Michigan—especially Metro Detroit—loves its coney island hot dogs. We're as passionate about the secret sauces and recipes as the people and places that serve them.

Join Patch this spring and summer as we celebrate our region's signature dish with events, contests, stories and cool things to do, like this bus tour of Metro Detroit's finest coney offerings.

You can join authors of the new book Coney Detroit—Joe Grimm of Bloomfield Township and Katherine Yung of Brighton—on a bus tour of Metro Detroit for a tasting of their favorite coney island hot dogs.

The tour will visit some coney local treasures on May 12–including a stop at Dearborn restaurant Joe's Top Dog Coney Island–home of the Jim Padilla Special, named for the former Ford Motor Co. president. Also included is a stop at a Greek coney classic: Athens Coney Island in Royal Oak.

On the tour, you'll hear the stories behind the restaurants that have made Metro Detroit the coney island capital. The authors will take you into the past and behind the scenes with anecdotes and photos that will help you see coney islands in a whole new light. The dogs, the sauce, the families, the different styles of coneys and how people across the country are copying the Detroit experience—it's all in there.

Enjoy a coney sample as you enjoy the history at each stop! The bus will make three stops crisscrossing the region, leaving at 10 a.m. in Detroit, then heading to Dearborn, Royal Oak and Eastpointe, and arriving back in Detroit around 2 p.m. Tickets are $35 each and available through D:hive Detroit.

Copies of the book, Coney Detroit by Katherine Yung and Joe Grimm, also will be available for purchase.

Reservations will be accepted through May 7. Space is limited, so get on the bus!

The event is sponsored by Patch.com, D:hive and Wayne State University Press.

The tour will go as follows:

• Start at the D:hive Welcome Center at 1253 Woodward Ave. 
• Head to Joe’s Top Dog in Dearborn, arriving at 10:30 a.m.
• Leave Joe’s at 11:10 a.m. for Athens Coney Island in Royal Oak
• Arrive at Athens at 11:40 a.m.
• Leave Athens at 12:20 p.m. for Western Coney Island in Eastpointe
• Arrive at Western at 12:50 p.m.
• Leave Western at 1:30 p.m.
• Arrive at Lafayette/American downtown at 2 p.m.

Watch your local Patch.com site for more Patch Coney Fest events this spring and summer, and help us celebrate a Detroit icon.