Fans remember sliding onto a vinyl stool along the counter at Coney Island Sandwich Shop for a chili dog and a shake.
They remember hitting up the St. Petersburg diner with their parents, grandparents and friends. They remember the casual, no-frills attitude of the place, the friendly service and the sign on the wall that let them know they’d be charged an extra five cents if they dared to order ketchup.
Many of them also remember Gail Kelley, who worked at the restaurant for 29 years, 14 of them managing the spot, greeting guests and — most importantly — tending to a constant simmering pot of chili.
Coney Island has been closed since the pandemic, but message boards and social media sites list tributes to the iconic restaurant and patrons still flock to the comments sections to share memories and lament the loss of St. Petersburg’s oldest family-run restaurant. The bad news, as most devout fans already know: Coney Island Sandwich Shop never reopened. The good news? The chili dogs are back and making the rounds in a food truck popping up across Pinellas County.
The food truck has been popping up outside Pinellas County businesses, including several local breweries.
Photo by LUIS SANTANA/Tampa Bay Times
Kelley, 65, and her daughter, Christina Kelley, 37, are the force behind 2 Chic’s Chili — a 14-by-8-foot trailer emblazoned with the St. Petersburg skyline and Coney Island’s vinyl barstools. From the confines of their restaurant on wheels, the duo serves the beloved chili-topped Coney dogs with finely diced onions and yellow mustard.
The pair launched the food truck in July 2024, roughly three years after Coney Island Sandwich Shop closed. The restaurant shuttered in March 2021 after both Christina — who also worked at the spot for 14 years — and a cook got sick with COVID-19.
At the time, owner Hank Barlas told the Tampa Bay Times he didn’t know when he’d reopen the restaurant but was hopeful it would happen someday. Despite pleas from regulars and a few business offers, that never happened.
Barlas’ father, Peter H. Barlas, opened the restaurant — then called the Coney Island Grill — in 1926 at 250 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. A Greek immigrant, Barlas came to St. Petersburg during the Florida real estate boom. Over the years, the spot became a stomping ground for famous baseball players and politicians, and fans flocked for the popular Coney dogs made in the tradition of Jackson, Michigan, where a snappy frank would come topped with a thick, saucy chili, yellow mustard and diced onions, all served in a steamed bun.
A photo from 2019 shows fans waiting in line outside of Coney Island Sandwich Shop in St. Petersburg.
Tampa Bay Times FILE PHOTO
Kelley started working at the diner in September 1992, after Hank Barlas, who was a regular at another restaurant where she worked, recruited her.
“Hank was a great person to work for,” Kelley said. “I loved my job — it was more of a family than a job, and the customers were great.”
Over nearly three decades, Kelley saw customers fall in love, get married and have children. And then she watched the same children grow up and start families of their own.
“After 29 years I got to know a lot of people,” she said. “Working 60 hours a week was not work because I enjoyed it so much.”
After the restaurant closed, Kelley said she approached Barlas with an offer to take over the restaurant, but he “wanted to keep it in the family.” In the interim, she took a job at El Cap, another St. Petersburg institution with a loyal fanbase. Some of her regulars from Coney Island Sandwich Shop followed Kelley to her new job, where they’d sometimes ask for two chili dogs and a shake as a joke, she said.
It was clear that the Coney dogs still had a huge following, Kelley said, and after some long discussions with her daughter, the two decided to launch a business of their own.
The chili dogs are made with the same recipe as the ones served at the iconic Coney Island Sandwich Shop, which closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo by LUIS SANTANA/Tampa Bay Times
Barlas let Kelley in on his family’s decades-old recipe, and she’s kept it close to her heart. She’ll let on that she uses “no tomato products,” just a combination of spices and ground beef that’s been mashed thoroughly to create a thick, sauce-like chili.
Kelley said she’s had to tweak the recipe ever so slightly to adapt to the limitations of cooking inside a trailer. At the restaurant, the pot of simmering chili was never turned off, but she said she can’t leave the gas on inside the truck 24 hours a day.
She assures her patrons it’s still the same beloved chili, just made in smaller batches.
Kelley also serves the same coleslaw recipe, a sweet and creamy slaw that’s made with finely chopped cabbage, and a selection of other dishes including “kraut dogs,” burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, chili bowls, fries and tater tots. Pretty much everything can come topped with the spot’s signature chili, if desired.
Hank Barlas died in 2024. The original Coney Island Sandwich Shop space remains vacant, though the property has been listed for rent.
For now, the mother-and-daughter duo have been bringing 2 Chic’s Chili to local breweries, including Outcast Brewing Company in St. Petersburg, and Rapp Brewing Company in Seminole, along with a number of businesses and private events, like weddings and birthday parties. They list their weekly locations on Street Food Finder.
At some point, Kelley said, she and her daughter might entertain the idea of opening up a more permanent brick-and-mortar restaurant. But for now they’re happy running their truck all over town, and delighting in the moment an old regular from Coney Island Sandwich Shop swings by to say hello.