National Coney closes after more than a year
Tweet
As of May 6, East Lansing might have a little less Detroit spirit.
National Coney Station, 565 E. Grand River Ave., part of a southeastern Michigan chain serving the city’s iconic coney-style hot dog, closed its doors at the end of MSU’s spring semester.
The restaurant was in business for less than two years, opening on September 2009.
Bradford Egan, director of business development for the National Coney Island chain, said the store struggled with the fluctuation in customers as a result of the university schedule.
“With the summer months and long breaks over Christmas, it was just difficult to tack a full year of revenue into seven or eight months,” Egan said. “I think from our perspective it wasn’t working as well as we thought (it would).”
George Hoover, owner of Cottage Inn, 615 E. Grand River Ave., said opening a business in East Lansing was difficult for him and success takes prior planning and a special model. Hoover, who opened Cottage Inn in 2002, said it takes at least a two- or three-year plan in order to be successful.
“Many people go with their business into campus communities with huge expectations,” he said. “It’s really the handling of that expectation that makes you successful.”
Though Cottage Inn’s business drops about 25 percent in the summer, Hoover said he saves extra profits during the year to handle the decreased business during the summer months.
Robert Davison, a 2011 graduate, often ate lunch at the National Coney Station between classes — always the same order: a coney dog and fries.
“I was a bit surprised to hear when it closed,” Davison said. “When I used to go in there, it seemed like people were in there all the time.”
Still, Davison said he thought part of the problem could have been that the store closed too early for post-bar traffic and didn’t offer many deals or daytime specials.
Nick Brown, a 2011 graduate, said he had been to other, full-service National Coney Island locations but was never attracted to the one in East Lansing because of the atmosphere.
“The express thing kind of creeped me out,” he said.
Commentary
Add your $0.02, go to the comment form or follow the comment feed
MJB
(05/17/11 8:31pm)Report
As someone who frequented the place, this is sad. Good food that wasn’t too expensive. That spot is cursed, though. How many places have been in and out there?
Blucow
(05/17/11 9:23pm)Report
Taco Bell was there forever. Last line of this article is classic.
Don't blame the summer
(05/24/11 8:56pm)Report
It is always interesting when a business that just doesn’t meed the needs of a community, blames the semester and summer breaks. If those were truly the issue, there would be no businesses in EL. The problem with this place is that it always seemed to be poorly run. Just walking by, there was no way I was going to go in there — they had no curb appeal, and the place looked like you were going to get sick eating there.