The difference between a hot dog, a chili dog and a Coney Island dog is what they are topped with.
What Mania Coney Island sells is the latter.
Kevin Frentner, who is originally from Detroit, Mich., but has been living in the Warsaw/Claypool area for the last 18 years, began selling Coney dogs out of his yellow RV food truck Sept. 11 and word has spread about them.
“I brought the Coney dog from Michigan. This is the first time it’s in the state of Indiana. I brought the true Coney sauce - the national Coney, which is different from a chili. So it’s a different base and people are going crazy over this because of the sauce, and I knew they would,” he stated at his business Wednesday at 1613 W. Lake St., Warsaw.
He said it’s more of a meat-based sauce, with a little bit of a kick but not spicy.

    Shown is a Coney dog from Mania Coney Island, 1613 W. Lake St., Warsaw. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“It’s just very flavorful. So it’s a little bit looser than the chili. To describe it, that’s the best I can give you,” he said. “It’s natural skin-casing dogs that are grilled. They are gluten free. Our meat-based sauce is gluten free. The buns are not.”
Frentner said the dogs are “true dogs,” not something a person would buy in a pack at a local grocery or supermarket. “They’re more expensive. I actually travel to (Michigan) to go get them myself.”
He said he tries to keep the cost for the Coney dogs down as much as he can, but there’s the cost of him driving to get them in Dearborn, Mich., and they’re “higher-dollar” dogs.
Frentner said he decided to open a Coney dog truck after working in RV and modular home manufacturing for “forever.”
“I didn’t know what to do, and I said I always wanted to do this. I’ve always wanted a restaurant. I’m not rich. I went all in, and I’m actually poor doing this,” he said.
The RV, which he estimates is from 1973, is yellow like a bumblebee with an Indiana expired license plate on one side and a Michigan expired plate on the other side.
“I made it unique. I thought about how I wanted to do it. There’s one of a kind, obviously, and I wanted to get it somewhere where we could have NIPSCO and we don’t move,” he said.
Once they got the electricity, permits and everything, Mania Coney Island opened for business on Sept. 11. He said they will always be at the Lake Street location, but he’s working on nailing down hours.
“I’m trying to get afternoon business. Once it gets to a certain point - 5 to 7 p.m. - it dies. It’s done,” Frentner said. For now, hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, and 12 to 5 p.m. Saturday all year round. His biggest crowds are around lunch time.
Along with the Coney dogs, people can order chips, drinks, wedges, tots and French fries. There’s combos available.
Eventually, Frentner plans to offer hamburgers, wraps and more variety. He’d also like to have a car hop, but there is Door Dash availability.
“As far as all the people that come, they’re all coming back. I ask everybody, ‘first-timers?’ The amount of first-timers is amazing. The amount of return people is even more amazing,” he stated.
To contact Mania Coney Island by phone, call 574-549-0476. There’s also a Facebook page.