Which early Coney Island food seller had a sausage cart made with a stove in 1867?

Charles Feltman had a sausage cart fitted with a stove in 1867.

Feltman was a German-American baker and food seller working at Coney Island in New York. His mobile pie wagon originally served beachfront hotels, but customers also wanted sandwiches. In response, he added a small stove for heating sausages and a compartment for keeping buns fresh, creating an early commercially successful sausage-in-a-roll operation.

The sausages were known as “red hots,” and Feltman’s business expanded from a cart into a substantial Coney Island restaurant complex. In 1871, he leased land and began building a permanent operation that eventually served millions of customers during its peak years.

Feltman is sometimes described as the inventor of the hot dog, but that claim needs qualification: several people and businesses have been credited with popularizing sausages in buns, and the exact origin of the food is disputed. Nathan Handwerker, a former Feltman employee, later founded Nathan’s Famous, which helped overshadow Feltman’s original Coney Island enterprise.