Step Back In Time At This Famed Massachusetts Hot Dog Spot

An official Coney Island hot dog is a dog covered in a meaty chili sauce. According to some tales, in the early 1900s, many Greek immigrants discovered the popular hot dogs served at Coney Island, and as these immigrants settled across the country, they brought the Coney Island name with them. Even Detroit boasts its own Detroit Coney hot dog. The dish was innovated by topping hot dogs with a chili-like sauce based on the Greek saltsa kima, along with mustard and onions. In the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, George's Coney Island Hot Dogs has been serving chili-covered franks since Catherine and George Tsagarelis first opened the business in 1918.

Before becoming George's Coney Island Hot Dogs, the location was a simple lunch counter. The Tsagarelis bought it to focus their business on the iconic New York dish, though it wasn't until 1938 that it became famous for a giant neon sign featuring a hand clutching a hot dog. Not only was the idea for the sign George's, but the hand was his as well. He posed for the sign while someone photographed him holding one of his own dogs.

The restaurant itself has changed very little over the past century. The original wooden doors on the bathrooms remain intact, and customers can still sit in the wooden booths from the restaurant's early days. Thousands have scratched their names into the booths, part of the restaurant's enduring legacy and a testament to how deeply customers love it.

When George's first opened in 1918, the price of a hot dog was just a nickel. More than a century later, it's still a very reasonable $2.95. That price covers any dog, whether you want it with just mustard and onions or plain; cheese costs a little extra, though. There's no extra charge for that chili sauce, however, and some think that's the key to the restaurant's longevity. To this day, the exact recipe for the hot dog chili remains a secret, but it's still made in-house as a pure meat sauce with no beans. Interestingly, George didn't actually innovate the sauce himself. Rather, it came from the original store that he bought in 1918. The recipe was made by the woman who owned that luncheonette. George thought it would work well on hot dogs and kept it for his new venture.

Kathryn Tsandikos, granddaughter of George and Catherine and current owner of the restaurant, thinks the toppings are part of the business' success, but not the whole picture. "The secret to our good hot dog, the roll has to be perfectly steamed and the hot dog has to be plump and cooked a certain way," she told The Telegram in 2018. Although the menu has added items like hamburgers, mac and cheese, and baked beans over the years, the hot dogs are clearly still the star. Even though there are dozens of regional varieties and hundreds of toppings, George's Coney Island Hot Dogs sticks to the basics. The joint serves the classic Coney toppings (chili sauce, mustard, and onions), but beyond that, you'll only find ketchup, relish, mayo, cheese, and celery salt. Sometimes the basics are all you need.