New York Times names Cincy coney among best hot dogs in US (albeit with an unwanted diss)

The New York Times named our Cincinnati cheese coney as one of the 15 Great Hot Dogs of America this week. It's quite an honor given its other selections included the Southern-style slaw dog, the Sonoran hot dogs of Tucson and the "dragged through the garden" Chicago dog, among other iconic regional dogs.

According to writer J.J. Goode, our coney is similar to others, with its chopped onion, mustard and chili. What sets it apart is the "prodigious amount of cheddar " it's topped with and, of course, the chili itself.

As Goode writes: "Adherents who haunt chili parlors like Skyline and Camp Washington scoff at the it's-not-chili complaints, celebrating the sauce's distinctive spicing of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon?and the miraculous merging of Mediterranean and Slavic flavors with early 20th-century American tastes."

But then comes what I feel is a bit of a diss from Mr. Goode. "That said," he adds, "they also take theirs on spaghetti, so the jury's still out."

The jury's still out? Because we put our chili on spaghetti? Then why is our dog officially included on the list? None of the other selections received such caveats. In fact, no other dog received any such derogatory comments at all. Goode also refers to our chili as "famous (or infamous)."

What's that all about?

It just goes to show that Cincinnati chili will never get the respect it deserves. As former New York Times writer and current Enquirer reporter Sydney Franklin responded when I asked her to read the piece herself, "The jury is still out? Then why do people come from all over the country to try them?"

Amen, Sydney Franklin. Amen.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati chili dog praised (then kinda dissed) by New York Times