coney islands - Detroit style

We headed to the famous duo of dueling Coney Islands in downtown Detroit to get something to eat before going to the museum-

the two that do battle are Lafayette and American - we read a lot about the rivalry including one article that said the writer was outside the joints (which share a common wall even) and two guys got out of one car and taunted each other for going into the other place - loyalties are fierce!

and here is the blurb I read online before hand-
"When you eat at Lafayette, you join the ranks of Eminem, Kid Rock, Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom, Drew Barrymore, and so many more, who’ve all downed one, or two, or ten award-winning coneys here (not to say they haven’t also ventured next door). Maybe it’s the diner-like atmosphere, maybe it’s the beefier chili or the Spanish onions used to top it all off… it doesn't really matter. Lafayette is simply the best original coney there is."

so we chose Lafayette-

now a little background is due here- I come from Cincinnati where we are serious about our coney islands- made at chili parlors all over town (and yes we have our own rivalry of Skyline versus Gold Star- SKYLINE WIN!) but our coneys are made with Greek Chili (like the ones in Tulsa OK) and so all others all generally less than desirable to us- although I will give a shout out to the Coney Island in Tulsa as a truly credible coney.

here is what MY coneys look like-

and here is the Tulsa coney I had when there with TB a couple of years back -

clearly cheese is an essential ingredient in THE REAL CONEY ISLAND dog- 

TB and I even found some decent Detroit style coneys in upstate NY in a place called Gus's (who called his Michigan Red Hots)

but I will say this- I thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at Lafayette- we had a great time and downed three dogs each - no fries just the coney experience - so as to fully immerse ourselves- LOL

the chef!

the crew- our waiter is the one on the left in this photo with Joe Biden-

this guy was delivering all kinds of orders to the dining room area - we sat at the counter-

a photo of the counter where we sat (from the internet and you can see from my photo above the place was much more crowded when we were there...)

so from here we were off to DIA to see the collection of art that may soon be auctioned off the pay creditors--- so stay tuned...