Terminal Station, Nu-Way Weiners celebrate 100 years
In 1916, Macon was introduced to Nu-Way Weiners and Terminal Station.
To mark the centennial year of the iconic landmark and eatery, hundreds celebrated them simultaneously downtown Thursday night.
Nu-Way Weiners sold hot dogs and burgers for $1, a penny for every year they’ve been around.
“I’d go a long way for a Nu-Way,” Millicent Wooden said while sitting at Cherry Street Plaza and eating an all-the-way hamburger with chili. “When I wasn’t living in Macon and I would come home, I would go get a Nu-Way. … It’s that chili and that steamed buns that keep me coming back ... and that crushed ice.”
Sitting with her grandson on some steps at Cherry Street Plaza, Wooden said she “had no idea” that Terminal Station opened the same year as the hot dog place.
Train No. 8 from Albany was the first locomotive to arrive at Terminal Station, when it pulled in at 9:35 a.m. Dec. 1, 1916, and James Mallis, who’d immigrated from Greece, began selling hot dogs at his eatery on Cotton Avenue that same year.
“It’s unbelievable how this happened,” third-generation Nu-Way co-owner Spyros Dermatas said.
The original Cotton Avenue location was destroyed in a massive fire March 15, 2015. However, there are 10 other locations in Middle Georgia.
“The plan was to do a block party on that Cotton Avenue block,” Dermatas said. But when invited to celebrate its centennial with the Terminal Station, Dermatas said he saw it as an opportunity to bring people downtown.
About 18 other restaurants were also selling food at the celebration.
“We want to resurrect this so we can do an annual Taste of Downtown and bring people downtown,” Dermatas said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
When asked what makes a Nu-Way Weiner special, Dermatas said “Everything.”
“It’s a traditional old-fashioned Coney Island (hot dog), which means it’s a steamed bun, it’s a grilled wiener. … (with) our own special recipe chili sauce, our own special mustard.”
The Coney Island hot dogs aren’t the only thing Macon has in common with New York. Alfred T. Fellheimer, an architect who helped design Grand Central Station later went on to draw plans for Terminal Station.
Another birthday celebration for the train station is set for Wednesday. The celebration day will double as Try Transit Day, and include free bus rides all day. A replica Terminal Station cake, a model train display, raffle drawings and Nu-Way Weiners are also planned for the celebration.
This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Terminal Station, Nu-Way Weiners celebrate 100 years."