America’s most delicious hot dog contest returns to Coney Island on the Fourth of July. It will be held outdoors, under the sun and open to the public just like the boardwalk gods intended.
“The Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest is my Super Bowl. It’s my Indy 500,” said competitive eating legend Joey Chestnut.
“I can’t wait to be back in New York and do this the right way.”
The competition began in 1916, when Coney Island frank-ophile Jim Mullen, an immigrant from Ireland, consumed 13 hot dogs.
It’s become a national holiday spectacle in recent years, broadcast coast-to-coast on ESPN.
The contest returns outdoors in all its glory, albeit in a new location, Maimonides Park, the recently renamed home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, just a few steps from the event’s traditional location in front of Nathan’s Famous at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues.
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