It took “The Bear” to popularize the Italian beef, one of Chicago’s most iconic dishes, but now that it has, the floodgates have opened. The world knows just how comforting, flavorful and craveable the city’s cuisine can be.
There’s the razor-thin-sliced beef nestled against hot giardiniera in an Italian beef — the sandwich that Carmy, Sydney, Richie, Tina, Marcus and others serve on the hit FX dramedy, which just released its third season. Then there are the acidic pops of sport peppers and pickle spears in a celery-salt-dusted Chicago dog, neon with green relish and brightened by onions and tomatoes. Rich, gooey deep-dish pizzas are so hefty that the takeout boxes could be used as free weights, while the thinner tavern-style pies — cut into squares for easy sharing — make for an ideal communal meal. While some of these items are more difficult to find in L.A., they can be found flourishing if you know where to look.
“I think the show kind of put that [Italian beef] on the map and let everybody know about it, that it’s a delicacy,” said John Grondorf, who operates Tiny’s Hi-Dive: a “high-class dive bar” and his ode to Chicago. “But also, there’s a lot of Midwesterners and Chicagoans that live in Los Angeles. They came out in full force [when we opened]. We don’t have just Chicagoans; there are people from Wisconsin, Michigan — they’re all coming because they want a taste of home, and we try to give them a little bit of that.”
To the casual observer these dishes might appear simple: roast some beef, throw it on a roll with some giardiniera, or slide a hot dog into a bun with some relish and pickle — but the devil’s in the details. How thinly are they slicing the beef? Is it cooked in the jus? How hefty and pillowy is the bread? What brand of relish and giardiniera is that? How wet is the sandwich, and do I get a choice? Where’s the celery salt? Is the hot dog bun steamed, or not?
These can make all the difference to native Midwesterners and the discerning palate.
“Chicagoans are fanatically protective of their foods,” former L.A. Times Food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson once wrote, adding, “We Chicagoans hear what you say about us and our food. We hear every little gibe and good-natured insult.”
Chicagoan Courtney Storer, the culinary producer of “The Bear,” worked tirelessly to nail the recipes used for the show and continues to make the occasional Italian beef around L.A. through her pop-up, Coco’s To Go-Go. She’ll be popping up with legendary Chicago beef shop Mr. Beef — which helped inspire “The Bear” — this weekend. You’ll be able to find Mr. Beef’s iconic Italian beef sandwiches at the West Third Street location of Uncle Paulie’s Deli on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with no preorders and no online orders. “Old school,” said Uncle Paulie’s co-founder Paulie James.
If you can’t make it to this weekend’s pop-up, there are a fortunate number of L.A. and Orange County restaurateurs and bar owners — be they from Chicago or simply devotees of the cuisine — who pay attention to the intricacies. And because this is L.A., it’s also possible to find gluten-free tavern-style pies and vegan Chicago dogs. Here are 13 spots to find a taste of the Windy City’s specialties across our own city, with pizza puffs, gravy bread and Malört included.