This is not the original Cozy Inn. The original is still operating in Salina. My mother grew up eating Cozy Inn hamburgers. The tiny little hamburger place was just behind my grandfather's business. She tells me that during the depression, when one of the many down-on-their-luck men passing through would approach him and ask for money, instead he would give them his business card and tell them to present it at the Cozy Inn where they could get burgers and coffee. This way he knew he was feeding them meal and not contributing toward a bottle of whiskey or other such. At the end of each month he'd go around to the Cozy Inn, collect his business cards, and pay what he owed for the meals given to the men.
Up until recently, there has been only one Cozy Inn. This is one of two that have opened in the last few years. I can't remember where the other is. This is in Manhattan - on Moro Street in Aggieville. It is just about as small as the original. A counter with room for a few stools. A walk-up window on the side. You can't get a Cozy Inn hamburger without onion -- much like a White Castle (and just as small if not smaller). Burgers, potato chips, beverages -- I think that's about all they sell. That's enough to have kept them in business since 1922 -- same year my mother was born.
