So I started watching The Bear recently, and watching that show made me really want a Chicago style Italian beef sandwich. The only problem is that I live in California. But there is a local chain in my area called Chicago Fire; they’re primarily a pizza place but they do have an Italian beef sandwich on the menu. So today I ordered one from them for lunch.
Now I am not from Chicago, but I have had a couple of Italian beefs when I was visiting there, so I think I have at least a basic idea as to what they should be like. And this one I got from a supposed “Chicago style” restaurant in California was a big disappointment.
My biggest beef (pun intended) is the the sandwich was way too dry. I didn’t order it “dipped”, where they dunk the whole sandwich in au jus, but I didn’t order it “dry” either (my understanding is that those are the two major modifications one can make in Chicago). The ones I had in Chicago were wet and juicy by default. Now this one did come with a cup of au jus on the side, which also seemed very un-Chicagoan, and dunking it in that did help, but I shouldn’t have to.
They went way too light on the beef. The ones I ate in Chicago were packed to the bursting point with wet, juicy, slices of beef. This one was puny by comparison.
A minor quibble, but apparently their version comes with cheese by default, based on the fact that I had to check the “no cheese” option on their online menu. My understanding is that in Chicago a standard Italian beef does not come with cheese, although it can be added by request.
I guess I mainly started this thread to review the sandwich I had for lunch today, which in my opinion was basically a French dip with peppers on it, not a real Italian beef. But feel free to share any similar experiences you’ve had.
My happy experience is just the opposite. I grew up in New Jersey, where the state breakfast sandwich is taylorhameggandcheeseonahardrollsaltpepperketchup (as verbally ordered.) For the uninitiated, that’s a Talyor Ham (brand of pork roll, similar-ish to bologna, but much better), with a fried egg, American cheese, on a hard (kaiser) roll, with salt, pepper and ketchup.
I moved to a small town outside Charlotte, NC in 2004. There are a lot of transplants here from the NY/NJ/PA area. About 10 years ago some of these transplanted heroes opened a breakfast/lunch joint and put the “Jersey Sandwich” on the menu. Hot damn but is it reproduced with love and hash browns.
I couldn’t, in around 1978. Place was full of fancy cheese shops. They all claimed to have sharp cheddar. All of it was mild; at best, edging towards medium.
Our local supermarket had a food court that served a “Chicago Hot Dog.”
Now a Chicago Hot Dog is a specific recipe. It’s an all-beef hot dog with yellow mustard, chopped onions, sweet pickle relish (fresh), a dill pickle spear, tomato, sport peppers, and celery salt on a poppy seed bun.
This got most of it wrong:
A regular hot dog (pork and chicken)
Yellow mustard (OK)
Chopped onions (OK)
Pickle relish (Mt. Olive – the world’s worst pickle – from a jar. Not the bright green ones the recipe calls for)
Pickle spear (Mt. Olive from a jar)
Tomato
Banana peppers (they probably didn’t carry sport peppers, if Mt. Olive didn’t make them)
No celery salt
Regular hot dog bun – no poppy seeds.
My dad, native to Brooklyn, never acknowledged any pizza outside the boroughs of New York City as actual pizza. He’d always call it “pizza-like product” - in fact, he once brought a full NY pizza back from a business trip in his checked luggage (to Los Angeles).
I am a little more generous - as there are some NY pizza I have had out west that are just fine. They are not the same as NYC, but who cares - a good bite is just a good bite.
Philly guy here. Do NOT order a “Philly Cheesesteak” well outside of the Philadelphia environs. It will have beef and some kind of bread, but the resemblance will break down at that point.
We have a pizza place here in town that claims to be New York style, but every time I’ve gotten a pizza or calzone from them, the crust is always soggy. I don’t know that I’ve ever had authentic New York style pizza, but I’m pretty sure that’s not it.
Speaking of NY style pizza, a coworker was in Kansas City, and saw a business that offered “real NYC style pizza”. Since he was from there, he thought, great!
He got it, and it was nothing like NY pizza. So he complained to the owner. The owner’s response? “If you want NY pizza, go to focking NY!”
Well, I guess at least that detail of NYC was authentic!
I once went a pizza shop in PA, run by a friend of a friend who originally came from Brooklyn with a group of people from NYC. He told us we wouldn’t like the pizza , but some ordered it anyway. He was right- they didn’t like it. I really believe it’s the water that makes bagels and pizza so different outside of the NYC area.
Oh gawd yes. Okay AZ, NM etc can have some decent mexican food, but…
I was going to Walt Disney World one year and talking about all the great food they have in Epcot. One person asked me if i was gonna try the mexican pavilions food. I said-“I live in SoCal. Do you know what they call mexican food here? Food.” (To be fair, I have heard on oth the three places has excellent Mexico City style food, but rather poor service by Disney standards).
I was consulting in Birmingham for a while. I noticed something- in most of America you see burger stands/places (in SoCal it’s Tacos), but there it was “Q”= short for BBQ, and damn good BBQ at that. I do miss the Q.
Yep. But in the deli aisle or a gourmet place, not in the dairy aisle. There the best is Kraft aged white cheddar which is passable but not that shape.
Would you really miss that? Pink does have a real Chicago style dog.
There is/was a pretty damn good pizza by the slice place there on Hollywood blvd that a native New Yorker said was 'damn close, but not quite"- he ordered a second slice anyway.
Recently on another board someone referred to New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles as “America’s iconic pizza cities” (Although I have no idea what’s supposedly iconic about pizza in Los Angeles). The thread was immediately hijacked by Europeans asserting that Naples, Italy is the world’s only iconic pizza city, and the stuff we call pizza in the US shouldn’t even be allowed to be called pizza.
Similarly, you can’t get a real Chicago style pizza in California, where I live. My wife is from Chicago, and every time we go back we bring back a few.
