This afternoon my honey and I decided to do a lunch date at one of our favorite eating places – Tommy’s Hot Dog Stand.

You can only find Tommy’s open during warm weather – they will be closing October 26. And you need to know where to go because they aren’t listed in the Yellow Pages or on-line. I don’t think they have an address to put in your GPS. They are close to downtown, in a residential neighborhood, in front of Tommy’s house. And they sell a lot of hot dogs. We heard from someone that he closes each day after he sells 400. This may also be local urban legend. We go after the noon rush.

Our town is known for Coney Islands, made with finely ground beef heart. Each time my mother came back to visit from Florida, she stopped for Coneys before seeing me. People airship them to other places in the country after they move away.

Meet Tommy, doing what he is so good at – making hot dogs and having fun with customers. Andie and Alex are in the background. They are all related – and belong to a restaurant family famous for their Coney Island Dogs.

After parking by the curb, you get in line so Carrie can take your order. The menu consists of hot dogs, chips, rice pudding and canned pop/soda.

As we were getting in line we met up with a woman who had come down the street in a motorized wheel chair to get a hot dog for herself and one for her grandson whose birthday was yesterday.

If they aren’t busy there is always some chatting going on.

And they know how to make a hot dog and serve it fast. Tommy makes the dogs on a tray, handing it back to the wrappers and server. Many people take orders back to work with them but you can also eat in – well actually out, picnic style.

If you haven’t picked up on it, Tommy likes to talk and my husband does as well. We live in a small town and find out that Tommy graduated with my cousin’s husband, Ted. Jim also worked with Tommy’s neighbor so they have a lot to talk about. While Tommy takes a break, Alex takes over making the dogs. He shows us the find art of making a perfect coney dog with onions.

My Nancy Dog, with a fresh sauerkraut slaw on top, was fabulous but as usual it was gone before I thought about taking a picture. You will just have to take my word for it.