Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York. The company's headquarters are at One Jericho Plaza in Jericho, New York, part of Oyster Bay, New York. History Nathan's began as a nickel hot dog stand in Coney Island in 1916 and bears the name of its co-founder Nathan Handwerker (1892 – 1974), who started the business with his wife, Ida Handwerker, née Greenwald. Ida created the hot dog recipe they used, and Ida's grandmother created the secret spice recipe. Because Nathan's Famous all-beef hot dogs lacked rabbinic supervision and the meat wasn't kosher, Handwerker coined the term "kosher style" because the hot dogs were not made from pork or horsemeat. Handwerker was a Jewish-Polish immigrant who arrived in New York City in 1912 and soon found work at the Coney Island, Brooklyn, restaurant Feltman's German Gardens. By one account, he was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with Feltman's; as United Press International noted in 1974, "There are many stories about Nathan and how the business began, but this is the way he told it..." The company's official history does not mention the future stars' encouragement. Nathan and Ida spent their life savings of $300 (worth about $7,000 as of May 2018, accounting for inflation) to begin the business. Handwerker undercut Feltman's by charging five cents for a hot dog when his former employer was charging 10 cents. At a time when food regulation was in its infancy and the pedigree of the hot dog particularly suspect, Handwerker ensured that men wearing surgeon's smocks were seen eating at his stand to reassure potential customers. The business proved immensely popular. The expansion of the chain was overseen by Nathan Handwerker's son, Murray Handwerker. A second branch on Long Beach Road in Oceanside, New York, opened in 1959, and another debuted in Yonkers, New York, in 1965. Murray Handwerker was named the president of Nathan's Famous in 1968, the year the company went public. All locations were sold by the Handwerker family to a group of private investors in 1987, at which point Nathan's was franchised and a great number of establishments were opened