Coney Detroit

A thorough history of and ode to the Detroit coney island hotdog.

Commended for IndieFab awards (Regional Book) 2012
Commended for Midwest Book Award (MIPA) (Cookbook) 2013

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"

More than 150 colorful photos depict the traditions, rivalries, and differences between restaurants that sell the coney in its various forms: wet and dry. While the coney legend is centered in Detroit, Yung and Grimm also uncover coney history in other Michigan cities including Flint, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Port Huron, Pontiac, and Traverse City.

--Michigan History "Michigan History"

Take a hot dog from New York's famed Coney Island, throw in plenty of Greek immigrants and a booming auto industry, add some chili sauce, a steamed bun, chopped onions, mustard and an epic sibling rivalry and you've got the makings of a classic American melting pot story. That story is told in Coney Detroit, a new book that serves as paean for what's become the quintessential dish of the Motor City.

--Maria Godoy "NPR"

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), Songquest: The Journals of Great Lakes Folklorist Ivan H. Walton (Wayne State University Press, 2005), 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.

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