Chicago Italian Beef Recipe

If I ever find myself in a position to request a last meal, Chicago Italian Beef would probably get the nod with a side of pepperoni pizza. We were fortunate to have an outstanding little joint (Matty's and then Murph's) serving Italian Beef about a block away from where I grew up on the NW Side of Chicago. It was a treat to get an Italian Beef with fries as a kid. It was also a big deal to go alone with 50 cents and leave with "Gravy Bread" wrapped in aluminum foil. As I got older and eventually moved to the SW suburbs, we found other places with excellent Italian Beef sandwiches. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a bad Italian Beef in the Chicagoland area. 

Eventually, we found Portillo's and they became our "go to" because they have many locations in the Chicago area. We moved to Florida in late 1999 and would always have at least one Italian Beef whenever we returned to visit family. After a couple of years a little south of Daytona Beach, we relocated to Jacksonville and quickly found Caddyshack, an establishment a half hour away, owned by Bill Murray and his brothers. They would fly Italian Beef from Chicago down every day. We would still try to have an Italian Beef whenever we returned to Chicago, but it was less of a priority.

We moved to Northern California four years ago and have yet to find a good Italian Beef place. I take that back, we did have a great sandwich from a food truck shortly after moving, but we forgot the name and have never seen the truck again. It was a husband and wife from Chicago who owned the business. We've had some horrible Italian Beef from a few places, even after they assure me it's "authentic" Chicago.

So, after five weeks of being locked down inside our house while watching family and friends post pictures of food, several made their own Italian Beef and a few who went to Portillo's, I decided it was time to attempt to make our own.

Chicago "Grub"

Taco Burrito King

Harlem & the Kennedy

Chicago, IL

April 2018

Lisa and the girls recently joined me on my business trip to Chicago to visit with Grandma. Laurel had heard food referred to as "grub" several times on this trip and she didn't understand the meaning. I'm not sure if it's a Chicago or Midwest thing, but I tried to explain it to her. On our last day, we were stopping by Grandma's one last time before catching our flight and as we drove by Taco Burrito King, Laurel asked if they had Chicago Grub. When I answered, "It looks like they would," Laurel asked if we could stop for some food. 

Lisa and Kellisa weren't hungry and I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity for a promising meal, so we dropped Lisa and Kellisa off while Laurel and I went back for some grub. Right away, Laurel thought it was odd that we entered the restaurant from an alley. In fact, the idea of an alley was foreign to her and she was disturbed by the garbage and smell. Anyway, I ordered a burrito bowl (which was amazing) and Laurel got a burrito. We didn't want to leave Evie in the car while we ate, so we carried our food back to the car. That's when Laurel saw a Rat Warning Sign on a telephone pole. She lost her appetite and was convinced that her burrito had rat meat in it instead of chicken. I assured her that while rats were common in Chicago alleys, her burrito was indeed filled with chicken. Laurel believed me once she took her first bite and proceeded to devour her burrito. Even though this wasn't Laurel's first Chicago Grub meal, it was her first lesson and as her teacher, I would rate the entire meal experience A+.

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Chicago Blizzard of 1999

Chicago O'Hare received 21.6 inches of snow between January 2 and January 4, 1999. 

I remember it well. I flew from O'Hare early (before the snow) on the 2nd to Orlando, FL to interview for the job that would eventually move us to Florida. It was hard to enjoy the palm trees and 80 degree sunshine because I was worried about the blizzard since I left Lisa home alone and we had known she was pregnant for about 30 hours. Thankfully, Lisa was able to stay home during the blizzard.

Even though thousands of flights in and out of Chicago were cancelled, I somehow made it home on the 4th. Not thinking ahead, I had parked my little Eclipse in an outdoor lot at O'Hare. When I got off the shuttle bus, all I could see was a massive expanse of white humps. I had a general idea of where I parked, but knew it would be a monumental task to find it. I started walking through the deep snow when I noticed that people were digging down to licence plates to identify the cars. With the wind and new snow, even once cleared plates needed to be dug out again.

It took nearly 90 minutes to find my car and another 2 hours to dig it out enough by hand to be able to leave the parking spot. Did I mention the temperature outside was -20 degrees and this was before cell phones were wide spread (I didn't have one), so Lisa was sitting at home with no way of knowing what was going on.

I eventually made it home, but had to leave my car parked in the street as I had to shovel our driveway which included a pile about 6 feet high where the plows moved the street snow to the edge of the driveway.

Before I left Florida, I had a job offer to bring home to Lisa. The offer allowed me to start the job in Chicago and move to Florida shortly after the baby was born (we didn't know Lisa was carrying twins at the time). We did not hesitate to accept the offer and I can't help but think the blizzard had some influence on our decision.

Fun Fact: Almost 11 years later, Kellisa and I would find ourselves in the middle of the historic Mid-Atlantic Blizzard of 2009.

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