Issues: July 2021
Doña Cuca Gordita at Carniceria Aguascalientes
For the past four decades, this butcher shop and restaurant has been turning out Chicago’s best gorditas — griddled disks of masa stuffed with meaty fillings. The gorditas here come filled with cheese and beans along with your choice of al pastor, nopalitos (cactus), arrachera (skirt steak), carnitas, or chicken, but the Doña Cuca is what locals … Read more
Pig Face at The Girl & The Goat
The signature dish at Stephanie Izard’s eternally popular first restaurant, which opened in 2010, sounds like one of most the adventurous bites in the city: cheeks, snout, and tongue from a Slagel Family Farms pig seasoned with cilantro, lime, and coriander, rolled up like a porchetta, and braised, sliced, and cooked in a wood oven. … Read more
Chicago Classic at Lou Malnati’s
Chicagoans like to say that we only eat deep dish on special occasions, but you know what? A visit to Lou Malnati’s is a special occasion in itself. The original Lincolnwood location opened 50 years ago, and Lou’s has since spread the Chicago deep-dish gospel to 57 Illinois spots, plus others in Arizona, Wisconsin, and … Read more
Corned Beef Sandwich at Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen
One has to wonder if this beloved Jewish deli’s popularity with Chicago pols has something to do with the heft of its trademark sandwich. After all, there’s no better way to disarm a rival than to corner them while they’re trying to get their mouth around a nine-ounce pile of shaved corned beef. There’s not … Read more
Egg Rolls at Orange Garden
Orange Garden opened in this relaxed North Side enclave in 1926, just as most of Chicago’s nascent Chinese community was moving from the Loop to the South Side neighborhood that would become Chinatown. By most accounts, this is the oldest Chinese restaurant in the city, and it has two things fans can’t get enough of. … Read more
Mustard-Fried Catfish at BJ’s Market & Bakery
John Meyer’s catfish was an instant hit when he introduced it at his first restaurant, the Retreat, in the historic Pullman district. That was 1992, and 30 years later, the catfish is the top seller at BJ’s, his current restaurant. The fish, which comes with a choice of sides like red beans and rice, cornbread … Read more
Mr. G at J.P. Graziano Grocery
While the Graziano family’s deli and grocery may feel incongruous with its flashy West Loop surroundings, the shop, which has been in operation since 1937, has held its own as a lunchtime destination. That’s thanks in part to its signature offering, an intricately layered sub named after the owner’s father. Provolone, soppressata, prosciutto, and Genoa … Read more
Wings With Mild Sauce at Harold’s Wing Shack
Many Black Chicago families with roots in the South claim to hold the key to perfect fried chicken, but Alabama native Harold Pierce thought his family’s recipe was so good that he decided to share it with the world, opening the first Harold’s Chicken Shack, on 47th Street, in 1950. If there’s one must-try order … Read more
Rib Tips and French Fries at Lem’s Bar-B-Q
Sisters Carmen Lemons and Lynn Walker Harvey keep the flames of Chicago-style ’cue alive at the city’s oldest Black-owned barbecue joint. Everything in the aquarium-style cooker gets a gentle bath in hickory smoke, but it’s the pork rib tips that exemplify Chicago’s contribution to the barbecue canon. A study in textures, the rib tip is … Read more