Scranton Pa. has a uniquely diverse ethnic mixture, but the different ethnicities are clustered in different neighborhoods, the big four are Irish, Italian, Polish, and Welsh. The area prospered in the coal mining industry, and although the yellowpages.com lists 534 pizza restaurants, the real signature food has to be the ubiquitous "Texas Wiener."

It is curious to me that you will not find a version of the delectable Texas Wiener anywhere else in the world (including the great state of Texas). It is limited to the northeastern Pa. coal mining region.

To the uninitiated, you might mistake the Texas Wiener for a chili dog, but once you have feasted on two ro three of warm morsels of spicy goodness, you will never make that faux pas again.

A Texas Wiener invariably consists of a specially constructed "Gutheinz" wiener which is a shorter plumper tastier version of a hotdog, A steamed custom made roll that is the exact size of the wiener after the wiener is butterflied, brown mustard, freshly chopped onions, and a spicy meat sauce simply refered to as wiener sauce...NOT CHILI, (always a closely guarded secret). All of which are assembled four, five, or six at a time with the bottom or heal of the buns laid out on the forearm of the grill cook, and assemled from the bottom up.

Usually the grill is visible behind the lunch counter at most wiener restaurant, so an experienced wiener chef can mesmerize his or her customers with his one armed wiener assembly line.

the end result is a steamy bun full of slightly sloppy, spicy tasty goodness. served up with a plateful of frsshly peeled and sliced french fries, covered in hot brown gravy, and you will be in coal mine Nirvana.


There are literally hundreds of palces to find wieners in eastern Pa, but my choice for the big three are all in Scranton Pa. The first of which most believe to be the original is Coney Island in the downtown area. Second, and in my opinion the best, is the Keystone Dinner, where after about 100 years they have added fish sandwiches to a menu that heretofore had three items; texas wieners, texas cheeseburg's (and yes I know how to spell cheeseburger), and fries. I still remember the long gone "ma" sitting sideways in a booth day in and day out peeling the potatoes for the fries, while "pa" flipped the wiener and on the south side of town there is a place called Yankee Lunch. (might be gone now) which just served a great Texas wiener.