A NEW York-based fast food chain has re-submitted plans to open a restaurant in Bournemouth after withdrawing its previous application.

Nathan’s Famous, which specialises in hot dogs, plans to move into the former Heroes karaoke bar unit in Jaycee House, near the Lansdowne roundabout.

Applicants RBA Restaurant UK Ltd say in a planning statement this would be one of its first UK restaurants, with an outlet also proposed in Southampton.

“This vibrancy and the popularity of the area has encouraged the American restaurant chain Nathan’s Famous to venture an expansion into the UK. They are a worldwide company founded in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York,” the statement says.

“The chain has a lot of history, including connections with singing waiters such as Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante in the early 20th century. The original Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand of 1916 has opened every day and still operates daily in Coney Island.”

That original stall was founded by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker, and launched with a Fourth of July hot dog eating contest which survives to this day.

Handwerker had only arrived in the US in 1912, and after a stint as a delivery boy he took on a job as a ‘roll-slicer’ for Coney Island entrepreneur Charles Feltman, who is sometimes credited as the inventor of the street stand hot dog.

The ambitious Handwerker, encouraged by then-singing waiters Cantor and Durante, undercut his former employer by charging only a nickel for his dogs, half the price of the “swanky” Feltman’s German Gardens in Surf Avenue.

Handwerker’s early publicity stunts included paying students to dress as doctors and eat his hot dogs, suggesting their higher quality in an era of sometimes suspect meat.

Before long the business was famous, popular with celebrities and serving hundreds of thousands of hot dogs.

In 1936, Nathan’s hot dogs were served to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at a lunch with President Roosevelt.

RBA Restaurant UK has not made any apparent changes to its previously submitted plans and is seeking permission to change the use of 284-286 Old Christchurch Road to a combined restaurant and takeaway. The propose hours are 8am-11pm, Monday to Sunday.