Bentley, take this down if not allowed.  I am hoping it is OK since it is not promoting any business of mine or someone else's peddling their products on here.

With that out of the way, I read an article about a year ago about the best Italian Beef sandwiches in the Chicagoland area and have seen a few TV shows with battles for bragging rights.  So, I decided that I was going to attempt to visit some of these places.

I've been to six places recently and some folks have urged me to start a blog about the sandwiches I have tried.  Well, here it is -Lew's Italian Beef Tour  Looking forward to your comments on the posts in the blog.  Hopefully, it will help some of you out when you travel to the area.

All of those sandwiches look great.

All of those sandwiches look great.

Yes they do and thanks for the tour.

 Most interesting.. The best looking, I thought, were at the top. 

Been to several of those...nice looking pics.  Thanks for sharing!

I plan to hit 2-3 more before the end of October.  Then it will be radio silence until I am back in Chicago again in 2019.

I was able to make it to Portillo's tonight for dinner on the way back to the hotel from a work meeting.  I got a beef and cheddar this time since I have not had one for too many years.  Also, I had a Polish sausage with grilled onions and mustard.  Great dinner!

So some of these place offer the hot peppers, but not the Giardiniera, or is that just the same thing?  And cheese on an Italian Beef from the patio.  Never seen cheese on an IB!

I love Italian beef.  Now that I relocated to Indianapolis, I don't have to travel far to get some.  Heck...we have 3 Portillo's now!

On a side note, I smoked up 2 medium rare top rounds on the Grid Iron over the weekend and cut 'em up super thin for lunch meat.  I decided to heat some up for a hot sandwich, and it was very reminiscent of Italian beef.  I need to do some research and work on a true Italian beef this fall/winter.

So some of these place offer the hot peppers, but not the Giardiniera, or is that just the same thing?  And cheese on an Italian Beef from the patio.  Never seen cheese on an IB!

hot peppers and giardiniera are one and the same in the Chicagoland on an Italian Beef and I get cheese about 50% of the time.  Probably because I am from the land of cheesesteaks

Awesome looking sandwiches!
Thanks for sharing.  Back in the late 70's/early 80's I lived out in the Wheaton/Carol Stream area.  Regret not having sampled places as you show here.  Chicago is noted for lots of good food venues.

Z

It would be cool if some other folks on here did something similar with regional specialties in their area.  I may do the same thing with chicken wings and microbreweries.

It would be cool if some other folks on here did something similar with regional specialties in their area.  I may do the same thing with chicken wings and microbreweries.

I wish I could do something like that, I could offer up a McDonalds tour or a Wendys tour. We just don't have anything that I would consider regional other than BBQ and I truly don't like it enough anymore to do it.
I also am not overly impressed when we do go end up eating it out.

It would be cool if some other folks on here did something similar with regional specialties in their area.  I may do the same thing with chicken wings and microbreweries.

I wish I could do something like that, I could offer up a McDonalds tour or a Wendys tour. We just don't have anything that I would consider regional other than BBQ and I truly don't like it enough anymore to do it.
I also am not overly impressed when we do go end up eating it out.

I thought Kansas had some good steakhouses.

Yeah, Mayberry is not know for any "dishes"...Only been 5 years, so really not enough time, but if we ever do get over to the Chesapeake, might try 2 or 3 crab houses!

I wish I could do something like that...