Coney Island, New York
“Coney Island” and “hot dog” are forever linked. Hot dogs at Coney Island are just as famous as the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel, said Alexandra Silversmith, executive director of the Alliance for Coney Island.
“Almost everyone who comes to Coney Island has to have a hot dog from Nathan’s,” she said. “It’s one of the top five things that’s a must-do when you visit.”
Although it wasn’t the first, Nathan’s Famous is pretty much the only name in town when it comes to hot dogs. Nathan Handwerker began Nathan’s as a nickel hot dog stand in 1916, and the restaurant celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.
Today, groups can still get a dog at the original Nathan’s location almost around the clock — it opens at 8 a.m., so “you could have a hot dog for breakfast if you want” — or they can visit the newer location on the boardwalk. In this Brooklyn neighborhood, “Coney Island hot dog” refers to the location, unlike in Detroit and Chicago where it means the dog is smothered with chili. In its hometown, locals use only four toppings on their Coney Island dogs: relish, onions, ketchup and mustard.
But groups don’t have to go to Nathan’s to enjoy a Nathan’s hot dog, which are served all over town. Visitors can grab one during a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game at MCU Park or at the new 5,000-seat beachfront Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk, which opened this summer with a Sting concert.
www.allianceforconeyisland.org
Charleston, South Carolina
Although the Gullah culture, also known as Geechee, is 100 percent American, its deep roots are planted in the West and Central African heritage of the slaves who worked the rice plantations along the coastal low country regions between North Carolina and northern Florida.
One of the best ways to experience Gullah culture is to taste it. Whatever the land and sea produces is what is found in Gullah cuisine, which puts seafood and seasonal produce front and center on the plate but also features rice, grits and beans.
Most popular among visitors and most familiar among Gullah dishes are shrimp and grits, crab cakes and low country boils, said Halsey Perrin, media relations assistant for the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Less well known but no less delicious is okra soup, “the gumbo of the Gullah culture,” she said.
The Glass Onion dishes up low country dishes such as Carolina shrimp with creamed greens over Geechee grits and cornmeal-fried North Carolina catfish. Dixie Supply Bakery and Café is a small shop, but groups can enjoy its big flavors — dishes like low country red rice and squash casserole — through the restaurant’s catering business.
Hominy Grill “is one of the most iconic restaurants for low country cuisine; there’s a line out the door,” Perrin said. Jestine’s Kitchen is a true low country cuisine place where diners can dig into traditional veggies, seafood, fried chicken and cornbread.
Portland, Maine
In Portland, Maine, visitors seek out the best and most buttery lobster rolls. Whether it’s a food truck or a high-end restaurant, every establishment has its own take on the Maine staple, which comes “in so many different varieties now,” said Elissa English, director of sales and marketing for the Greater Portland Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The three most common are rolls with either plain lobster meat or served with drawn butter or mayonnaise, but lobster rolls are now “popping up in various ethnic foods.” The Eventide Oyster Co. serves it on a Chinese steamed bun with brown butter vinaigrette. Zapoteca dishes up lobster in rolls as well as tacos, ceviche and guacamole.
The Bite Into Maine food truck is a favorite that recently expanded into catering. It will reopen in April for the 2017 season. The Linda Kate Lobster and Seafood Co. is a new catering outfit that gets its lobsters from Casco Bay fishermen and serves them at lobster bakes.
The Casco Bay Lines ferry service created a package that allows passengers to take the ferry to Peaks Island, where they enjoy a lobster bake dinner at a covered waterfront pavilion that offers panoramic views of the sunset over the bay.
During a Lucky Catch cruise, the captain shows small groups how to haul in lobster traps and measure lobsters. If it meets regulations, guests can buy it and take it to the Portland Lobster Co., which will steam it, and “you can sit there and eat it on the dock,” English said.
