The Birth of the Hot Dog: Was Famous Nathan a Backstabber?

There are those revisionists that would have you believe that the hot dog, as we know it, was invented by Nathan Handwerker, of Famous Nathan's. That just isn't the case.

It was another Coney Islander, Charles Feltman, who gave us the hot dog. As a young German immigrant, Feltman drove a pie wagon up and down the beach at Coney, and got a good business going. But he had a problem: His customers wanted hot sandwiches. Feltman resisted this as involving a lot of elaborate cooking and carving, but one day in 1867 (or 1874; accounts vary) he had an idea. He approached a wheelwright named Donovan and asked if it would be possible to put a burner in the pie wagon. Feltman could then keep a supply of warm sausages on hand and fork one onto a sliced milk roll whenever a customer called for a hot sandwich.

Donovan cobbled one together on the spot, Feltman threw some sausages in to boil, and in a little while, there in Donovan's shop at East New York and Howard Avenues in Brooklyn, the two men ate the world's first two hot dogs.

Some reckless people dispute these facts; what isn't disputed is that Feltman's delicacy was popular enough to build its inventor an enormous restaurant on Coney, a complex of beer gardens and breezeways that ran along West 10th Street from Surf Avenue to the shore. By the turn of the century, Feltman had 1,200 waiters working for him, serving as many as 8,000 meals at a time. His place became famous for its seafood, but throughout his immense restaurant, he kept seven grills busy turning out hot dogs for 10 cents each.

It was from Feltman that Nathan Handwerker learned about hot dogs. Handwerker, an employee of Feltman's hot dog stand, was encouraged by celebrity clients Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with his former employer. Handwerker undercut Feltman's by charging five cents for a hot dog when his former employer was charging ten. At a time when food regulation was in its infancy, and the pedigree of the hot dog particularly suspect, Handwerker made sure that men wearing surgeon's smocks were seen eating at his stand to reassure potential customers. The business proved immensely popular. And so now you know the rest of the story.