“This book is a wonderful snapshot of iconic places (and of the people who inhabit them) in the cultural landscape of Detroit, Flint, and Jackson, Michigan. To most Americans, these names mean cars, but to the people who live there, coneys count, and here is the book to whet the appetite and evoke ‘home,’ as no other food can.”
Coney Detroit
Katherine Yung and Joe Grimm
Paper - 9780814335185
Price: $24.95t
Available April 2012
Size: 10 x 8.5, Pages: 136, Illustrations: 160
Series: Painted Turtle Series
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News & Events
Mar 30 – WSU Press at Local History Conference
Apr 4 – Coney Detroit Book Launch at Gleaners
Apr 18 – Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial
Apr 25 – Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung at the Community House in Birmingham
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| American Coney Island |
Detroit is the world capital of the coney island hot dog—a natural-casing hot dog topped with an all-meat beanless chili, chopped white onions, and yellow mustard. In Coney Detroit, authors Katherine Yung and Joe Grimm investigate all aspects of the beloved regional delicacy, which was created by Greek immigrants in the early 1900s. Coney Detroit traces the history of the coney island restaurant, which existed in many cities but thrived nowhere as it did in Detroit, and surveys many of the hundreds of independent and chain restaurants in business today. In more than 150 mouth-watering photographs and informative, playful text, readers will learn about the traditions, rivalries, and differences between the restaurants, some even located right next door to each other.
Coney Detroit showcases such Metro Detroit favorites as American Coney Island, Lafayette Coney Island, Duly’s Coney Island, Kerby’s Coney Island, National Coney Island, and Leo’s Coney Island. As Yung and Grimm uncover the secret ingredients of an authentic Detroit coney, they introduce readers to the suppliers who produce the hot dogs, chili sauce, and buns, and also reveal the many variations of the coney—including coney tacos, coney pizzas, and coney omelets. While the coney legend is centered in Detroit, Yung and Grimm explore coney traditions in other Michigan cities, including Flint, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Port Huron, Pontiac, and Traverse City, and even venture to some notable coney islands outside of Michigan, from the east coast to the west. Most importantly, the book introduces and celebrates the families and individuals that created and continue to proudly serve Detroit’s favorite food.
Not a book to be read on an empty stomach, Coney Detroit deserves a place in every Detroiter or Detroiter-at-heart’s collection.
Additional Coney Detroit material can be found at ConeyDetroit.com!
Contributors: Photographers: Bobby Alcott, Brian Blanco, Keith Burgess, E. Terry Clark, Ted Fines, Paul Hitzelberger, Brett J. Lawrence, Eric Peoples, Christine Dunshee Peterson, Ryan Southen, Spike, Rob Terwilliger
Published by Wayne State University Press
Author(s)
Katherine Yung is a reporter at the Detroit Free Press covering Michigan’s economy and other business subjects. Before joining the Free Press in May 2007, she worked for the Dallas Morning News and The Detroit News.
Joe Grimm is the author of several books, including Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors (Wayne State University Press, 2002), Michigan Voices: Our State’s History in the Words of the People Who Lived It (Wayne State University Press, 1987), and Bringing the News. Following a thirty-one-year newspaper career, twenty-five of them spent at the Detroit Free Press, he became a journalism professor at Michigan State University.
Contributors: Photographers: Bobby Alcott, Brian Blanco, Keith Burgess, E. Terry Clark, Ted Fines, Paul Hitzelberger, Brett J. Lawrence, Eric Peoples, Christine Dunshee Peterson, Ryan Southen, Spike, Rob Terwilliger
Reviews
“This book is a wonderful snapshot of iconic places (and of the people who inhabit them) in the cultural landscape of Detroit, Flint, and Jackson, Michigan. To most Americans, these names mean cars, but to the people who live there, coneys count, and here is the book to whet the appetite and evoke ‘home,’ as no other food can.”
— Bruce Kraig, president of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance and author of Hot Dog: A Global History and Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America
“At a time when a growing number of Americans are discovering—or rediscovering—their foodways traditions, Coney Detroit provides a rich and colorful picture of the way coney dogs have emerged as a distinctive symbol of identity for Detroiters. Yung and Grimm provide keen insights into the history and daily life of the coney island restaurants that dot the cityscape of Detroit, and they feature the people who make and passionately carry on coneys as a Michigan folk tradition. Coney Detroit is a lively celebration of how food contributes to identity of place and meaning to all those who have taken a bite of Detroit’s coney tradition.”
— C. Kurt Dewhurst, president of the American Folklore Society and Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage at Michigan State University Museum
“Every politician campaigning in Detroit must get photographed with a coney in hand. Athletes and music stars going for after-game or concert coneys run into fans doing the same thing. When national media declare a coney showdown, we flock to the restaurants to cheer on our favorites like we cheer on our sports teams.”
— Joe Grimm, from the preface
News
Friday March 30, 2012 - Saturday March 31, 2012 12:00 AM
WSU Press at Local History Conference
WSU Press will display and sell books at the Michigan in Perspective: Local History Conference in Warren, MI at Macomb Community College South Campus' John Lewis Center on March 31st, 2012. WSU Press authors and Detroit Free Press reporters Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung will present a program relating to their latest book, Coney Detroit, that explains why Detroit became the world capital for Coney Island hot dogs.
Wednesday April 4, 2012 5:00 AM
Coney Detroit Book Launch at Gleaners
Gleaners Community Foodback of Southeastern Michigan (located at 2131 Beaufait, Detroit, MI 48207) will be hosting the book launch event for Coney Detroit. This event will take place on Wednesday, April 4th 2012, from 5:00-8:00pm. More details to come!
Wednesday April 18, 2012 7:30 PM
Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial
Detroit Free Press reporters Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung will present a program relating to their latest book, Coney Detroit, that explains why Detroit became the world capital for Coney Island hot dogs.
Wednesday April 25, 2012 7:00 PM
Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung at the Community House in Birmingham
Learn the stories behind the restaurants that have made Metro Detroit the coney island capital. The authors of Coney Detroit, the first comprehensive book on the subject, will take you into the past and behind the scenes with anecdotes and photos that will help you see coney islands in a whole new light. The dogs, the sauce, the families, the different styles of coneys and how people across the country are copying the Detroit experience -- it's all in there. Enjoy a coney and a coke as you enjoy the history! Book for sale at class (optional), $24.95. Wednesday, 4/25, 7-8:30pm. RSVP required.
Wednesday May 2, 2012 5:00 PM
Coney Detroit authors at Nicola's Books
Joe Grimm and Katherine Yung, authors of Coney Detroit, will be at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor signing copies and talking about the new book.
