 The restaurant sold franks (hot dogs) for 10 cents each.By one account, Handwerker was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with Feltman's; as United Press International noted in 1974, "There are many stories about Nathan and how the business began, but this is the way he told it..." The company's official history does not mention the encouragement of those two entertainers.Nathan and Ida spent their life savings of $300 to begin the business.