Like its close cousins, the Coney Island and New York System wiener, the Michigan is a small frankfurter in a soft bun topped with vividly spiced beef sauce, bright yellow mustard, and chopped raw onions. It does not exist in Michigan, at least not with that name. It is unique to the Clinton County area of upstate New York, between the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain. Its history is uncertain, although it definitely was named in Plattsburgh.
Plattsburgh’s love of Michigans began at the summer-only wiener joint known as Clare & Carl’s.
The Michigan: Plattsburg, New York’s unique take on the chili dog.
The most obvious place to look for understanding of the geographic dislocation is Detroit, and the popularity of chili-topped wieners there, starting with the opening of the first Coney Island stand in 1917. One story credits the Michigan’s prominence in Plattsburgh to a short order cook who came from Detroit sometime in the 1930s and got Plattsburgh to love them. Another account says that after Clare Warn opened her summertime hot dog stand, Clare & Carl’s, on Lake Shore Road in 1943, she tried to improve sales by top-ping her franks with a special sauce she invented. Her top salesperson was Eula Otis, a Michigander who is said to have gone around to locals saying, “I’m from Michigan. Would you like to try one of our chili dogs?” The state’s name stuck.
Genealogy aside, it is important to note that in addition to unique seasonings in the sauce that give it a beguiling glow, a Michigan is distinguished by its bun—a soft, split-top affair similar to the rolls used in New England for hot dogs and lobster rolls (but never grilled). The bun is thick at the bottom and shored in at both ends, giving it necessary capacity as well as absorbency for customers who order Michigans “buried,” meaning an arrangement that puts the onions underneath the hot dog, thus hoisting the chili sauce on top to a precarious level nearing overflow.