The Cozy Dog and the Fair

In the summer of nineteen forty-six, a veteran named Ed Waldmire set up a stand at the Illinois State Fair and started selling something he called crusty curs: hot dogs coated in a sweetened cornmeal batter and deep-fried on a stick. He had been experimenting with the recipe since his time running a refreshment stand at a military base during the war, working out the batter formula so it would adhere to a hot dog and fry evenly without falling apart. His wife Virginia disliked the name crusty curs.

She suggested Cozy Dogs instead. Ed took her advice. The same year, he opened a stand outside his house in Springfield.

From there the Cozy Dog Drive-In moved to a shared building on Sixth Street, then south along the Route Sixty Six corridor, and eventually to its current location at twenty-nine thirty-five South Sixth Street. Ed Waldmire's son Bob became an artist who spent years traveling Route Sixty Six, making intricate hand-drawn maps and postcards that became some of the most recognizable documents of the road's culture. His illustrations are in collections across the country.

Ed's son Buz and daughter-in-law Sue later ran the restaurant. Today his grandsons Tony and Josh run it as third-generation operators. The menu still centers on the original corn dog.

The batter formula has not changed. Along the walls, Route Sixty Six memorabilia and Bob Waldmire's drawings cover nearly every surface. Fifteen cents each in nineteen forty-six.

Somewhat more now.