SHAMOKIN, Pa. — It's not often you hear about a business celebrating more than 100 years, but Coney Island Lunch in Shamokin marked 105.
"It's a very unique place for one thing. You can't find any place like this anywhere in the world," Sharon Wichurowski said.
Wichurowski works the counter, which she's done for 51 years. She says the menu was simple 105 years ago, and it's simple today: hamburgers and hot dogs with onions and chili, as well as milk and soda.
"People have tried to duplicate the chili, and there's just that one ingredient we have that's a secret," Wichurowski said.
Customers like that Coney Island Lunch has stayed the same over the years.
"The same people have worked here, the same tables since we've been coming, the Christmas tree at Christmas time. It's really a special place," Barbara Slotterback said.
"We could put all new ceilings in and do all this stuff, but it wouldn't be Coney Island then," Wichurowski said.
Longtime customers stopped by for an anniversary cupcake and, of course, a hamburger and a hotdog.
"We used to come cruising down here, the girls all together. We'd pull in and smell this aroma, Coney Island, and we'd get a hamburger or hotdog," Mary, a Mount Carmel resident.
"That was always my dad's first stop when he came back to town. We had to come to the Coney and get a burger. So, I grew up, that's what you do, and I still do it," Karen Kugelmann said.
The staff at Coney Island Lunch hopes they stay open for another 105 years.
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