Additions & Errata, "The Flint Coney: A Savory History"
Research for “The Flint Coney: A Savory History” didn’t stop when the page proofs were completed for publication. I continued searching for more complete information, especially in some areas where I specifically stated within the book that some information was still missing. Other information, such as discovering Flint Coney Island served New York-style coneys its first few years, were surprising additions to what’s in the book. The PDF below also contains any errata within the book’s content, which I’ll also update as those errata are identified.
A second PDF below contains color versions of the maps on pages 103 to 105. Below those maps, I answer the question “Why did you write this book?”
Additions & Errata
Please use the Contact Form to let me know of any errata within the book.
Color Maps
One of the issues with publishing a book such as “The Flint Coney: A Savory History” is that printing color pages costs considerably more than black-and-white, or even greyscale. The processes generally happen separately, and collating occurs as a third process after both print processes, prior to binding.
To keep the cost of “The Flint Coney: A Savory History” as low as possible, the maps on pages 103 to 105 were printed in greyscale. Below are 8-1/2 x 11″ versions of those maps from the original Illustrator files, in full color as a PDF. You’re welcome to download and print these maps for your own use, but not for distribution without express written permission.
updated March 9, 2022
Download the PDF
Why Did I Write This Book?
I’ve worked on a number of versions of what became “The Flint Coney: A Savory History” since 2008. It started as a two-page treatment of what I thought might only become a magazine article, grew into something that included a detailed restaurant directory, then was scaled back with a lot of tightening of the text. At various times it became an obsession, while at other times it was only on the back burner. It’s been an evolution.
Recently Mary Yana Todorovsky, who’s mentioned in the book, asked “What motivated you? What intrigued you to do it?” After giving it some thought, I’ve realized that’s been an evolution as well.
My stepson Caleb and I had operated the Luna Pier Dog House near the Lake Erie beach in our town during the summer of 2008. In those three months, we made 72 batches of the coney sauce recipe containing ground hot dogs. Up until that summer, I believed that recipe to be the real recipe Angelo’s used at their original Davison Rd. location.
Later that year, out of curiosity, I ordered a copy of “Two to Go” from the Genesee County Historical Society, their short history of the Flint Coney and the people behind the restaurants. That’s when I learned the recipe we’d used wasn’t even close to what the restaurants were using. I then began to dig into the history behind that particular recipe, while also tring to figure out how to duplicate the real recipe at home using fresh-ground beef heart.
Looking into the story of the true recipe for Flint Coney sauce revealed the story behind the restaurants, which then led to learning some of history of the Macedonian people their culture, and the horrors of war they’d experienced in the first couple decades of the twentieth century. Finding out that they, as a people, were constantly fighting for their identity ultimately led to a passion for describing their story as best as I could.
That’s where the book came from: Their story needed to be told.