A century-old diner-style restaurant which stands untouched by time at 4601 Broadway in Gary has become a globally-known location in less than a week, thanks to a serendipitous pit stop seen around the world.
In the surprise episode that kicks off the final season of “The Bear,” the City of Gary wasn’t just a backdrop, it was at the center of everything that unfolds. In fact, it’s the singular name of the episode, “Gary,” which was released on May 5 on Hulu.
The hour-long standalone episode is a flashback story of two pivotal characters, Richie “Cousin” (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) on a journey from Chicago to Gary to deliver an unmarked box of goods for their benefactor, Jimmy “Uncle” Cicero (Oliver Platt).
The real star of the show in the sight of many region natives? The Koney King: A chili-cheese-entrenched institution that spans 106 years.
“Since it came out, I’ve been here and met a lot of new people that are now curious about what Koney King is,” owner James Hendricks said. “So yeah, I have definitely met so many people through this.”
The “Gary” episode has already been deemed a global streaming hit, landing the No. 2 spot on Disney+ for the most-streamed episode worldwide, entertainment news source “Collider” reported on Thursday.
At the time of the interview Friday afternoon, Hendricks had not joined the craze.
“I still haven’t watched it,” Hendricks said. “Because I’ve been so busy. I just haven’t had time. You know, it came out Monday, but I have not had a chance to watch it yet.”
Hendricks started off as the barber of Paul Kamanaroff, the great nephew of the Koney King founder, Mike Petroff. Today Hendricks stands as the fourth caretaker of the establishment known for its chili cheese hot dogs, burgers, pizza puffs, sandwiches and sausages. He also owns and works at “Cut Time,” the barber shop next door.
“Koney King is almost as old as the city itself, you know?” Hendricks said. “So we have a great legacy here, and the city of Gary does as well.”
“The nostalgia, the place is very important to me to keep the legacy of what people remember- the visualization of it, down to the food taste,” Hendricks said. “I didn’t change any of the quality or values about it. I kept everything the way that I was taught to make it. And even the atmosphere is just real conducive to what it’s always been.”
The episode serves as a first course of season five of “The Bear,” which started in June 2022 with Chef Carmy — played by Jeremy Allen White — taking over his family’s struggling business, The Beef (Original) in Chicago, after the death of his brother Mikey. Over the course of the story, Carmy, his family and his crew strive to make the restaurant a Michelin-star earning dining destination as they face a litany of obstacles.
Both Moss-Bachrach and Bernthal have won Emmys for their roles in the series, but Elisha Evans pulls the spotlight for the brief but memorable Koney King visit in the episode.
The entire scene was unscripted and done in one take, showing a real-life conversation unfold among Moss-Bachrach, Bernthal and Evans over a chili cheese dog, a pizza puff and a lemonade.
“They’re really cool and down on the Earth,” Evans said of her co-stars. “We talked about their restaurant, and they sat here and ate and we talked about details of their lives. I said I wanted to come out there and check them out one day.”
Evans scarcely remembered the conversation that has now aired on millions of screens across the world.
An employee of 7 years, said she was pulled into the production by surprise during the filming day that occurred a year ago. As of Friday afternoon, Evans had not yet seen any episodes of The Bear and did not have a Hulu or Disney+ subscription.
“They’ve been blowing up my Facebook up all week,” Evans said. “I’ve gotten so many screenshots from people, saying, ‘We see you!’ Everybody watched it. They’re like, ‘You filmed with them? The Punisher! Like, whoa! Hey, buddy, man, you’re lucky.’ I was just at work. I was at the right place at the right time. I had just left and they asked me to come back.”
Bernthal is also known for playing the main character in “The Punisher,” a Marvel Comics series about a vigilante avenging his family. Moss-Bachrach and Bernthal co-wrote the “Gary” episode with “The Bear” creator Christopher Storer.
Born and raised in Gary, Evans, a Horace Mann High School graduate, said she was just being herself. She talks to everyone, remembers her regular customers’ favorite foods and fills the music playlist with “old school” tunes.
Surprise episode of ‘The Bear’ drops ahead of its final season: Our review
When Richie and Mikey arrive at Koney King, “When Somebody Loves You” by R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass is playing. Richie, an audiophile, immediately recognizes the artist and sparks up a conversation.
“I’m a music head. Like I said, I don’t watch too many TV shows, but I sing,” Evans said. “As long as I’m here, I’m gonna be listening to some R&B. So when you come here, you’re gonna hear some good music. So nah, it wasn’t planned. That just so happened to come up in the playlist when he was in the building.”
“Romantic hot dog place you got here,” Richie observes as he sits at the “U” shaped counter.
“I listen to old school music. It means something,” Evans said in the scene, chuckling. “And you can understand what they’re saying.”
Evans said she fully agrees with Richie’s assessment — Koney King is a place filled with love in the midst of Magic City.
“I think it is,” Evans said. “Because for one, I think it will be 106 years old this year, so not a lot of places around here have been around that long. I have couples that come in, saying that they met here and they still come in here. They say we love Koney King, because at Koney King we fell in love. … I hear people say they’ve been coming here since the ‘50s and ’60s. So, just hearing the different stories when people come in here makes it all worthwhile.”
Evans said there’s a couple who have been coming to Koney King for their anniversary for 60 years.
“A lot of couples come in,” Evans said. “I have some couples that are my favorites, as soon as they pull up I drop their food, I already know what they’re going to order.”
Michelle Lazorik-Barich and her husband were in mid-watch of the episode when the Koney King scene came up. They hit pause and immediately made the trip to get their fill before continuing the TV show.
“I used to smoke behind the building here with my friends,” Lazorik-Barich said. “This was the hangout. And now, it looks the same — same bar stools, same food, same crunchy ice.”
Lazorik-Barich said as a Lew Wallace High School student in the ‘80s, she has many good memories of Koney King. She now lives in Tennessee but always stops by for a taste of home whenever she visits the Region.
When it comes to meeting challenges with ambition, the stories of Mike Petroff, an immigrant from Rodina, Bulgaria, and Hendricks, a barber who grew up in Gary, are similar to the story at the heart of “The Bear”
While Hendricks still had not seen the episode, he did a watch-through of “The Bear” after the production team reached out.
“I just didn’t know about it then, I’m not a real TV watcher,” Hendricks said. “A lot of my time is dedicated in a lot of places. I just don’t really watch a lot of TV, unfortunately. But now that I know about it, I do really like it. It was, you know, restaurant themed. …So as we started getting into it, it kind of started unraveling and opening up a whole new world, you know? ‘The Bear’ is a great show.”
“The Bear” is filmed at real-life restaurant Mr. Beef at 666 N Orleans St. in the River North neighborhood in Chicago. The TV show pushed the already-staple restaurant into a new fandom, and now Koney King has likewise been immortalized in the series.
At age 22, Mike Petroff said goodbye to his homeland in 1914 and began work at the Thornton Quarries in Thornton, Illinois, according to “What Does the American Dream Taste Like?” a publication written by Joan Kufrin.
By 1920, he and a friend opened Coney Island Lunch in an alley on 9th and Broadway. During the Great Depression, the business stayed afloat while offering hot dogs for a nickel, chili for a dime and sometimes food for free.
Eventually, the business moved to its current spot and became Koney King in a building that is half restaurant and half barbershop. Hendricks first ate at the counter as a Gary Lew Wallace High School freshman in the 1990s, and eventually rented out the barbershop. He became the barber to Petroff’s great nephew, Paul Kamanaroff and a friendship was formed.
When Kamanaroff’s retirement came in 2018, he sold the restaurant and building to Hendricks under a couple of conditions — one being that Hendricks would learn the art of chili making and the secret recipe from Kamanaroff.
In the episode, the journey of the characters through Gary plays out like an adventure. Basketball games, liquor store trips, driving down Broadway, hanging out in alleyways, bonding with strangers in a local bar.
At one point, Mikey exclaims, “This place has heart… It’s magic. This place is magic. …We’re just a pair of wired and worried travelers, and we love it here. We thank you. We thank you Gary (expletive) Indiana.”
Will the episode inspire day trips to Gary to chase some of that magic the episode conjured up? Well, it’s certainly bringing in customers through Koney King’s threshold.
“I feel like, to be honest, it’s a blessing, because there are a lot of other places they could have gone,” Evans said. “There’s a lot of places they passed up on the way coming here from Chicago, and I feel like it’s gonna bring us good things to come for the future, bringing more exposure to us.”
Anna Ortiz is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
