(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The food magazine Bon Appétit has attempted to rank Chicagoland’s eight best Italian beef shops.
Following its search for the best iteration of the classic Chicago sandwich, the magazine settled on familiar chains, a few longtime institutions and one new, fresh restaurant on the Northwest Side.
Of course, trying to narrow down Chicago’s best beef sandwiches to eight sandwiches means there’s a decent chance that many Chicagolanders won’t see their go-to spot on the list. Those included are listed below, included in alphabetical order:
-Al’s Beef
-Budacki’s Drive-In
-Buona Beef
-Johnnie’s Beef
-Kasama
-Odge’s
-Portillo’s
-Scatchell’s
2022 was a big year for the Italian beef sandwich, thanks to the success of TV show “The Bear,” which is centered around a gourmet chef who returns to Chicago to run his family’s beef stand.
After the show’s release, data from Google Trends showed that searches for Italian beef sandwiches nearly doubled. Izzy Kharasch, the president of Chicago’s Hospitality Works, told WBBM that the show was inspiring many around the country to imitate and serve their own beef sandwiches.
The exact details of how the sandwich was created isn’t exactly clear. The general story, though, is that Italian beef sandwiches became popular dishes at weddings and big family gatherings for Italian immigrants in Chicago during the early 1900s, as it became a cost-effective way to feed large numbers of people.
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