Chow Down Chicago: Good Eats from the Windy City

Chicago-based fast food chain Portillo's is known for its Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, and, somewhat unexpectedly, its chocolate cake. While it's not exactly typical fast food fare, Portillo's chocolate cake has garnered a devoted following. But what makes the cake so popular? According to the book Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts , Portillo’s uses a well-known brand of cake mix plus mayonnaise. Many copycat recipes for this cake posted on the internet also use these same ingredients, so the secret is out.  Portillo's got its start i n 1963 when Dick Portillo opened a fast food stand in Villa Park out of a small trailer he named "The Dog House." The trailer didn't have a bathroom and got its running water from a garden hose hooked up to a neighboring building. Today there are more than 70 Portillo’s locations across Chicagoland and the U.S., none of them in trailers. Portillo’s added chocolate cake to its menu during its earl...

Most people think of Chicago-style pizza as deep-dish, but that’s not the only game in town. While deep-dish pizza is popular with tourists, thin-crust pizza is what Chicagoans are more likely to eat regularly. According to WBEZ, thin-crust pizza orders outnumber deep-dish and stuffed pizza orders 10 to 1 in this city. And tavern-style is Chicago’s signature thin-crust pizza. My sister Jane calls tavern-style “the pizza of my childhood memories.” For many of us Chicagoans, this is the pizza we grew up on. So what makes a Chicago tavern-style pizza? The crust is cracker-thin, the toppings go under the cheese, the sauce and cheese go all the way to edge of the crust, and, perhaps most importantly, the pizza is cut into squares. It's called "tavern-style" because of the many taverns across the city that served this style of pizza starting in the late 1940s. The cracker-thin crust makes the pizza easy to eat as a bar snack. The toppings go under the cheese to prevent them fr...

There’s no question that deep-dish pizza is one of Chicago's most iconic foods, loved by tourists and locals alike. But who exactly invented it? It turns out the details are a bit murky. Let's begin with what we do know. The first establishment to serve deep-dish pizza was a place simply called The Pizzeria that opened in 1943 on the corner of Ohio and Wabash. The restaurant would later be known as Pizzeria Uno and is now known as Uno Pizzeria and Grill. What we don’t know is who exactly perfected the recipe for deep-dish pizza. The Pizzeria's owner Ike Sewell and his business partner Ric Riccardo are commonly credited with inventing the dish, but we don’t know for sure if they actually got their hands dirty in the kitchen. Adolpho “Rudy” Malnati Sr., who was manager of The Pizzeria, his son Lou, who worked as a bartender there, and Alice May Redmond, a cook at the establishment, are other possibilities. But whoever invented it, folks loved it, and Chicago pizzerias have ...

There are many reasons to love Cracker Jack: its addictive sweet-and-salty flavor combination, its association with America’s favorite pastime as immortalized in the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” or the prizes hidden inside the boxes are just a few. This all-American snack was invented in Chicago and debuted at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Here’s the story of how Cracker Jack came to be the snack we know and love today. German immigrant Frederick Rueckheim got his start in the snack food business selling popcorn out of a street cart on Fourth Avenue in 1872. He became so successful that he brought his brother Louis over from Germany to help out. The two then perfected a recipe consisting of popcorn, peanuts, and molasses. In the 1880s, the company operated out of a plant on South Clinton Street. The popcorn creation was first mass-produced and sold at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was originally known as “Candied Popcorn and Peanuts.” The story goes that this confection...

While Hershey’s chocolate is closely associated with Pennsylvania, it has some unexpected ties to Chicago. Milton Hershey got his start with an apprenticeship to a confectioner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1873. After the apprenticeship, he opened a candy shop in Chicago. Unfortunately, the business venture failed, as did  candy shops Hershey also opened in Philadelphia and New York City. In 1883, Hershey returned to Pennsylvania and founded the Lancaster Caramel Company. But it was while attending the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago when Hershey decided to go into the chocolate business. German-made chocolate processing machinery was on display at the fair. After seeing a demonstration of how it turned bitter raw chocolate into sweet milk chocolate, Hershey was sold. He purchased the machinery, had it shipped to Pennsylvania, and founded the Hershey Chocolate Company the following year.  In 1900, Hershey began manufacturing the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar. At ...

"Chicago mix" popcorn is the unlikely but surprisingly addictive combination of cheese popcorn and caramel corn. This perfect combination of sweet and salty makes it an irresistible snack. "Chicago mix"  popcorn originated at Garrett Popcorn, the city's most beloved popcorn-maker.   Garrett Popcorn Shops grew out of a Milwaukee-based family's competition to create the best caramel corn. Once the recipe was perfected, the first Garrett shop opened in Chicago's Loop at Madison and State in 1949. The family-run business soon added cheese popcorn to their offerings.  By the 1970s, it was common for customers to buy a bag of caramel corn and a bag of cheese popcorn and then ask for an extra empty bag to mix the two together. This tasty creation that marries sweet and savory flavors was nicknamed the "Chicago mix." Garrett took the cue from customers and started selling "Chicago mix" popcorn. In 2014, the company changed the name of its pop...

Chicago has many ties to the chocolate industry, making it a chocolatey town. Chicago's special relationship with chocolate can be traced back as far as the Columbian Exposition of 1893, which featured a chocolate pavilion, a cocoa mill, a 38-ft. chocolate statue, and German chocolate-processing machines on display. Milton Hershey bought one of these machines and used it to start a successful business you may have heard about. Chicago is also home to Fannie May chocolates, Frango Mints, and the Blommer Chocolate Company. H. Teller Archibald opened the first Fannie May candy shop on LaSalle Street in 1920. By the 1930s, the business grew to nearly 50 stores throughout the Midwest. Fannie May's Pixies, consisting of a winning combination of caramel, pecans, and chocolate, would become its most popular offering. Fannie May shops can still be found throughout the Chicago area.   In 1929, Marshall Field & Company introduced Frango Mints. These mint chocolate truffles were made ...