You can eat Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs at your own pace in Fort Worth Thursday

While competitive eaters will pack Coney Island on Independence Day for a hot dog eating contest, a restaurant in Fort Worth will give away hundreds of hot dogs for free. Curly's Frozen Custard will give away 220 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs starting at 11 a.m. Thursday.

"It's our busiest day of the year. It's a fun day, and it's a great way to celebrate our anniversary and our country's anniversary," says Owner Bourke Harvey.

Harvey is giving away 220 hot dogs to mark 22 years in business. Curly's is west of Downtown Fort Worth, on Camp Bowie near Clover.

"I love the West Side of Fort Worth and Fort Worth in general, but this little area right here is hard to recreate," he says.

When Harvey started serving Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs in 2014, he started an eating contest. Harvey says this was the first contest outside Coney Island Nathan's endorsed. Coney Island uses an all-you-can-eat format in a certain amount of time, so Harvey agreed to change the criteria to how quickly people could eat four hot dogs.

He says the contest drew a lot of attention but did not match the atmosphere of the neighborhood.

"It didn't really feel naturally organic," he says. "It wasn't a gathering to celebrate, it was more of a gathering to watch a freak show."

By giving away hot dogs, he says Curly's can keep building a sense of community while also remembering why Thursday is a holiday.

"On July Fourth, everyone ought to be happy, and it generally is," Harvey says. "Maybe I'm wrong on this, but on July Fourth, I don't see a lot of protests. It's usually everybody coming together, celebrating, giving hugs, celebrating our country, what we stand for and freedom."

Curly's also serves a frozen custard "flavor of the month." With the peach harvest coming in, the flavor for July is Parker County Peach.

"It's won a ton of awards. I just went inside and tasted it, and it's as good as ever," Harvey says.

Curly's opens at 11 a.m. Thursday.

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