Despite living only five hours from Chicago, its impossible to find any decent Chicago-style hot dogs, sandwiches, or pizza in St Louis. The Uno chain across the street, the closest we had to authentic Chicago deep dish pizza, closed last year.

For Chicago-style hot dogs, Surf Dogs in Chesterfield MO serves a surprisingly accurate Vienna Beef with bright red tomatoes, hot peppers, bright yellow mustard, and a poppy seed bun. However, at $3.29 it seems a bit overpriced, although it isn’t entirely unreasonable considering its weak local competition.

Chicago-style hot dogs are much easier to duplicate than Chicago’s Italian Beef sandwich, a soggy, flavorful blue-collar treat that’s more difficult to execute than it appears. Frustrated with local choices, I boarded Amtrak at 4 AM and headed north to Chicago.

The Italian Beef sandwich begins with a long Italian roll, dense enough to stay together under the weight of soaking wet roast beef, along with sweet or hot Italian peppers and optional Italian sausage.

From Wikipedia:
Italian beef is made using cuts of beef from the sirloin butt or the top/bottom round wet-roasted in broth with garlic, oregano and spices until medium rare or medium. The roast is then cooled, shaved using a deli slicer, and then reintroduced to its reheated beef broth. The beef then sits in the broth, perhaps for hours. Once a sandwich is ordered, the beef is then drawn from the broth and placed directly on the bread . Because the meat is served dripping wet it is necessary to use a chewy bread, as a softer bread would disintegrate. Typical bread used is long, Italian style loaves without seeds sliced from six to eight inches in length.One story has it that the Italian Beef sandwich was started by Italian immigrants who worked for the old Union Stock Yards. They often would bring home some of the tougher, less desirable cuts of beef sold by the company. To make the meat more palatable, it was slow-roasted to make it more tender, then slow-simmered in a spicy broth for flavor. Both the roasting and the broth used Italian-style spices and herbs. The meat was then thinly sliced across the grain and stuffed into fresh Italian bread.Italian beef became popular at Italian weddings, where it was an inexpensive meal for the guests. The women would make large quantities, and then make individual sandwiches which they wrapped in paper and served.

I always order mine “wet”, with extra juices poured on top. The end result is a soggy, indulgent pile of meat that can be eaten with a fork. I add sweet peppers and skip the cheese (not a popular option). If I get a combo with beef and a big piece of Italian sausage, I eat the sausage separately from the sandwich as a finisher.

You should also eat it standing to keep the juices from getting all over your shirt and pants. Most restaurants serving Italian Beef have counters you can stand at, which fits in well with Chicago’s pedestrian-oriented urban culture.

Fast Tube by Casper

Anyhow, here’s how my trip went:

300 miles from St Louis to Chicago Union Station.
The ticket was about $40 round trip. Although I did travel for the sandwich, the other motivating factor was that I had to keep my Amtrak points account active or I’d lose them. I had earned enough since 2005 to buy two cross-country trips.

Not much to see in Illinois. Going there on the train at least allows me to sleep through the vast expanse of nothingness.

Railyard. Amtrak livery. Approaching Union Station.

Ascending the escalator

Daylight! I left around 4:30am and arrived around 10am

I wandered around the city on foot, checking out the buildings and looking at the people. I was dressed in bright yellow with white shoes while everyone else was in a black jacket.

The Sears Tower was renamed “Willis Tower”

I forgot to bring headphones so I picked these up for $14 at Walgreens. I was actually impressed.

I searched for “italian beef” on my phone and meandered over to Al’s, supposedly the first restaurant in Chicago to specifically advertise Italian beef sandwiches in the late 1930s.

Drivers here can be a bit aggressive. Always good to look both ways even if the crosswalk is green.

I ordered an italian beef wet with sweet peppers, a soda, and a Chicago dog with everything.

Stools for sitting high in the dining area. Counters for standing near the entrance.

OH MY GOD THIS IS F***ING AMAZING. The beef is perfectly seasoned. The roll is wet and dripping with juices. The peppers are delightfully sweet and crunchy.
The hot dog was average.

With a full stomach and an intense after-sandwich state of euphoria, I wandered over to Michigan Ave and State Street where I did some shopping.

The only late-model 7-series I’ve ever seen that didn’t make me want to vomit. Must be the wheels.

Headed to Macy’s to buy some shirts.

ORANGE ON SALE!

Millenium Park

This stainless steel jelly bean, known as “Cloud Gate,” was designed by Anish Kapoor. It is intended to simulate the appearance of mercury and offer a distorted view of the city. I must say, its quite clever. The inside looks like a basket.

I look like such a tourist.

Wandered over to Lake Michigan…

…and took a nap by the water.

After an hour or so I woke up and headed back toward the train station. I was due to depart for St Louis at 5pm.

Hungry again, I walked into Luke’s for Italian beef. I forgot that I’d actually eaten here six years ago.

AMAZING. I ordered mine with sausage, which I removed and ate separately. Of the four Italian beef joints I’ve tried, I’d rank them as follows:

1. Portillo’s
2. Luke’s
3. Downtown Dogs
4. Al’s

All are amazing, but Portillo’s and Luke’s use denser rolls and more interesting seasoning.

The menu at Luke’s.

I scarfed it down and if not for other people being around, I’d eat the paper.

The Amtrak station was PACKED.

A newspaper seller was on the corner. I was amused by the quaintness of

1. Newspapers
2. Still being sold on the street
3. By a human being

So I had to buy one. I read a couple articles and put the rest in the trash.

I decided not to upgrade to Amtrak’s Business Class, which includes free soda, a much larger fully reclining chair, and exclusion from the unwashed masses. As a result, I ended up with a drug dealer seated in front of AND behind me.

This fine upstanding citizen seated behind me in the video below openly talked about cooking and selling crystal meth on his cell phone in front of other passengers. The train is, unfortunately, how criminals often travel because of the security issues involved with flying.

Fast Tube by Casper

(Meth talk starts at 3:35)

And seated in front of me was another questionable character, yelling at the top of his lungs at his friend who was apparently broke and unable to meet up with him at the station. He said he recently got out of a halfway house and apparently lived in Granite City IL. I guess he wasn’t concerned about the other passengers overhearing his conversation.

After getting off the phone he yelled “MAN! Some people are STUPID!” [irony] as if anyone around him cared.

I should have paid extra to sit in business class.

10pm, home in St Louis.

The taste of the Italian beef sandwich still lingers in my mind, and I fully intend to take this trip again… and again… and again.