Dough and glory: The history of Chicago’s most iconic dishes

In Chicago, three culinary legends were born from wartime necessity and immigrant ingenuity: the cheese-packed deep-dish pizza, the jus-soaked Italian beef sandwich from the city’s stockyards, and the Chicago-style hot dog. Let’s dig into this delicious history.

Deep-dish pizza

Chicago’s now-ubiquitous deep-dish pizza traces its roots back to World War II. According to the Chicago History Museum, restaurateur Ric Riccardo partnered with liquor salesman Ike Sewell and his socially connected wife, Florence, to open Pizzeria Uno on Wabash Avenue near Ohio Street in the fall of 1943. 

Earlier still, Chicagoans had encountered pizza in late 19th-century bakeries, where it was served in sheets or small rolls and around Italian family tables on Taylor Street and the Near South Side; this occurred after the dish first emerged in Naples in 1889, when Raffaele Esposito created the “Pizza Margherita” for King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Italy, says the Chicago History Museum. 

At Uno, soldiers returning from World War II, many of whom had tasted pizza along Italy’s coast, embraced the new style, drawn by its signature hallmarks: a thick, sweet pastry-shell crust loaded with generous layers of cheese, baked in pans dusted with cornmeal at 600 °F for fifty to sixty minutes, and finished with ample tomato sauce poured atop the cheese to protect it from the intense heat, the Chicago History Museum details.

“The original pizzas were not that thick,” said Steve Dolinsky, founder of Pizza City Tours, Podcast & Fest, in an interview with Chicago Star. “That increase in girth came later, in the 60s, thanks to their cook, Alice May Redmond.”

Lou Malnati, Riccardo’s associate manager, helped refine the recipe, and bolstered by enthusiastic newspaper reviews and patron word-of-mouth, Sewell soon opened Pizzeria Due. By mid-century, the “Chicago style” had spread citywide and beyond, establishing a culinary legacy that remains a point of pride for both locals and visitors, as outlined by the Chicago History Museum.

“There were only three deep-dish places in Chicago from 1943 to 1971,” Dolinsky said. “Then, in ’71, the floodgates opened, and many people started including it on their menus.” 

Italian beef sandwich

Chicago’s Italian beef sandwich emerged from the city’s massive stockyards, where Italian immigrants gained access to inexpensive, tougher cuts of beef that they braised at home to tenderize the meat before layering it onto slices of crusty bread. Early home cooks discovered that thinly slicing the braised beef and immersing it in its rich cooking juices not only stretched precious ingredients but also infused each sandwich with deep, savory flavor, according to Red Sauce America. 

The same article talks about how what began as a simple sandwich served at common Italian immigrant wedding receptions gradually evolved into a regional staple as cooks added pickled giardiniera for brightness and, later, provolone for creaminess, though cheese remains a nontraditional garnish. In 1925, Pasquale Scala founded Scala Packing Company to supply pre-cooked, thin-sliced beef for these gatherings, paving the way for the commercial distribution of the meat. 

“It’s a three-to-four-day process to make Italian beef,” said Carlo Buonavolanto, chief executive officer at Buona, to Eater. “You marinate it, then you cook it, then you chill it, slice it, and you make the perfect sandwich.”

Meanwhile, truck driver Anthony Ferreri, inspired by a peanut wedding, launched a mobile sandwich business using his thin-sliced beef and jus to maximize volume, selling from his delivery truck before opening Al’s Bar B-Q in 1938 with relatives Frances Ferreri and Chris Pacelli. Renamed Al’s #1 Italian Beef in 1980 after Chicago Magazine crowned it the city’s top sandwich, Al’s remains the only prewar shop still operating, says the Red Sauce of America. 

Al's #1 Italian Beef website says, “Al’s has shared its passion for Italian Beef sandwiches with Chicago and the rest of the world, serving the same great food that it did when it began its original operation over 80 years ago today. ”

Postwar, returning soldiers and curious locals embraced the hearty, juice-soaked sandwich, effectively inventing the modern Italian beef. By the 1950s, newspaper archives began chronicling the sandwich’s rise, and numerous establishments from The Patio (1948) to Johnnie’s Beef (1961) shifted focus to perfecting their versions, says Red Sauce America. 

Chicago-style hotdog

The Chicago-style hot dog is a monument to the city’s immigrant roots. Though street vendors sold simple frankfurters with mustard and pickles at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, it wasn’t until successive waves of German, Polish, Italian, and Greek newcomers flooded Chicago’s working-class neighborhoods that the dog blossomed into the fully dressed icon it is today, according to UChicago. 

By the 1920s, Maxwell Street on the West Side had become a multicultural hub where Jewish, Italian, Greek, and Polish vendors hawked their versions of the sandwich; each new topping reflected a community’s heritage, reported by UChicago. 

The poppy-seed bun, credited to Polish bakers from Germany, cradles a steamed all-beef frankfurter introduced by Jewish immigrants. Onions and tomato wedges speak to Italian and Greek traditions, while bright-green relish and the sport peppers that give the dog its signature heat trace back to both Mediterranean and Southern U.S. influences. 

Vendors layered these ingredients not only for flavor but as a nod to nutrition and novelty during the Depression era, stretching protein and vegetables into one convenient hand-held meal, according to UChicago.

Today, the Chicago-style hot dog stands as a delicious emblem of the city’s history of migration, innovation, and communal gathering, each bite a reminder of the many hands and cultures that shaped it.