Ready for lunch? Your visit to Rhode Island isn't complete until you've tried the local version of the hot dog, known as hot weiners, bellybusters, destroyers, or gaggers (pronounced "weenuhs, bellybustuhs..." etc.) Hot weiners can be found at numerous locations throughout the state, including any of the New York System locations, including Wein-O-Rama in Cranston. Wein-O-Rama was started by Michael Sotirakos, an immigrant from Sparta, Greece, in 1962. In the mid-1950s, he and his wife had come to Rhode Island, where Sotirakos hoped to make a living as an aircraft mechanic. But jobs were scarce and there was zero chance that a Greek-speaking immigrant could get a position at Quonset Naval Base. So he reluctantly took a job as a short-order cook at his aunt and uncle's Original Coney Island restaurant, in Hoyle Square in Providence. There he learned to speak English and cook hot weiners.

Hot weiners consist of a delicious weiner (usually smaller than a standard hot dog and cut, rather than tied off, at the ends), topped with mustard, meat sauce (finely chopped beef with "secret" herbs and spices), chopped onion, and celery salt on a steamed bun. Order a bunch at once and have the dubious pleasure of watching the greasy-aproned grill person prepare them "up d'ahm," meaning that he will line the buns up on his arm, up to the shoulder if necessary, while slopping on the ingredients. Health authorities frown on this practice, but have so far been unable to put a stop to it. After all, it's a tradition! 

When Sotirakos retired, he passed the business to his sons, George and Ernie, although he continued to oversee operations occasionally. George, at 6' 8", claims to be the tallest short-order cook in the state, and it's probably true. At least, when we spoke with George in March 2001, he told us he's not been challenged yet.

Other than the prices, very little has changed at Wein-O-Rama since it first opened. The meat sauce is still simmered for at least six hours, and weiners are still prepared the traditional way, "up d'ahm." One concession to the times is a protective PVC sleeve that the Sotirakos's have had manufactured for their use. Not only is it more hygenic, but it protects the grill person's arm from the heat of the sauce. And just how many weiners can George fit on his arm? "We only make twelve at a time. We won't make no more than that. Long ago they used to. Years ago, the old timers... my uncle had a picture in the paper with him with 23. But we don't do no more than twelve 'cause that's about all we can fit up to the elbow."

What distinguishes Wein-O-Rama from its many competitors? Is it the sauce? "I don't consider it a secret. My meat sauce, I use fresh ground beef. And I buy it in Ruggieri's Market. All the New York Systems use a product called edible beef fat. And they buy it from, you know, the person who supplies the weiners, whoever... I think my meat manufacturer carries it. It's white. It's... it's not hamburger! I think the quality of the product they use sets me apart. I never consider myself a New York System. That's why you don't see the words New York System anywhere."

Original New York System, at 424 Smith Street in Providence, lays claim to being the very first hot weinie joint in Rhode Island. Most businesses that followed used the name New York or Coney Island System to cash in on the name recognition, and these names have since become synonymous with hot weiners. As to why they're called New York rather than Rhode Island Systems, well, no one knows.

On a typical Saturday, George says, they sell between five and six hundred weiners. In the forty-plus years Wein-O-Rama has been open, he estimates they've served over seven million. Is it possible to get tired of weiners, we wondered? "I still eat two or three every day," he laughed. "I'm the only one [here] that probably eats them every day." In 2012, the place will be eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.