Open the doors and booths with wooden seats and banana table tops engage with the left wall as a counter with 12 red-Fabricoid-covered dineresque stools line up in front of the booths. Tennis shoes or boots clap the red-tiled linoleum floor as the eyes peak up at the black ceiling and a lowered top section covered in pink.
Meanwhile the waitress shouts to the back, "one on one!" According to Mike Ehrle, reporter of The Childress Index, Coney Island offers a unique way or communicating food orders from the waitress to the cooks in a parochial sized room in the back. "One on One!" (one coney on one plate) or "Two on one!" (two coneys on one plate). One can order heated hot dogs on steamed buns with globs of chili, or plain and dry like I had mine or with "dusted" freshly chopped onions.
The Coney Island Café entered the American heartland in 1933 thanks to Bill Coronis and his nephews, Ted and John Gikas. Early on the two young men established a menu with $1.20 hamburgers and $.80 coneys, among other things, and began their business in the lobby of the State Theatre. As for Coronis, who relocated to Texas from Nebraska, he owned the Buffalo Café in Borger, which, like many panhandle communities thrived off the oil boom. After incessantly moving around, which included stops in the Red River community of Burkburnett and another oil town, Ranger, Coronis settled in Pampa where John joined the business and in 1951, his brother Ted became part of the venture. A few years later they relocated the establishment from the State Theatre to 108 W. Foster before settling at its current location in 1958, 114 W. Foster.
Over the years people such as musicians Bob Willis and Van Cliburn, who reportedly dined at the café after separate performances, stopped by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ln94wkGtUQ
Another hungry customer who ate at the Coney Island was another musician and songwriter. The gentleman came from Okemah, Oklahoma. He relocated to Pampa where he immersed himself with a plethora of books before writing poetry and songs that would influence the world of music. His name, Woody Guthrie.
After sipping the sweet tea or Coke, the waitress will walk over and politely inquire, "Think you have room for some dessert?" While the stomach may argue, the way the words come out of her sincere voice softens the heart. The slice of chocolate pie tops the cake.
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My Uncles, Ted and John Gikas were art lovers. They presented fine art from their collections in their wonderful cafe that was in the family until they retired. The cafe was sold to a former employee who has been said to have remained true to the original historic interior and exterior of the space.
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