Italian Beef. Texas meets Chicago at ChiTown

We’ve been meaning to go in ever since they opened several months ago near our neighborhood.  It took a GroupOn to finally get us there.  Next time I won’t mind paying full price.

I grew up in a small town about 60 miles west of Chicago.  A suburb, you ask?  Hardly.  Cornfields and flatland hillbillies.  But a great place to spend a childhood nonetheless.  One of my favorite things growing up, which is the one thing we always have at least once (or maybe multiple times), each time I return home is Italian Beef.  I’ve even got my husband hooked on it.  I think he likes it even more than I do.  And we’ve got a phenomenal place to get it in my hometown.  Admittedly, I have not been to Mr. Beef or Al’s in Chicago.  And sure, you can go to a Portillo’s or even a local family restaurant near Chicago to get an Italian beef sandwich, but the house made stuff at Art’s Supermarket in Sandwich, IL is tough to beat. 

So I had pretty high standards going in.  Our friend from Chicago said ChiTown had a good “Polish”, so I was looking forward to that too, but the Italian Beef is what I really wanted.  It’s tough to find around here.  Lucky Dog did it for a while, until they went out of business (or at least the location near me did).  And there is a trailer on South Lamar that is doing a fine job with beef and dogs, but a place near my house would be pretty cool.  I hope they are good!

ChiTown is located in a little shack off 620 out near Lakeway.  It’s got a walk up counter with the menu up on the wall.  Tough to read unless you get close.  I’d have like to seen a printed menu copy to look at while you are in line, but whatever.  I snuck up behind the other folks ordering so I could see.  My eyes went right to the Italian beef section.  Kudos to them that they explain how to order an Italian beef.  Hot = spicy peppers.  Sweet = sweet peppers.  Wet = dipped in “gravy” (au jus).  You also have the option of adding cheese.  They offered a couple kinds of cheese, but this sandwich should really just have mozzarella.  So I ordered it the way they recommended, which is also the way I like it anyway – hot, sweet, and wet, with moz. 

I was curious to try their Polish sausage, based on our friend’s recommendation.  I suggested my husband get the Maxwell Street Spicy Polish.  A Polish sausage with onions, peppers, and mustard on a poppy bun.  For our last item, I got girly and ordered a Greek salad to share.  Yeah yeah, normally I’d have gotten something fried and cheesy, but I was just coming off a ten day food binge and was trying to moderate.  The guy looked at me a little funny when I asked him if the salad was any good.  Basically he said, this is a dog place…  But he agreed that if I wanted something green, that one was the way to go. 

So we grabbed our plastic forks and Styrofoam cups of water and waited for our food. SportsCenter was on but muted, and some horrible random station was on in the background.  Something about the acoustics made every song sound off key.  But food arrived quickly so all was well.  We were also amused by the furry dog that was sitting at the another table inside.  Heck if I can bring my dog in, I’ll definitely be back. 

The Italian beef was good and wet and covered with peppers.  My only complaint was about the assembly – and I think this is true most places – is that the beef and peppers are layered in a way that make it impossible to get a good bite of both at the same time.  But a little poking with my fork and I maneuvered the perfect bite.  The first thing you taste are the peppers.  Nice balance of hot and sweet.  Enough spice to warm your mouth up, but not too hot.  The peppers are a flavorful and necessary accompaniment to a good Italian beef, but here it did overwhelm the flavor of the meat a bit. The beef was nice and peppery and sliced thin enough, but wasn’t the standout of the sandwich.  The bun had plenty of juice, but in my opinion was a little spongy.  I prefer a Kaiser roll with a harder shell to it to hold in the juices.  This bun started to split on the seam after a few bites, but otherwise held up relatively well throughout the sandwich.   Overall a success.  Just not Art’s Supermarket. 

The Polish sausage was underwhelming.  It was small, the toppings were a bit limited, and it was over sauced with yellow mustard.  Admittedly I’m not a mustard fan generally so I’m not really one to talk, but I appreciate it occasionally when warranted.  Here a little would have been good, but it drowned out the yummy onions on top.  Also, not sure why they called it “spicy”.  Nothing spicy about this.  So eh, it was OK.  Probably should have gotten a dog instead.  There was a bacon-wrapped dog on the menu I’m definitely trying next time. 

The Greek salad was actually quite good.  Combination of romaine and iceberg lettuce, under-ripe tomato slices, cucumber, mild red onion, pitted black olives, and feta.  I don’t know how they get Greek dressing to be that hot pink color, but it was tasty.  They also served a side of the giardiniera peppers.  Not sure how they go with a Greek salad, but they were good and perfect to top off the rest of the beef and dog. 

Overall, ChiTown is doing a respectable job.  I’m going to have to go back and pit them against Chris’s Little Chicago trailer on South Lamar before I can make a final call.  Chris’s dogs and beef were really good and the first ones I’d had in Texas.  I think he might have the edge, but for 10 minutes from home, I won’t Chi away from ChiTown.  (Did I just write that?  Chi away?  Ugh, sorry!)