Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [144]
847–432–6550
Highland Park, IL
LD | $
If you are north of the city and in need of a great Chicago hot dog, find Stash’s in Highland Park. It’s not a charming location, located in Port Clinton Square along with a bunch of mall-style businesses, but the red hots and French fries are first rate.
You can have your all-beef frank steamed, but we prefer ours charred, meaning its surface gets crusty all around the edges, while the inside still drips juice. It is pocketed in a fresh Rosen’s brand poppy-seed bun and topped with a choice of nine different condiments, from mustard and relish to hot peppers and celery salt. If you get it “dragged through the garden,” the hot dog itself will be completely eclipsed by long pickle spears, tomato slices, onions, etc. This is a beautiful wiener, and delicious. There are jumbo dogs and Polishes, too, as well as double dogs in a single bun, but it’s our opinion that one of Stash’s normal dogs, garnished with a plentiful supply of condiments, is one perfect food.
Beyond hot dogs, Stash’s has a vast menu that includes a pasta bar from which the management will create whatever sort of dish you want from ten kinds of noodles, six different sauces, and all sorts of vegetable and cheese toppings. In addition, there are hamburgers, beef sandwiches, gyros, wraps, pockets, and quesadillas. We’ve never tried any of these things, but we do have one other important recommendation to make: French fries. With a Stash’s dog, they are essential. These are four-star potatoes with a creamy center and crunchy edge. Cheddar cheese is available as a topping, but in this case, all we want is a sprinkle of salt.
Superdawg
6363 N. Milwaukee Ave.
773–763–0660
Chicago, IL
LD | $
In the Windy City, all-beef hot dogs rule, and Superdawg serves some of the finest: taut-skinned tube steaks in steamed-soft buns, available with the complete panoply of condiments. Everything at Superdawg really is super, including crisp-edged Superfries, Superonion chips, Superburgers, Supershakes, and Whoopskidogs (the house name for a Polish sausage).
You’ll have no trouble spotting Superdawg as you approach along Milwaukee Avenue: a pair of ten-foot statues of a male and female wiener (Flaurie and Maurie) wear leopard-skin togas and stand high atop the roof, winking electrically. Opened in 1948, this Roadfood landmark still features the once-modern “Suddenserver” automated order system and serves its dogs in cardboard boxes that announce, “Your Superdawg lounges inside contentedly cushioned in Superfries, comfortably attired in mustard, relish, onion, pickle, and hot pepper.”
Tempo Café
6 East Chestnut St.
312–943–4373
Chicago, IL
Always open | $
Open all the time and just a short walk from upscale Michigan Avenue, aka the Magnificent Mile, Tempo Café is a haven for cops, night-beat reporters, and people who have nowhere else to go when the bars close. Specialty of the house is the egg skillet omelet, served in its own metal pan. Variations include the Michigan (which includes Cheddar cheese and diced apples), the State Street (broccoli, ham, mushrooms, tomato), and the Jamaican (banana, walnut, honey). The eggs are presented atop a bed of crunchy fried potato disks and accompanied by thick slabs of sesame-dotted toast with a globe of sweet butter and a ramekin of house-made, fine-cut marmalade. Before breakfast is served, everybody gets a single pitted prune and a wedge of orange. Corned beef hash is terrific, too. Coffee cups are constantly refilled, and the caffeine menu includes latte and cappuccino.
Twin Anchors
1655 N. Sedgwick St.
312–266–1616
Chicago, IL
D | $$
Pop culture devotees know Twin Anchors for two big reasons: it was a favorite hangout of Frank Sinatra when he came to the toddlin’ town, and it was transformed into O’Reilly’s Italian Restaurant for the Bonnie Hunt melodrama Return to Me.
Foodies know it for just one reason: ribs. Here are the best baby back ribs in a city obsessed with rib excellence. They are succulent beyond description, tender enough that teeth