Bob's / Rafa's Coney Island Hotdog Stand on E 13th/14th St

by Javier Garcia with Joe Von Hatten and Alfredo Zamora 

A 1964 Chevy Impala which collided with a mid 1960s International Harvester Travellall 5-door full-sized wagon in service for the Joe A. Besteiro funeral business will not be the subject of this revised Bronsbil Estacion blogpost though admittedly there is quite a bit more that could be gleaned from this photo.  That might make an interesting discussion for another time.  Instead, we're going to take a look back at Bob's Coney Island hotdog stand which was serving chili dogs on the corner of E Adams and 13th when this accident incident photo was taken in 1966 by Brownsville Police Department photographer Ruben Garcia (who later became a Captain).

A conglomerate of internet-borrowed images of Nathan's Coney Island Hotdog stand in Brooklyn, New York.

When someone hears "Coney Island" they might automatically associate it with the amusement park and when you throw in hot dogs it connects it to the hot dog of the same name that probably originated there.  We'll let the reader Google whatever knowledge about that they hunger for and stick to the point which is in Brownsville, Texas.  

"Burglars hit Bob’s Coney Island hot dog stand again, this time for a dollar in change."  Brownsville Herald Newspaper Archives June 22, 1979 Page 2

Recently, new information surfaced when this image was posted on the Vintage Brownsville, Texas and History Facebook page about "Bob," the original owner of the hotdog stand.  According to U.S. Army Sergeant Alfredo Zamora, Bob Cohen was from New York city who left after his ex-wife divorced him and took him to the cleaners.  Zamora worked at the hotdog stand during the summers of 76-78 to earn enough money to pay for his school clothes.  By this time Cohen had been established on the corner of E Adams and 13th St for a bit more than a decade and was a heavy chain smoker probably in his 60's as Alfredo can recall.  

The two met because they were neighbors living on the outskirts of town on Zena Dr and 5th Avenue (off E 14th a.k.a. South Padre Island Hwy).

Cohen embraced south Texas culture and frequented his favorite places across the border in Matamoros.  Cohen's nickname for Zamora was "Little Chingaso" (which roughly translates to "little slugger') for his ornery disposition.  Most interestingly is how Bob Cohen decided to land in Brownsville, Texas after leaving New York to start a new life.  As Mr Zamora tells it:

"I asked him once how he came to Brownsville.  He said 'I opened up a map of the USA, closed my eyes and pointed to one place and that place was Brownsville!'   He [Cohen] loved the people down here."

c2004 The stand on E 14th between E Washington and Adams, a block away from the corner where it was Bob's Coney Island 

Alfredo Zamors thinks Rafael was working at the stand about two years before he came along in the summer of '76.  Rafael had a sister named "Letty" who helped out on the weekends.  The house on the corner had been rented to the Escobedo family who used it as a second hand store; selling preworn clothing.  There was also a cab stand nearby.  Bob Cohen use to tell Alfredo that his chain smoking would eventually be the end of him and he was probably right about that.  The business went to Rafael who was the last owner.  Zamora had been long gone from the business so he wouldnt know the date when Cohen met his demise.

I can't recall exactly when but imagine it was in the 1990s that I first pulled up a red-painted metal stool at the hotdog stand while I was a student at the nearby college.  Traveling on foot either to or from the B.U.S., as I did back then, it was the alluring aroma of grilled onions that attracted me to the place.  Inside there was a stocky man who stood about 5'5" wearing "Coke-bottle" glasses  hovering over the sound of sizzling onions coming from a small flat-top grill.  "Rafael" served up a simple Mexican-style hot dog with grilled onions, diced tomatoes and jalapenos from this spot on E 14th and Washington St.  There was more on his menu such as chili dogs, burritos, nachos, papas fritas ... and I did try one of his hamburguesas  after he strongly recommended that I try something else beside the usual every time I stopped by. He had been on that same spot for approximately 13-15 years when I met him at the turn of the century.  

When the street was closed to begin construction on the new bus station business died down and Rafael probably had to sell his dogs in Matamoros or some other means to make a living.  

There are not many other places to eat other than Rafa's that take me back to my first experiences downtown.  While there are still a variety of places to eat on the cheap and new upscale wine and food restaurants in more fanciful air-conditioned historical building surroundings, it'll never be the same as eating from a paper tray on a narrow counter while sitting with my toes and ankles balanced on a lower ring of one of Rafa's red metal stools out in the hot summer heat with the sounds of a busy downtown all around me. 

Revised March 3, 2021 -- originally posted Sep 14, 2015