One correction: They never franchised. They did two or three other locations and subsequently closed them leaving only the original, but none of the locations were franchised.

Also, to avoid confusion: A "coney" is the white hotdog pictured. A Texas Hot is the coney, or the regular hotdog, covered with chili and onions. However, growing up, we never put anything but mustard on a coney.

As per the "no ketchup," that is true. Heids only provided mustard until they started selling french fries. It was quite the controversy when they brought in ketchup. The purists hated seeing the ketchup, others loved it. Some people believe they added french fries to the menu in order to bring in the ketchup but still save face to their loyal faithfuls.

Byrne Dairy not only makes great chocolate milk, which we grew up on, since the Liverpool School District sold Byrne Dairy milk in their schools, but Byrne Dairy also make some really great ice cream and soft-serve ice cream. Many of the Syracuse area’s soft-serve ice cream stands sell Byrne Dairy ice cream.

Finally, I wish Billyboy had tried their pickles. Growing up just 2 miles from Heid’s, our typical order was two coneys, a pickle and a white birch beer or chocolate milk (or both). Unfortunately, Heid’s no longer sells white birch beer. :0( But the pickles are quite good.

For those who don’t eat hotdogs (or coneys) but still want the Heid’s experience, the menu (in addition to the fries, cheese fries and chili cheese fries and their wonderful pickles) also consists of grilled cheese sandwich, potato salad, chili, soup, Gianelli Sausage and macaroni salad.