There are lots of ways to celebrate Independence Day in this town, but one of my favorites is to head to Coney Island for the quintessentially American tradition known as Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. The beloved tradition has gotten more even more competitive in recent years, when the seemingly undefeatable world champ Joey Chestnut lost in 2015, only to mount a massive comeback and regain his title last year (downing 70(!) hot dogs in less than 10 minutes). The women’s contest starts at 11:30am, followed by the men’s at noon, and then you can hang around and make a beach day of it. On the other hand, maybe you’d rather spend your day off stuffing your own face with BBQ, in which case Rose’s has got you covered with its 4th of July Sharktastic BBQ starting at 3pm. For $40, you get all you can eat burgers, hot dogs, rotisserie chicken, and pulled pork sliders. Oh yeah, there will be some veggie options too! Inside, they will be screening the Jaws trilogy and serving up two-for-$5 cans of ‘Gansett, which is a pretty awesome deal!
