Nick’s get update, keeps heart, soul

Bar Review! • Hawthorne classic stays up late, adds vegetarian options

By Anne Marie DiStefano

The Portland Tribune, Sep 4, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

L.E. BASKOW / Portland Tribune

Tyler Rogoway, owner of Nick’s Coney Island, hoists a 1-pound “Babe” burger and a pitcher of the house amber bock beer. Nick’s specialty is Coney dogs, but Rogoway has expanded the menu to include vegetarian choices.

For years, everyone in the Hawthorne neighborhood knew it was just a matter of time before Frank Nudo retired. The unanswered question was what would happen to Nick’s Famous Coney Island, the timeless tavern that Nudo had been running since 1960. (The namesake Nick founded the spot, originally across the street, in 1935.)

Enter 28-year-old Tyler Rogoway, who claims that he’s been hankering to own the place since he was 10 or 15 years old. Rogoway remembers coming in for Coney Island dogs with his dad when he was a kid. Now, after briefly owning the large, loud, brassy Thunder Ranch in Milwaukie, he’s settled in at Nick’s.

Rogoway has done an admirable job of revising the décor without ruining Nick’s historic charm. The vast collage of sports memorabilia remains on the walls and the old Formica bar is still in place. A yellow and red color scheme prevails, and Coney dogs are still the centerpiece of a menu that also includes burgers, fries and not much else.

But now you can get a vegetarian hot dog here, and new, lower-backed booths have opened up the space, making it a bit more airy. Two big televisions are strategically placed over the bar to provide plenty of good sight lines without being airport-bar intrusive.

Rogoway spent some time working on the Coney sauce, which is basically an all-ground-beef variation on chili. There was no recipe, he says, so they had to wing it, with some advice from the old-timers.

It’s made from scratch and takes four hours to cook. The result is a gastroenterologist’s nightmare of spicy meat and onions smothering a hot dog.

A retro-styled Wurlitzer jukebox offers the greatest hits of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s on CD. Smoking is not allowed, and minors are permitted until 8 p.m.

Heidelberg beer used to be the lifeblood of Nick’s, but now you can order up microbrews and cocktails.

Perhaps the biggest change Rogoway has instituted is in the hours of operation. Nick’s used to close so early that many would-be fans were discouraged from stopping by. Now that the spot is open past sundown, a new generation may decide to make Nick’s its own.

11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, 3746 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-235-3008

annemariedistefano@portlandtribune.com

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