Pete Ventura spends his days in front of the grill just inside the window of Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue.
He says the signature taste of Scranton’s unique Texas Weiners comes down to three things - the chili, mustard and onions on top of each all-beef Berks hotdog they serve.
“The chili can’t be sweet. It’s got to be spicy, there’s no sugars. If they put sugar in it, they’re hiding something,” he said while fixing up hotdogs and hamburgers for the lunch crowd.
“Greeks always use a Düsseldorf mustard,” he continued. “We use Spanish onions or Texas onions. You want a sweeter onion.”
Ventura’s restaurant is one of two Texas Wiener shops in Scranton marking 100 years in business this year.
On Cedar Avenue at The Original Coney Island of Scranton, owner Brendan Bell says it’s the wiener itself that makes a lot of difference.
“A wiener is basically a type of sausage, so hotdogs are longer and wieners are small,” he said. “Ours are made from Gutheinz which is down the street, and they’ve been doing that for us forever.”
Both establishments are celebrating 100 years since Steve Karampilas, Ventura’s grandfather, opened the Cedar Avenue location and brought the name Coney Island Texas Wieners to Scranton.
According to their websites, Cedar Avenue was the restaurant’s sole home for 65 years.
Steve Karampilas died in 1972, and his sons Ted and John took over the Cedar Avenue restaurant. John retired in the late 80s and Ted continued the original business with a new partner. Then in 1988, John helped his step-sons Pete and Bob Ventura open their current location on Lackawanna Avenue.
Bell took over on Cedar Avenue about 10 years ago. The two restaurants are not affiliated with one another, but Bell said they don’t consider themselves rivals.
“Pete has a great product, we have a great product and people just choose,” he said. “There’s enough people to take care of both of us.”
Both restaurants were starting to bustle in the early hours of the lunch rush. Customers ordered their standards off each simple menu and watched as their lunches sizzled on the grill in front of them.
“I won’t go to a place that has a hot dog cooked in the back,” Ventura said. “I want to see them make it, and that has worked for us all these years.”
Both Bell and Ventura agree, simplicity has helped keep customers coming back - some have been going to their preferred spot for decades.
“It’s an establishment in Scranton, it’s a place people have always come back to,” Bell said. “It’s gone through some changes, but it’s simple. You know you’re coming here to get a wiener or a burger.”
The window at Coney Island Lunch proclaims they serve the third best hotdog in the country. Ventura said that came from a survey in 2013 - and the third place ranking suits them just fine.
“I like the third place thing,” he said. “If you’re number one, you know, people want to knock you off. So third best, that’s good.”
And as the hot dogs and burgers sizzle on Ventura’s grill, a photo of Steve Karimpalas is always hanging on the wall nearby.
