Lovely’s Oakland Chili Dogs Spread a Classic Midwest Hot Dog

This is Deputy Food and Wine Editor Caleb Pershan.

When my wife and I fly to Detroit to see her family in Michigan, we drive our American-made rental car straight from the airport to Duly’s Place, a 24-hour restaurant specializing in perfect food: chili dogs.

They’re bright pink, tucked into soft, steamed buns and topped with loose chili, crunchy raw onions and bursts of bright yellow mustard. They cost $2.75 plus tax. They are great.

Here in Detroit, we call them Coney dogs, or simply Coneys, which is also shorthand for the diners who serve them. Michigan is full of Coneys serving Coneys, such as the famous American rivals Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island, opened in the early 20th century by Greek immigrants who seem to have closely associated New York’s Coney Island with the hot dogs sold there by the likes of Nathan’s Famous. (itself founded by Polish Jewish immigrants).

But in the Bay Area, the closest thing you’ll find is at Beautifula burger and hot dog operation inside the beer garden of Oakland’s Two Pitchers Brewing Co..

What’s a Coney doing in Oakland? Lovely owner Mikey Yoon calls himself a “chili dog connoisseur.” He has loved them since his childhood, spent in the delicatessen run by his Korean immigrant parents in Baltimore. (“They definitely had beans in their chili, and that’s not my thing,” Yoon said.)

Yoon tries to make his dog Coney “as Midwestern as possible.” But the ingredients at Lovely’s Coney are very Bay Area: The chili is made with grass-fed beef from Cream Co. and the dogs come from Schwarz Meats (founded in 1911 in Germany’s then-Mission District and elected best hot dog in a country). Chronique taste test 2004 which I volunteer to take over). Yoon also adds grated aged Tillamook cheddar, because he likes it. With a small side of fries, Lovely’s Coney costs $9.75.

The Coneys are what they are, Eater Detroit editor Serena Maria Daniels told me, in part because of their shared supply chain. They have the same buns from the same bakery, and sometimes the same canned chili (or Coney sauce), combined with a sort of Motor City assembly line consistency. Many Coney restaurants are descended from a few originals, and many of the immigrants who created them even came from the same town in Greece, Daniels. reported.

American food is a funny thing. Take Lovely’s Coney dog. It’s a Bay Area Korean American chef’s interpretation of a Midwestern Greek-American interpretation of a New York Jewish kosher interpretation of a German frankfurter. To quote the late Lawrence Ferlinghetti, it is a true “Coney Island of the mind.”

I suggested to Daniels that I thought regional American foods like Coney dogs were delicious, but that sometimes I found their strict rules a little silly, lost in the narcissism of small differences. Aren’t these foods continually transformed in endless translation?

She listened to me, but didn’t bite. “It’s a source of pride for the diaspora or immigrant communities to know and embrace a certain aspect of American culture,” she said.

Likewise, for Yoon, this hot dog thing is fun, but also serious business. He’s proud that his dog Coney looks like the “real thing” (but maybe tastes even better thanks to high-quality ingredients).

“I’ve never seen anyone poop on the chili dog, and I’m very happy to say that,” he told me. I certainly won’t either.

Charming. 4 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 12 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Sunday. 2344 Webster Street, Oakland. Lovelysoakland.com

Contact Caleb Pershan: caleb.pershan@sfchronicle.com