 Cincinnati chili originated with immigrant restaurateurs from the Macedonian region who were trying to expand their customer base by moving beyond narrowly ethnic styles of cuisine . Tom and John <unk> began serving a " stew with traditional Mediterranean spices " as a topping for hot dogs which they called " coneys " in 1922 at their hot dog stand located next to a burlesque theater called the Empress . Tom <unk> used the sauce to modify a traditional Greek dish , speculated to have been <unk> , moussaka or <unk> <unk> to come up with a dish he called chili spaghetti . He first developed a recipe calling for the spaghetti to be cooked in the chili but changed his method in response to customer requests and began serving the sauce as a topping , eventually adding grated cheese as a topping for both the chili spaghetti and the coneys , also in response to customer requests . To make ordering more efficient , the brothers created the " way " system of ordering . The style has since been copied and modified by many other restaurant proprietors , often fellow Greek and Macedonian immigrants who had worked at Empress restaurants before leaving to open their own chili parlors , often following the business model to the point of locating their restaurants adjacent to theaters . 
