Is Johnnie's Beef in Arlington Heights Closing?
If you think Chicagoland politics are a contentious topic, try debating which restaurant serves up the all-time Italian Beefiness Sandwich in the "City of Big Shoulders." Opinions don't necessarily vary that widely equally there are just a handful of restaurants which have truly distinguished themselves in the training of this Chicago staple. Information technology's in the intensity of the debate with which you might exist surprised. Each of the anointed restaurants has its vocal supporters and each has its detractors and some in either party won't hesitate to explain (with fisticuffs if necessary) why their choice is the best and yours is not.
In 2009, the Travel Aqueduct's "Food Wars" program pitted two of Chicago's most famous culinary rivals confronting one another in a showdown designed to settle the debate equally to which makes the best Italian Beef sandwich in boondocks. The ii heated rivals were Al's Beefiness and Mr. Beef, two inner metropolis institutions which have been serving upward some of the urban center's very all-time Italian beef sandwiches for generations. In 2010, the Food Network'south Food Feuds, a prove with a similar concept also vied to settle the score betwixt Al's Beef and Mr. Beef. How wholly unoriginal!
The walls at Mr. Beef are adorned prominently with photographs of the glitterati who consider their Italian beef the very best in the city. Tonight Testify host Jay Leno considers Mr. Beef's his very favorite while Roadfood.com founder Michael Stern, a Chicago native, casts his lot for Al's Beef. Both Al'due south Beef and Mr. Beef are very popular choices. They're too very safe choices. They're "in the city" choices with superlative billing on just most every travel guide you lot'll find for Chicago. I've tried both and found them both quite adept, but in my interpretation they're not the very best.
Count me amongst those on the camp which names Johnnie'southward Beef as the restaurant which prepares the best Italian Beef Sandwich in the Chicago area and therefore, the globe. I'one thousand in expert company hither. In the September, 2006 edition of Details mag, Ed Levine, a James Beard honor-winning blogger whose work I greatly admire, wrote an commodity on "22 sandwiches that will change your life." The beefiness and sausage combo from Johnnie'south was on that sectional list of the 22 best sandwiches in America.
The original Johnnie'due south is a mainstay in the Chicago suburb of Elmwood Park where patrons line upwards around the building to partake of this juicy, succulent masterpiece that is simplicity and complexity alike. In 2003, Johnnie'due south Beef opened a second location in Arlington Heights. Since it wouldn't exist Johnnie's without the "mental attitude" they brought their famous counterman who kept things running in production line style, pregnant get your order in and get out of the style. The famous counterman is no longer at the Arlington Heights location, but efficiency notwithstanding reigns.
Aside from the rapidity with which Johnnie's lines motion, the first affair you'll notice is the fragrant bouquet of spices and beef co-mingling in a vat of gravy to class a captivating and enrapturing olfactory property–the perfect prelude to a near perfect sandwich. The prices are very reasonable with a combination sandwich of beef and sausage available for under $6 although information technology does have nearly i and a half sandwiches to actually hit the spot. Y'all tin have your sandwich wet (dipped) or dry, hot (with spicy giardiniera) or sweet or every bit a combination (beef and sausage) or single meat. Any way yous have information technology, you just may swear off always visiting the competition. Johnnie's is only the all-time!
Chicagoans grow up worshipping at high counters on which they prop their elbows equally they consume Italian beef sandwiches–sometimes considering the restaurant has no tables, merely more often than not, considering no matter how conscientious they are, they're bound to spill shards of beef, bits of giardiniera and drippings of spice-laden beef gravy onto their wearable. If information technology'south an outstanding Italian beefiness sandwich, it won't thing. You lot might even wear the spillage with pride, hoping all forth that the olfactory bouquet remains with you.
After perusing through Zagat'south 2003-2004 Chicago restaurant guide where all the all-powerful restaurants seem to be of the high-end, haute cuisine genre and the working form "people'southward choice" restaurants such as Johnnie's didn't warrant a mention, I debated whether my lofty rating was warranted. It took i bite during a subsequent visit to remind me, it is. Johnnie's Italian beef sandwich is one of the best sandwiches in the universe!
The marriage of hamburgers and French fries has nothing on the combination of Italian beefiness sandwiches and French fries, particularly when those Fries are thin-sliced, served steaming hot and with a overnice amount of salt. There'southward nil better to wash down all that delicious saltiness than one of Johnnie's banana or lemon flavored Italian Water ice, which is, what else, amongst the very best I've e'er had. Better still is the watermelon Italian ice which comes with a warning that watermelon seeds might exist found in the frozen delicacy.
The lines outside Johnnie's Beefiness are a testament to just how wonderful this Chicagoland institution is. It's a line I'll gladly stand in regardless of weather.
JOHNNIE'South Beefiness
400 East Golf Route
Arlington Heights, IL
(847) 439-9700
LATEST VISIT: 12 October 2010
# OF VISITS: 4
RATING: 25
Cost: $$
BEST BET: Italian Beef Sandwich; Italian Beef Philharmonic Sandwich; Assistant Italian Water ice; French Fries; Watermelon Italian Ice, Lemon Italian Ice
Source: https://www.nmgastronome.com/?p=38
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