Fort Wayne's Famous Coney Island: the stand that outlasted them all

1913 — present

The oldest plate in the city: The History Center's account gives the stand a 1913 start on Calhoun Street, opened by Greek immigrants; since 1914 it has stood at 131 West Main Street, and in 1916 Vasil Eshcoff, a Macedonian immigrant, bought an interest from one of the three original Greek owners. It has been in Eshcoff's family ever since. His son-in-law Russ Choka began working at the stand in 1958 and took it over in 1961; Fort Wayne Magazine's family-restaurant survey records that Russ ran it for 53 years. Today his daughter Kathy Choka co-owns it with Jimmy Todoran, who started there washing dishes at fifteen, in 1987.

The food is the point of the record. The coney sauce recipe dates to the first owners — 1913 in the stand's own telling — and remains secret, known to the owners. It is, as Todoran told National Geographic in 2026, not a chili: "It's not thick. It's just a flavorful thinner meat sauce," served over a flattop-grilled wiener in a steamed bun with yellow mustard and hand-chopped onions. The dogs have cooked for decades on a three-foot grill set in the storefront window on Main Street; Coca-Cola is sold in eight-ounce glass bottles. The stand changed almost nothing for a century — it did not take credit cards until 2014 — and its busiest season is Christmas, when former Fort Wayne residents come home and, in the phrase the national coverage repeats, come back for a taste of it. Comedian Jim Gaffigan put the stand in his book Food: A Love Story; People magazine cited it among the best hot dogs in the state. In July 2026 National Geographic stated the standing plain fact of the place: no establishment has been hawking hot dogs longer — Fort Wayne's Famous Coney Island predates Nathan's Famous of Brooklyn, founded 1916, by two years.

Sources:

1. National Geographic, "The surprising history behind America's longest running hot dog stand" (2 July 2026) — the longevity statement, the sauce described by co-owner Jimmy Todoran, the 1914 Greek founding, credit cards in 2014.
2. The History Center, Fort Wayne (Facebook post, 26 April 2022), copied at ACGSI's Allen INGenWeb page for the stand — the 1913 Calhoun Street start, the 1914 move to 131 West Main, Eshcoff's 1916 purchase, Choka's 1958 start and 1961 takeover.
3. Fort Wayne Magazine / FortWayne.com, "The Family Way" — Russ Choka's 53 years, the present co-owners, the Gaffigan and People citations.
4. MEAT+POULTRY, "A century of hot doggin'" (16 February 2022) — the window grill, the glass-bottle Coca-Cola, the family line, the 2014 centennial year.