New York City wiener war recalls glory days when Big Apple battles ruled baseball
New York City's boroughs once battled for World Series wins and baseball bragging rights.
The Yankees from the Bronx, the Dodgers from Brooklyn and the Giants from Manhattan won eight straight World Series in Major League Baseball from 1949 to 1956.
Those "diamond daze" of the 1950s are long gone.
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Now, delicious barrels of beef franks hitting home runs of happiness and gastronomic grand slams fuel the inter-borough animosity.
Hot-dog hawker Sabrett represents Manhattan. Nathan's Famous flies the banner of Brooklyn.
The obvious differences between a Sabrett hot dog, left, and a Nathan's Famous hot dog, right, have fueled generations of inter-borough animosity in New York City. Sabrett hot dogs rule the Manhattan street-cart tubed meat scene. Nathan's Famous lords over Brooklyn from its sun-soaked perch on Coney Island. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
It's the Great Weiner War of Gotham.
"New Yorkers eat more hot dogs than any other group in the country," says the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.
"From downtown Manhattan to Coney Island, when you buy your hot dog in the Big Apple, it will come served with steamed onions and a pale, deli-style yellow mustard."
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Sabrett food carts, with their signature blue and yellow umbrellas, are ubiquitous on almost every Manhattan street corner.
Nathan's Famous lords over Brooklyn from its seaside landmark location on Coney Island.
New York City is known nationally for its pizza scene. And it's certainly easy to find a cheap slice around town. But hot dog street carts are certainly more visibile.
"Sabrett hot dogs serve as New York’s food ambassador to the world and are as much a part of the city landscape as the Empire State Building," the company website states.
"Sabrett hot dogs serve as New York’s food ambassador to the world and are as much a part of the city landscape as the Empire State Building," the hot dog vendor notes on its website. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
"The Flavor of New York Since 1916," Nathan's Famous boasts on social media and on a giant Coney Island mural.
Both frankfurters have star power, proving that if they can make it here — they can make it anywhere.
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Sabrett hot dogs – its carts, most notably – have made hundreds of cameos on TV shows and movies filmed in Manhattan over the decades.
"That Girl," a popular 1960s TV sitcom, the silver-screen hit "When Harry Met Sally" in the 1980s, and comic book-hero flick "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" just last year all featured Sabrett street carts.
Nathan's Famous, however, is the undisputed champ of Major League Eating on Independence Day.
The Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Championship offers delicious 4th of July fare in front of tens of thousands of fans each summer on Coney Island and millions more on TV at home.
Winners Joey Chestnut, front, and Michelle Lesco, obscured behind hot dogs, pose at the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest in Coney Island's Maimonides Park on Sunday, July 4, 2021, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)
Nathan’s Famous "is definitely the New York hot dog and it’s the hot dog I love more than any other," one of the world’s most noted hog dog authorities, competitive eating legend Joey Chestnut, told Fox News Digital.
Chestnut has dominated the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating championship, winning the competition eight straight years — and 17 years in all.
"New Yorkers eat more hot dogs than any other group in the country."
He downed a world-record 76 hot dogs at the 2021 competition.
"Everything was perfect that day," said Chestnut. "The weather, the crowd. Even the hot dogs tasted better."
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Chesnut cited Nathan’s Famous 108-year-old original recipe, all beef filler and natural casing as his favorite qualities, and said grilling is the best way to enjoy them.
To prepare for this article, Fox News Digital conducted important research this week at the corner of Central Park and Sixth Avenue, where both Sabrett and Nathan's Famous hot-dog cars vied for attention.
Thousands of hot dog fans pack Coney Island in New York City each 4th of July for the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
The Nathan's Famous hot dog boasted the crisp snap of a natural casing; Sabrett did not.
The Nathan's Famous street-cart hot dog cost $7; Sabrett's street-cart hot dog cost just $5.
New York City native actor Christopher Walken famously (and fictionally) enthused about his passion for hot dogs years ago on comedy news site The Onion.
"When we filmed ‘The Dead Zone,' I ate over 800 hot dogs a day," the actor said in the hilarious spoof, representing the passion and attitude of New Yorkers for their frankfurters.
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"It was necessary. My character needed to come across as intense as possible, and I found the inspiration for that intensity in my intense love for hot dogs. The director, David Cronenberg, said that he would never work with me again. I kept eating hot dogs when the cameras were rolling, and that seemed to bother him. I say [bleep] him. He doesn't even like hot dogs."
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