushers say --- the Flint coney is a better hot dog and I’m sure that there are other people out there who feel the same way that I do, but it just saddens me that Angelo’s has now turned the coney into a taco. What’s next coney pizza? Coney Subs? Coney sushi? Coney on a stick?
If you love coneys like I love coneys….I urge you to say no to the Hard Shell Coney at Angelo’s, After all that Flint has gone through as a city – the last thing we need is to see Angelo’s make a mockery of our beloved coney island.
And with that said…if you see my waitress…tell her that I could use another coney and a side of fries with gravy.
1 comment:
There's no choice in the Flint-Detroit coney battle. It's Flint all the way, dude. I do have to admit to enjoying going to the Davison Road Angelos location. When I was in high school, I'd grab lunch there all the time. Too many memories in that place. It's one of the few restaurants I have to go to when I come back to visit Flint.
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