We found ourselves eating pasties at a diner in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when the couple at the next table asked me where I
got the Toledo Mud Hens t-shirt I was wearing that day.
Turned out this Wisconsin couple were big fans of
the M*A*S*H television show and fondly remembered hearing about the Toledo team
when the show’s Corp. Max Klinger talked about his home town. They were
surprised to hear that the baseball team really existed, rather than being the
figment of some screenwriter’s imagination. They were simply flabbergasted to find
out that the Hungarian hot dog joint Klinger always praised in the show also
existed!
We’re lucky to live within an hour of Toledo, and no
visit is complete for us without a trip to Tony Packo’s, the Hungarian joint immortalized
for many television viewers by Corp. Klinger!
Packo’s predates the television show by 40 years or
so, opening in 1932 during the Great Depression in a working-class area near Toledo’s
port district. Tony Packo was a factory worker who started with a $100 loan
from relatives to open a sandwich and ice cream store. By 1935, Packo purchased
a nearby building at the present-day location of his restaurant’s flagship
store. He created a Hungarian hot dog (basically a chili-topped Coney dog), and
the rest is history.
Tony Packo’s became familiar among M*A*S*H viewers
when Toledo native Jamie Farr, who played the character of Max Klinger, mentioned
Packo’s in an episode where a reporter interviewed Klinger about his hometown. Scriptwriters
wrote Tony Packo’s into another half-dozen episodes, including one where Packo’s
sent the mobile Army surgical unit sausage casings for use in a blood-filtering
machine.
Today, the original Packo’s is a popular stop for
locals and tourists. Hot dog buns signed by celebrities and displayed in
specially made frames lining the walls are fun to see. The menu of hot dogs,
fried pickles and Hungarian specialties, like chicken paprikas (a.k.a. chicken
paprikash), stuffed cabbage and paprikas dumplings, offers affordable, family-friendly
fare.
I like to bring a taste of Packo’s home with me by
visiting the restaurant’s small store. I’m lucky enough to see some of Packo’s
pickles at grocery stores in the Detroit area, but the restaurant store stocks
some things that are harder for me to find at home.
I particularly like the Hungarian salsa, which I use
to top stuffed peppers or to add to the chicken paprikash I make at home.
While Packo’s has restaurant outlets in the Toledo
area, I most enjoy visiting the original Front Street restaurant, or maybe
having a Hungarian hot dog at the Packo’s near the ball park before a Mud Hens
game.
Klinger would be proud, don’t you think?
© Dominique King 2008
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