DETROIT, MI – Greek-American Tom Giftos of National Coney Island was featured in The Detroit News (TDN) highlighting the brand’s success as it approaches its 60th anniversary next year. In a highly competitive restaurant market where companies compete not only for their customers’ hard-earned money but also for loyal employees, National Coney Island has managed to remain a strong brand for nearly 60 years.

In July, which also happens to be National Hot Dog Month, the Roseville, Michigan-based company celebrated its 59th anniversary, “as its signature dish is a Detroit-style Coney Island hot dog with chili sauce, yellow mustard and chopped white onion,” TDN reported, adding that “the menu is rounded out by other classic Detroit diner dishes like Greek salads, pita sandwiches, burgers, chili and locally made apple pie slices.”

“When founder James Giftos opened the first National Coney Island restaurant in 1965 at Macomb Mall in Roseville, Coney dogs cost 35 cents,” TDN reported, noting that “today, more than a dozen locations and nearly six decades later, his son Tom Giftos is president and CEO of National Coney Island, overseeing the company’s 17 Michigan locations and 850 employees. And today, a National Coney Dog costs $3.49.”

When asked how the business is doing now, Tom Giftos told TDN: “I like to think of the last few years as pretty good years for us. Last year, we were able to increase sales year-on-year when we thought most of our competitors were flat or in the red, and this year, although the increase is less in percentage terms compared to last year, we are still up 3-5% year-on-year, so it’s been good.”

Of the keys to the company’s success, Giftos told TDN: “We always like to talk about getting back to basics, don’t we? We’ve had a tagline for years that’s been ‘fast, fresh and friendly’ and we often sum up a lot of our different initiatives with those three words. Because at the end of the day, they mean a lot and they contribute significantly to your customers and to building your business. So that’s certainly always the most important thing.”

“We definitely believe our value proposition works in today’s climate,” Giftos continued, TDN reported. “When people go out and spend $20 to $25 on breakfast and come into our store and get it for a fraction of that, I think that’s really helpful and has helped drive sales.”

“We tend to believe that the majority of our business comes from the communities that are right around our stores,” Giftos told TDN. “We invest in the communities that we’re in. We believe we build strong relationships with our customers, and I think the most important part is our loyalty program… It keeps people coming back to us.”

The company had opened a “fast-casual sister brand” called Pop’s Hani Shop in 2023 but it recently closed, TDN reported, noting that the restaurant had featured “the Hani sandwich— a pita with fried chicken strips, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo.”

When asked about Pop’s Hani Shop, Giftos told TDN that it was “something we’ve been talking about for a long time, even before COVID, and like everything else, COVID thwarted those plans for a while. But it has such a strong brand that we were able to play with it for years, and we always toyed with the idea of doing something more artisanal with Hanis, where we bake our own pita bread, hand-dip our own chicken, do a little bit more.”

“I don’t want to put down the location, but the space was a little bit too big,” Giftos told TDN, adding that “it was almost twice the size we needed. That was a contributing factor. I think, to be honest, another factor was that even though we put a lot of emphasis on the name, a lot of people still don’t know what a hani is. So we had to educate people. On the front of the building it said ‘handmade pitas’ and people thought we were a pizza place. Even though we thought the hani was well-known in the area, there was still a large percentage of the public that didn’t know what it was.”

Of National Coney Island’s upcoming 60th anniversary celebration in 2025, Giftos told TDN: “We’re still in the early stages of coming up with a plan, but we want it to be big and bold. I don’t think many brands can boast a history like that, and we’re certainly proud of it. We’re going to come up with something special. There will probably be something special every month throughout the year, some special promotions and discounts. We’ll probably be a little louder on the actual date of our anniversary and during National Hot Dog Month next year.”

When asked about the secret to 60 years in business, Giftos told TDN: “Certainly it’s the people. I have employees who have been with us since 1965 and are still working here today, which is testament. We have many employees who have been with us for 25, 30, 35 years. We are like one big family. Everyone is there for the right reasons and we work as a group. Everyone takes a lot of pride in what they do, that is certainly a big part of it.”