Lloyd Handwerker was but a pup with a VHS camcorder when he began work three decades ago on what would eventually become this garnished-with-all-the-trimmings documentary history of his family’s illustrious hot dog empire. “Angels covered me up” is the way grandpa Nathan Handwerker described his perilous odyssey from Eastern Europe to Ellis Island, but it was hard work steeped in no-nonsense determination that earned him the square-block red-hot lover’s oasis on the Isle of Coney that to this day bears his name. The family in-fighting, best served cold, is tastier than anything on the menu. One great story after another; to have been a fly on the wall that night a hippie laced the public mustard bowl with LSD. Embroidered with rare archival footage and enumerated by family members — hilarious in their reluctance to air dirty laundry — and a procession of fermented former employees graced with some of kvetchiest-looking mugs this side of the Catskills. (2014) — Scott Marks
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