A Morrison couple has purchased the Coney Island hot dog stand and plan to roll the super-sized fast-food landmark down the road about 10 miles.
The deal will keep the community icon along the U.S. 285 corridor and is contingent upon Ron Aigner and Diane Wisecamp buying land where Reggie’s Restaurant was located near Pine Junction.
“We think it’s a great site for the Dog,” Wisecamp said, using the locals’ nickname for the hot-dog- shaped stand. “We look at it as, ‘What’s a few miles?’ Where it is now is not really out of the city, with all the development.”
Coney Island’s Aspen Park locale once was an aspen grove. Today, development has spread through the area as U.S. 285 widened into a divided, four-lane highway.
Lisa and Taylor Firman, who have owned Coney Island for six years, sold the land under the King Kong-sized hot dog last year after being approached by someone who wants to build a bank.
When word that the restaurant was for sale leaked out in November, people all over the world salivated over the structure – a 42-foot-long red wienie cradled in a 34-foot-long beige bun.
The Firmans, who hoped Coney Island would find a home nearby, chose Aigner and Wisecamp, who were the first callers.
If land negotiations and county regulation work are successful, the 14-ton stucco frankfurter will close at its current locale in early March for a move to be taped by the History Channel.
Colorado historian Tom Noel has urged historic landmark status for Coney Island, which last moved in 1970 from its spot on West Colfax Avenue near Sheridan Boulevard.
Locals, tourists, construction workers and lovers of roadside Americana will be glad to know the menu won’t change.
Wisecamp plans to restore the Dog and build a new deck. She hopes to reopen the 10-seat stand in April. The couple have little restaurant experience, but both are business people: Wisecamp operates a carpet-cleaning company, and Aigner manages apartment buildings.
“Friends keep asking, ‘What are you doing?”‘ Wisecamp said. “We want to try to keep a hold on what the Coney is and just move it down the road.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
