Published: January 30, 2006 11:33 am            

Louie's

New location, same great taste

I didn't want to like them. I really didn't. It didn't matter how many people had told me they were incredible. When my first Louie's bake came toward me -- with its indistinguishable meat coney sauce and mustard, piled high with chopped onions -- I thought this might be the end of my time as a carnivore.

Boy, was I wrong.

"What did I get myself into?" I thought and I pulled the sandwich toward my mouth. "And is that a hot dog bun? I thought these were hamburgers ..."

But one bite of the bake -- as the coney sauce dribbled down my chin and onto the deli paper that served as my plate -- and I was hooked.

I don't want to know what's in that sauce or those perfectly spiced baked hamburgers -- good thing, because owner Toula Volikas-Linville, her mother and a handful of others are the only ones who know the secret recipes -- I just wondered why it had taken me so long to try them.

It was my first trip to Louie's Coney Island, (MAP) and I promise you, it won't be my last. I'm quickly seeing why Louie's is something of a cultural icon around the Kokomo area.

The shop, which stood until last month on Sycamore Street in downtown Kokomo, has moved around a handful of locations over the last seven decades. Its name has changed; it's survived fires and harsh winters and watched as the city changed around it.

The new Louie's Coney Island on East Hoffer Street may be bigger, and it may have a drive-through window, but it still has that same little corner atmosphere people around here have known since 1937.

On a recent Wednesday, the place bustled with activity. Some who had gathered there for lunch chatted in booths, but most sat along the counter sipping coffee -- just as they did at the Sycamore Street restaurant (and as this newcomer imagines, at every other previous location).

Coney Island fans will tell you the location doesn't matter -- it's those signature coneys and bakes that make the difference.

Serving everything from french fries and tenderloins to breakfast platters and salads, the menu has the same tried and true selections Kokomo residents have come to expect and love.

And what's not to love about a place that serves you on a piece of deli paper? This is a place that's concerned about taste over anything else.

As readers of my restaurant reviews know -- I'm new to a lot of Indiana cuisine. Back in New York, a coney is a special kind of white hot dog, sometimes called a "white hot" -- one dog, one bun, no sauces. I came to Indiana and my hot dog eating ideals were blown sky high.

I figured if I were going to try a coney, there was no better place to do it than Coney Island, eh? Now, there's a restaurant name a New Yorker could love.

And this one certainly did.

        

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