FMBGN-BIZ-Detroit Dawg-From Detroit To Fort Myers Beach: The Coney Journey

A beach town doesn’t just rebuild with lumber and plans—it rebuilds with food, laughter, and neighbors who show up. We sit down with Scott and Trina, the duo behind Detroit Dawgs on Fort Myers Beach, to trace how a Midwest classic became a coastal staple and how a “let’s try it” plan grew into a full-time love story with the community.

We start with roots: travel nursing, hurricane relief, and the moment a phone call turned a long shot into a prime spot on Estero Boulevard. Then we dig into the flavor map. You’ll hear exactly what makes a real Detroit Coney—natural casing Kobel dog, National Coney Island chili, onions, mustard—plus the Flint-style twist that sparks friendly arguments. A Chicago local even stepped behind the window to perfect their garden-loaded build, which now flies out the door. From Big Dawg double burgers to Slim Jim-inspired sandwiches, crab rangoon to Philly steak quesadillas, their menu proves a hot dog stand can also be a playground for great food.

Behind the window, speed meets soul. Scott obsesses over heat and presentation; Trina keeps the joy intact, reminding everyone that a beach day and a good dog beat stress every time. The result is consistent, friendly service, whether you’re calling ahead from traffic or grabbing breakfast on Friday through Sunday. Community runs through every detail: Michigan staples like Faygo and Better Made chips, colorful seating that invites lingering, and a Friday tradition where one dollar from every dog supports the local fireworks fund.

As Shrimp Fest rolls in, they roll out shrimp tacos and sweet Thai chili bacon shrimp skewers, proving that creativity and comfort can share the same counter. It’s a story about authentic Detroit Coney dawgs, sure—but also about turning regulars into friends, and friends into family, one order at a time. If this episode made you hungry for more, follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so others can discover their next favorite bite by the beach.

Detroit Dawgs
Scott & Trina Legas
1375 Estero Blvd , Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
(248) 506-0598
detroitdawgsfmb@gmail.com

Ft Myers Beach-Good Neighbor
To Nominate Someone to be Featured
Or
To Subscribe to the Newsletter
CLICK HERE
https://cabowabojim.com/listen-to-podcasts/

Transcript

Meet The Detroit Dawgs Team

"Cabo" Jim 0:32

Alrighty. Yeah, we have good neighbors to Fort Myers Beach in another episode of us voyaging around the island. We've got some new neighbors. We got Scott and Trina Leggett from Detroit, I'm guessing, right? Detroit, Detroit dogs. Yes, yes, that's it. We're here. There you go. So you're new to the island.

Scott Legas 0:53

What brought you to the island? Personally, myself, go ahead, honey. You go ahead. You go.

Why Coney Dogs In Florida

Trina Legas 0:59

Um, I've been coming down here for years, and I travel nursed a little bit down here uh just before Ian. I came down during Ian and helped a friend serve Coney hot dogs to people that were working and people that were displaced out of their homes. And um that's how I've always came here is just visiting our travel nursing. Right.

"Cabo" Jim 1:22

So, how did we get involved in the hot dog business, the food service industry?

Scott Legas 1:26

So both both of us, Trina and I have always since we've been coming down, this is my eighth season down here. Okay, so we both always said, Man, a good Detroit Coney, but you can't find a good Detroit Coney dog in Florida, really, especially with a Kobo hot dog, a special hot dog. So uh mutual friends when Trina and I started dating said, you know, she's always wanted to do a Coney, and Trina's always said it was a little D by the C. So together we brainstormed it, and this is what we came up with Detroit dawgs. Started it three years ago. We bounced around, we were at the whale the first year when they were at tent in and out of the food truck rotation. Then last year we were set up at uh their property Sandy Bottoms down the way here, and then everybody pushed hard for us to land in this spot.

Trina Legas 2:11

Um, Chris, the owner, right, pretty much did a lot of the work for us and made us an offer to be here, and we went through the township and got approved, and here we are, and everybody loves us, they're happy we're here right across the line. Never dreamed in a million years. This was just supposed to be for fun, and here we are full-time. Well, there you go.

Launching And Finding A Home Base

"Cabo" Jim 2:30

So let's back up the story a little bit. We all have challenges, you know. We've had a lot of challenges here on the aisle in the years. Is there something that you know, other than Ian, or or even, Ian, um, that you kind of went through that put you in a better place so you can look back and you're like, I've made it through, and things are better now. I mean, opening your business with the chore and that's what I was gonna say.

Scott Legas 2:53

I know it's a lot of work to get uh something like this going, especially with a trailer at you know, doing that right now. But hopefully everything goes good. We uh submitted the plans for like you know, a possible permanent structure working with Chris.

Trina Legas 3:08

Okay, and uh well, not like a permanent plan, just like uh, you know, a temporary. If we do decide to stay here, then we'll have to do a an architectural, you know, permanent. But um, we'll see how it works this year and go from there.

"Cabo" Jim 3:23

I've heard nothing but good things about your food from everybody on the island. Thank you.

Scott Legas 3:27

We appreciate it. We have a lot of Michiganders and a lot of support, and especially being here with a lot of people stopping by.

The Call That Changed Everything

Trina Legas 3:32

So not only Michiganders, I mean right there, Detroit, Wayne County. Me, right here. I grew up in Clarkston. That's my three kids. Um, raised my kids in Linden, and Scotty and I met uh about four years, almost four years ago now. And uh when we met, I had quit nursing, I was doing permanent jewelry. I decided to do it at local fairs that I grew up with 4-H Fairs, and I met Scotty there. I had actually met him nine years before that at a 4-H fair. And uh fast forward, here we are again. And after we met, with less than a year, we were on our way to Texas to get a truck, and here we are. We never dreamed that we'd be doing this on Fort Myers Beach. So, how we ended up on the beach is kind of funny. We were driving down the beach one day, and I said, Why can't we bring our truck here? He said, It's never gonna happen. You have to know people. I said, and I didn't know anybody, so we drove by Mike and Dawn's, and they had their tent up. And I said, Well, what about that place? He said, Babe, it's not gonna happen. I said, Okay, I picked up the phone, I called, and Dawn answered the phone, and she goes, Well, what kind of truck do you have? And I said, We own a Detroit dog. She goes, What is a Detroit dogs? And I said, Well, it's a hot dog that is very, very, very popular in Detroit, Michigan. It's nostalgic, actually. And I said, Everybody loves it, and there's a lot of Michigan people. She goes, Send me your menu. I did. She messaged me 15 minutes later and said, Can you do this day, this day, this day, and this day? And not only did our business partnership start, but our friendship did. They're wonderful people, and we we owe them great thanks for where we are today. And here we are.

What Makes A Detroit Coney

"Cabo" Jim 5:03

And that's it, the community coming together. Yep, for sure. What is a Detroit dog, actually? I'm from the Midwest. I was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Illinois. So we have Chicago dogs up there, right? So I kind of got to put ketchup on my hot dog, which is against Chicago religion. Uh but you know, I'm from Wisconsin, flowers, right?

Scott Legas 5:23

So a real Detroit hot dog is the natural casing kobel hot dog, okay, chili, national Coney Island chili, onions, and mustard. That's it. That's it.

Trina Legas 5:34

And I cannot tell a lie. I put ketchup on mine, and he gets so mad at me. He's like, What are you doing? I'm like, meaning ketchup on my Coney Dog.

Scott Legas 5:41

So that that would be your Detroit Coney dog.

Trina Legas 5:44

All right.

Scott Legas 5:45

And then we also do a flint, which is ground beef, seasoned ground beef, uh, with onions and mustard as well. But we also do a Chicago dog, and they are very, very popular here at the never dream we do a Chicago dog.

Menu Hits And Local Favorites

Trina Legas 5:59

The first day we opened this year. I had a little lady come up and say, This is amazing, but let me show you how it goes together. So she came to the back door and she said, This is how you do it, this is how you do it. And I did it. She goes, Beautiful, and everybody loves them.

"Cabo" Jim 6:11

What do they say up in Chicago? They say they run it through the garden, they run it through the garden, and that's a true statement. Yep, it's good stuff. But um first time visitor coming on here, other than hot ones, which do they try on your menu?

unknown 6:25

Yeah.

Scott Legas 6:26

Oh man, we have a variety of things, but our big dog double burger for the Michigan people would be like uh uh a big boy back up north, which would be somewhat like uh Big Mac, but way better.

Trina Legas 6:38

And and let me emphasize it's not only for Michigan people, we our Florididians have learned to love us and they come here every day. We have a Slim Gym that also is from it's from Big Boy. We also do an amazing um uh Philly steak quesadilla. We have a crab ragoon homemade recipe that everybody loves. We have specials every day. Uh, we did a Hawaiian burger last week. My husband wanted to kill me because everybody loved it and we got slammed, and he's like, Who does a Hawaiian burger at a hot dog stand? And I said, That would be us. Keep making them burgers, baby. So, yeah, we do a little bit of everything.

"Cabo" Jim 7:16

Well, and speaking of that, Diva's dolls were the coasts. They told me to come over here. Oh, they're saying you guys always have some kind of special going on.

Trina Legas 7:25

Yeah, we did uh we have a board over there, but we did uh um there's so Michigan is also known the Flint area, it's called Bing Big John State Sub. Okay, and the man that uh started that company passed away many years ago, and he actually had in his will that it was not allowed to be franchised after he died. He took his recipe off. Nobody can open another one. So we kind of tried to do it. I'm sure it's not the same. I kind of made a mimic of the red sauce that goes on it, and those are fabulous. It's uh Philly, it's kind of like a Philly steak, but it's um steak and it it has a little bit of mushrooms and onions and a special sauce, special cheese, and divas love it.

Work, Life, And Michigan Roots

"Cabo" Jim 8:06

I bet, I bet they love it a lot. So sounds like a dream job down here, right? Working on the beach from the beach right across the street. Owning a business could be a lot of work.

Trina Legas 8:16

Owning a business can be a lot of work. Some days you might come in here and go, Wow, do they like each other? But we always know we're happy to be here serving people. It just gets a little busy some days, and I was a hospice nurse, so my attitude is you know what, they're waiting for a hot dog and they're on vacation. They can enjoy the beach, babe, relax. But he wants to make sure everybody gets their food in a timely manner, and he's very that's good.

"Cabo" Jim 8:42

Customer service, right?

Trina Legas 8:43

Customer service. He's very, you know, he wants to make sure it's it's pretty when it goes out the window, it's hot, it's warm, and that's just how he is. And we have to remind him no one's dying here, they're waiting for a hot dog, and they get it in a timely manner, and he does a fabulous job because there you go.

"Cabo" Jim 8:58

Nice job. So when you get a moment of time, what do you guys enjoy doing outside of work? We don't have any free time.

Scott Legas 9:08

Oh, we bought we bought a couple of e-bikes and we got down here.

Speaker 4 9:11

Right, okay.

Scott Legas 9:12

We put about a hundred miles on them in five months now.

unknown 9:15

Wow.

Trina Legas 9:16

So we own a concessions business in Michigan too and permanent jewelry. And when when we're off in October, we run all summer long hard. We do 14 hours a day up there, and and we love that job too. But when we before we started this, um, we would take two months and we played pretty hard. We went to St. Vincent and we went out west and saw my grandchildren and my son, and we enjoyed a lot of time together during those two months. Um, we've we had a lot of fun.

"Cabo" Jim 9:42

So hard play hard, that's what it's all about. That's right. Who doesn't love this weather? I mean, yeah, so beautiful. I know, right? Well, you know, I complained that we had two weeks of cold weather, and I'm like, one or two days is max for me.

Scott Legas 9:54

Yes, it was chilly. Think about those poor iguanas.

"Cabo" Jim 9:58

Well, that's why I feel part of iguana because I was like, when it gets cold, I feel like I'm gonna freeze. I just I remember the tree.

Trina Legas 10:05

You know, yeah, we're from Michigan, and my daughter would call and say, Oh, it's negative five, and I'm like, it's 20, it's 30 degrees here, and she's like, Really, mom? And it's cold down here by the beach, it gets cold. I'm sorry, Michiganders, but it gets cold.

"Cabo" Jim 10:18

Yeah, I agree. It was it was only getting up to 60, and I talked to my mom, she's up in northern Wisconsin. She goes, Oh, it's minus 30 today. Oh boy, yeah.

Trina Legas 10:26

I'm like, that's like a 90-degree difference. That's a sweet, yeah. I'm like, what? Yeah, that's whole.

"Cabo" Jim 10:30

It's crazy. So where can our listeners come and visit you?

Scott Legas 10:36

Right across the street from the lLani Kai, right? Yeah, right. 1375 Estero Boulevard. Yeah, that's the address here. Can't miss it. You can't miss it.

"Cabo" Jim 10:45

We offer seating full of colors. We need to do mobile ad uh ordering because when the cars come by, you know, somebody down by the library make their order, and by the time they get up here, it'll be done. We do do that. We do have people that we do have call in.

Trina Legas 11:00

People call in and uh they order and we try to we do pretty much make sure that it's ready when they we have people jump out of the car, run up, grab their bag, and get back in the cars.

Scott Legas 11:09

Well the traffic flows up faster, right? Yeah, yeah, it does.

"Cabo" Jim 11:12

I I'm back in the day when I was here, we used to sit down at the shamrock, you know, because then you get off the beach and you'd sit there and then I just watch the traffic go by. Right. Once the traffic started moving, I knew I could leave. Yeah, right. So why am I gonna go sit in traffic? I'm gonna go have a couple beers, relax, enjoy the rest of the time. Bag of pretzels. Yeah, absolutely. So, any last words for our listeners today?

Scott Legas 11:33

Come on down and we appreciate everybody's support. I know we're new around here, and you know, we we have a great time doing it, and we look forward to seeing you all.

Giving Back And Breakfast Service

Trina Legas 11:42

We have met so many wonderful people, and we have a great support group that you know they come back every day. We had a young lady that came here yesterday, it was her birthday, and she said, I have to tell you, I went to a steakhouse for lunch today, it's my birthday, and I told my husband, I'm going to Detroit dogs for dinner, it's better than the steak. And I said, Are you kidding me? Tube steak. She said, Absolutely not. She goes, Your food is way better, and that made us both smile. So you guys are doing good things. Yeah, we also every Friday we are donating a dollar for every dog that we sell to the fireworks fund, right? So come on down and buy yourself a dog and a dollar of your dog. We'll go to the fireworks fund. Very nice. Yep, that's a big yeah. You guys also do breakfast.

Scott Legas 12:23

We do Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We do breakfast, start at 8, 8 to like 11, 10:30. Um, then we transition over to our lunch. But when we're open, we're serving.

"Cabo" Jim 12:33

So nice.

Scott Legas 12:34

Come on down, get you a Detroit dawg, a Faygo pop, and some better made better made chips, barbecue or regular. We got it all.

"Cabo" Jim 12:42

Oh, you know, the right stuff, right?

Trina Legas 12:44

All the right stuff. Yeah, you can't. We even brought in pickled baloney last week.

Shrimp Fest Specials And Community

Scott Legas 12:47

We got pickled baloney, and and we have a special treat coming. So look on our Facebook page for that special treatment. I don't know what it is. Today or tomorrow, it should be here. So keep your eye on the Facebook page, Detroit Dawgs. Right in time for shrimp fest. Hopefully, it all comes together.

Trina Legas 13:07

I think we need to come out and watch it. Right here. We got a beautiful for Shrimp Fest. We are doing a um we're doing a shrimp tacos. Shrimp tacos, and we're also doing um we're also, I'm sorry, we're also doing um shrimp on a I'm sorry, you caught me on we're doing shrimp skewers. Um candy. Uh candied um sweet tie chili bacon skewers on a uh stick. So jumble shrimp and the the tacos. Now I'm hungry. Yeah, all right, I can't wait till Saturday. You caught me off guard over there, Mr. Phil. That's okay. That's okay, no problem. That's okay, no worries. This is this is one of our family members, Phil. We met him selling Detroit dogs. There you go. Now he's part of the family. Yeah, there you go.

"Cabo" Jim 14:00

The family keeps getting it. I guess it does. Oh, I'm I'm the marketing guy for him. You try Detroit dogs, down the street. I think you need to dress up like a hot dog and just pray to the dog.

Speaker 4 14:11

We've already told him that.

Scott Legas 14:13

We have a shrimp costume going for him.

Closing Thanks And Positive Vibes

"Cabo" Jim 14:16

Nice. Let's go. Well, guys, it's been a pleasure getting it to know you. Thank you too. Thank you so much for coming by. We'll see you again soon. We appreciate it.

Scott Legas 14:24

Thank you.

"Cabo" Jim 14:25

Take care.

Scott Legas 14:25

Thank you, everybody.

Intro/Close 14:30

Note, just sunshine, drama-free, positive vibes only. If you loved what you heard, share it with a friend and keep the good vibes going. Also,