It was a fluke, I swear! Someone ordered a steak sandwich at Morton’s without the bread and put horseradish cheddar on it. I tasted it and I was hooked. It’s not my fault! 
I think some are confusing a Chicago Italian Beef for a Philly Cheesesteak … very different beasts. Both good decadent treats though.
No, no, “cheesy” beeves do exist here in Chicago. I can only think of one person that I’ve ever seen order it that way, but they are on the menus of Italian beef stands. It’s definitely not normal, but it’s an acknowledged variant.
Not sure why some are calling deep dish pizza in Chicago “tourist fare”. Are you suggesting that Chicago residents don’t eat deep dish pizza?
In any case, I love deep dish and I don’t think that anyone can make pizza like Chicago can. When I order pizza anywhere else in the country I am often confused by the cracker that is delivered to my table. I didn’t order a cracker with tomato sauce, I ordered pizza gosh darn it!
I live a block from a Giordano’s and used to live three blocks from Lou Malnati’s in Naperville. Be that as it may, I don’t know if I ate deep dish pizza even once a year. It was almost always a “Take the out-of-towners for Chicago pizza” thing when I had it. If someone said “Come over and we’re ordering pizza” I’d assume they were talking a thin crust party cut pizza from a local place and be correct 99% of the time.
That said, the places stay in business so I’m sure locals are eating at them frequently. I’m just not one of them.
Funny. That cracker style (or at least very thin crust) is what I personally most associate with pizza growing up in Chicago. Deep dish pizza is not tourist fare–but it is (or at least in my household) more special occasion fare than something you eat often. Of the pizza I eat in Chicago, I probably go out for deep dish once or twice a year (either Burt’s in Morton Grove or Pequod’s) and the rest of the time, it’s thin crust pizza, party cut into squares, with a pitcher (or three) of beer.
And I don’t understand the adulation for Giordano’s. It should also be pointed out that Giordano’s is not a standard deep dish, it is a subset of deep-dish known as stuffed pizza. The deep dish you get at Uno’s, Due’s, Pequod’s, Malnati’s, etc., only has one layer of dough. (Pequod’s and Burts are also non-canonical examples of deep dish, straddling the line between pan pizza and deep dish.)
I don’t have any adoration for Giordano’s (as evidenced by the fact that I never eat there). I was just noting that I’m not without pizza options but still go standard thin crust party cut.
I wasnt specifically referencing you–just came up a few times in the posts here.
Al’s Beef was tasty, although I wouldn’t consider myself a convert or anything.
I am currently awaiting the delivery of Lou Malnati’s to my room.
Carry on.