allen's coney island

Allen's Coney Island
5151 S. Peoria Ave, Tulsa, OK, USA

Tulsa isn't especially known for its culinary nuance, and in terms of signature food, you've pretty much got old-school hamburgers, and coney dogs. Coneys (basically runty chili-cheese dogs) are the kind of local specialty you end up craving once you've had enough of 'em … but the quality is so erratic, you may well decide one is enough, if your first is mediocre. Just like with Bible studies, or rim jobs. 🤷🏼

So if you're visiting and just want a general idea, go ahead and grab whichever coney is nearby. But if you're like me, and don't mind going a little out of your way in search of a proper coney, a weirdo little strip mall awaits in an otherwise nothin' part of town. Here, you'll be treated to this one no-brainer photo op:

super tops & bottoms

A few doors down, you'll find Allen's Coney Island, purveyor of the best coneys I had during my TulsaTime™.

It's Tulsa Time!

Allen's is a fun, retro-ish diner-type place with classic (though not cloying) Route 66-style décor, and it's certainly a good deal cleaner than a lot of other coney joints you'll find around town.

allen's coney island

Now, the coney being Tulsa's national food, it's fairly ubiquitous in terms of availability. Unfortunately, a lot of the ones I tried were bafflingly small, a little gross, and just plain unremarkable—not here though.

ain't no phoney coney, honey

I got a regular coney (chili, cheese, mustard, onion), with chips, and a drink—can't recall what this cost exactly but it was, like, a nickel. The hot dog itself was actually pretty juicy, the cheese was quality, and the chili wasn't an afterthought. I almost got another one, but then remembered my fat.

"Oh, right … my fat."

The proprietor was quite friendly and chatty, though at one point he made an offhand remark about how he drives to California a lot to deliver "things that people don't want to put in the mail."

Review by Jambone Jarmy, May 2018