MISHAWAKA — Tim Zentz can walk down the aisles at Meijer and get a blast of inspiration for a new hot dog.

He owns Coney Express , a family-friendly place located in Outpost Plaza at 3602 Grape Road with his wife, Rachael.

Having new specialty hot dogs is the restaurant's specialty. This month, Coney Express is featuring an all-beef Mexican dog — cheddar cheese, taco sauce, Mexican spice blend, diced green chiles and crispy tortilla strips.

"We keep a variety," Tim says. "We have something for everybody."

But Tim says the ideas come at all times. For example, he has The Food Network cooking programs on the televisions at the restaurant, and he admits some ideas can come from that.

Take, for instance, the Seattle dog, which features cream cheese along with bacon, pickle, crispy onions and sweet chili sauce.

"The Seattle Dog was the first time I used cream cheese on a dog," Tim says. "And it was so popular, that I had to write it on the menu."

The restaurant also has other items, such as Italian beef sandwiches, but Coney Express is known for soups — all homemade made fresh by Rachael's mother, Gale Boult.

"We call her the 'Soup Nazi,'" Rachael says with a smile, referencing a popular saying from the show "Seinfeld." T-shirts with the "No soup for you" phrase from "Seinfeld" also adorn the walls of the place.

The soups date back to the Scottsdale Mall era when Rachael's parents, John and Gale Boult, owned the place. Gale's soups also won many awards, so many that Tim and Rachael believe they stopped the category because it was no contest.

The Boult family sold the restaurant in 2004 after owning it for 20 years. The establishment had other owners until Tim and Rachael bought Coney Express in the fall of 2019 .

But Tim had to make a few changes upon the restaurant's purchase. "I'm from Chicago, so I had to class it up a bit," Tim says, smiling at his wife.

Tim had previously helped to run Outback Steakhouse , Bonefish Grill and Metro Diner in his career, but he enjoys the pace and the control he has with his current restaurant.

Tim still gets first-time customers, despite the restaurant being tucked back near the rear of the plaza. He would like to have another location on the south side of South Bend, nearer to where the place originally existed in the Scottsdale Mall area. He also would like a drive-through window, a feature he says is becoming more popular with customers today.

Despite not having the drive-through window, Tim says, they serve customers quickly.

'Many times, by the time you order and are sitting down, we're bringing out your food," Tim says. "That's what people love about us. If there's a line out the door, they are only waiting a few minutes."

The restaurant can seat just under 100 customers, and, Rachael says, the back room is used for such gatherings as birthday parties, meetings and even baby showers.

And the restaurant has an outreach ministry of sorts. Tim says he has a hot dog cart he takes to festivals and public and private events, a traditional cart equipped with the umbrella and all.

"Rachael knows the names of just about everybody who comes in the door," Tim says. "And when we see the regulars, as soon as we see them, we start cooking what they want."

Allure of hot dogs

The Zentz family takes the public's fascination with hot dogs seriously.

"You think about hot dogs, summertime or homemade soups," Tim says. "The biggest thing is we treat everyone like family so they feel good coming in. We give out soup samples to every first-timer that walks in, and it's a dying art."

He routinely does table visits for all customers.

"When I was in the corporate world, it was required to visit all the tables," Tim says. "Now, you can go into a corporate restaurant and you're lucky if you see a manager. That's what we try to do — to be hospitable. And that's what small businesses, small restaurants still do.

"They say small businesses keep the money in town. It really does. … It's about the people, not the bottom line."

The future

Tim says he might like another location or two, but his concern is making sure to maintain quality. "I know what we put out here is perfect. If it's not, we will fix it," he says. The Coney Express staff is a bonus, and one current employee started working for Rachael's father when she was 16.

"We have people asking when we're coming to the south side, to Goshen, to Granger," Tim and Rachael say.

Rachael says she hears from customers all the time about their experiences at Coney Express when her parents owned it at Scottsdale Mall.

Tim believes he stresses family values by operating the business so he has a family life with his two children. By not staying open late, he can attend sporting events with his children.

"I never leave here stressed," he says. "When I was in the corporate world, I needed 40 minutes of quiet time, to be by myself. But here I go home, cook dinner, do baseball games."

Coney Express

■ Prices: $7.44-$2.09