tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Nathan's Famous
Owner -- Nathan's Famous (NASDAQ: NATH)
Primary Operating Region -- Northeast
Number of Locations -- 142

Until recently, my sole exposure to Nathan's Famous was the grocery store version of the hot dog.  But that was enough to make me a fan.  They're easily the best tasting hot dogs available for cooking at home.  I've made fans of them out of people who didn't like hot dogs in the first place.  My friends refer to them simply as "the GOOD hot dogs".  A checker at Safeway and I had an extended discussion about them when I bought their entire stock during a "buy one get one free" sale.  Apparently, it's the only hot dog her husband will eat.

The retail version of the dog is a relatively new twist.  The dog itself has been around practically a century. Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker was working for Feltman's, a thriving restaurant that came out of the evolution of the hot dog.  Charles Feltman had developed the "sausage in a sandwich" which he sold alongside pies out of his pie wagon to inns.  The Nathan's website says Nathan's opened on a $300 loan from two Feltman's co-workers...Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante.  Other histories don't mention Cantor and Durante as Feltman's employees...they indicate Cantor and Durante simply encouraged Handwerker to compete with Feltman's because they were angry that Feltman's had increased the price of their dogs, and Handwerker funded himself with savings.

Handwerker's fiancé came up with the recipe.  The spices were made in parts at two different locations to keep the recipe secret.

Nathan's undercut Feltman's price by half, charging a nickel a dog.  But it took some savvy to earn customers trust that Coney's were something that should be eaten at all.  The solution was to dress neighborhood bums up as doctors and pay them to sit at the counter.  Problem solved.

Nathan's became...well...famous.  There are many celebrity stories ranging from Al Capone to Cary Grant.  Nathan's has been a mandatory campaign stop since Nelson Rockefeller declared nobody could get elected in New York State without being photographed eating a hot dog there.

The Nathan's Famous company today owns three brands...Nathan's, Kenny Rogers Roasters (purchased out of bankruptcy at a fire sale price), and Miami Subs...and has exclusive co-branding rights for Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips.  The idea was to offer the ability to co-brand several different concepts.  It hasn't exactly taken off thus far.  The hot dogs are still by far the best thing Nathan's has going for them.  Everything else thus far has appeared to be a financial drag on the company.  So it makes sense that they're finding every way they possibly can to get the dogs out there and include any such way in their count of available locations in press releases as "branded product points of distribution".  Nathan's-branded dogs are also served hot at some convenience store chains.

The menu available at your local Nathan's should include the core hot dog in normal, chili and/or cheesy varieties, as well as fries.  Some locations have hamburgers.  Many locations are "express" outlets or co-branded locations.  The closest one to me is a Nathan's/TCBY.

The original dog can't be beat.  I don't know of a better dog anywhere.  But Wienerschnitzel is still the better chili dog, and there's a couple of reasons for that.  First, Nathan's chili is terrible.  Second, Nathan's dogs are simply too good to cover in chili.  I have a spot-on knockoff recipe for Wienerschniztel chili sauce and, while it's fabulous on an Oscar-Meyer, it isn't on Nathan's.  The Nathan's Coney was just made to be eaten as a hot dog.  Put one on a fork with nothing else and they're wonderful.

The only significant difference I can find between the restaurant dog and the supermarket dog is the shape and the color of the casing.  The supermarket dog is available in two sizes...bun-length and normal.  The restaurant dog is longer and curved and appears to be a more premium product on the outside.  But clearly, both use the same spices, and both are wonderful.

So go with Nathan's the restaurant or Nathan's the retail version.  You won't go wrong either way.

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