The meat is a small, thin wiener made of veal, pork and beef. It comes not in pre-cut, ready to use links, as most wieners do, but rather is made in a continuous rope about 20 feet (6 metres) long. The wieners have to be cut off in pieces from the rope in the restaurant kitchen. Each piece ends up about 4 inches (10 cm) long, with square ends from where they were cut.
The wiener is cooked, then put in a bun and dressed with a thin red tomato meat sauce (they call it a meat sauce, not a chili sauce.) The meat sauce flavoured with allspice, chili powder, cumin, nutmeg, and paprika. It is a style of chili created by Greek immigrants in the 1940s.
The sauced wiener is then it is topped with finely chopped raw onion, yellow mustard and celery salt. “All the way” means you want all these three toppings on it.
Experienced cooks line up and balances up to a dozen hot dog buns at a time on one arm, from wrist to shoulder, and dresses them up with the other free hand. This preparation method is called “up d’ahm.”
People often order three and four of these hot dogs at one go because the wieners are so small.
History Notes
Sparky’s Coney Island System opened in 1915. Original New York System was opened in 1927 by Gust Pappas. Olneyville New York System was opened in 1946 by Anthony Stevens (“Stavrianakos”), a cousin of Pappas, and his son Nicholas. Anthony and Nicholas worked for Pappas at first for a few years before opening Olneyville.
Olneyville has three locations now (as of 2010), all still family owned. They offer vinegar for the fries. “Beef stew” at Olneyville is French fries topped with salt, vinegar and ketchup.
Language Notes
Despite the names “Coney Island System” and “New York System”, this style of hot dog has nothing to do with any part of New York.
Sources
Goldwyn, Craig. The Rhode Island Hot Wiener in: a Hot Dog Road Trip: A Patriotic Party Plan. Huffington Post. 1 July 2009. Retrieved September 2010 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/hot-dog-road-trip-a-patri_b_219958.html