Cheap Eats: Tony's Chicago Beef

It’s lunchtime, mid-week, and Eating Companion (EC) and I are hitting the rough pavement of Gulf Gate, looking for Tony’s Chicago Beef, hoping to get our mitts on some proper dipped beefs and a Knuckle Sandwich, which a friend has hyped for ages.

The place is owned by Chicagoan Tony Chand, who also owns Sarasota Brewing Company. Our friend is a Windy City transplant from way back, a lifetime member of the Die-Hard Cub Fan Club (in 2003 he literally ripped his television of the wall when they gave up the ghost in the NLCS, after being up 3-1 in the series), and a connoisseur of Italian beefs and other signature dishes of his favorite city in the states.

Tony’s sits along the ever evolving strip of Gulf Gate’s Superior Avenue, just a few doors down from a personal favorite, the Queen Anne. Inside you’ll find a bunch of locals bellied up to the bar, chatting up the staff as they navigate around one another in the open kitchen. Some seriously awesome Cubbies and Bulls memorabilia (not to mention da Bears and Sox) covers the walls, including a close-to-life-size cardboard cutout of Jordan doing his trademark dunk. The place feels great.

We take a peak at the menu – a bunch of hit dog and burger options, traditional Italian beef sandwiches, sausages, and more – though our friend is already at the counter ordering. We decide on a bacon burger ($3.89); a Maxwell Street-Style Pork Chop Sandwich ($5.69); a Knuckle Sandwich (salami, roast beef, turkey, ham, and Swiss, $4.99); a Walnut Room Salad ($4.99); a Chicago Fire Dog ($3.25, with fries); and of course an Italian beef, dipped, hot and sweet.

We grab seats at one of the four-tops and settle in. The sandwiches come out as they are finished, which is fine with us as we’re all more than fine with sharing, but it might make for awkward dates.

The beef is a messy, sloppy delight, the gluten-heavy bread barely holding up to the submersion. Our Windy City guide is trying to explain the Chicago lean, the only way to eat one of these things and not end up with jus all over your chest and lap. Due to the urgency required to get the sandwich from the plate to your mouth, all of us take massive bites, failing to realize the the hot giardinera peppers are, well, really hot, leaving all of us watery-eyed, hurting. It packs a punch.

The bacon burger is superb, char-gilled medium-rare, the bacon crispy, one of the better sub-$4 burgers I have ever had.

The Maxwell Street sammy is a wholly different thing, the massive pork chop cooked fairly well-done, a little tough and chewy, but my goodness the flavor! Smoky and rich and delicious, smothered in mustard and grilled onions.

The Walnut House Salad is surprisingly generous in size, a pile of mixed field greens with a confetti of blue cheese crumbles and candied pecans, with a syrupy, sweet raspberry vinaigrette dressing that adds a nice zing to the fresh, light, summery salad.

The Knuckle Sandwich is a beast, a stack of four meats, melted cheese, the Italian hoagie grilled nice and crusty. The little thing must weigh a pound and a half.

We finish up with the Chicago Fire Dog, which after the other sandwiches is a little boring, despite being buried “wit the works and giardinera.” The fries are a little limp, but seem fresh-cut, lightly salted.

We’re stoked on Tony’s, a true hole-in-the-wall diner we’ll be stoping by regularly. We’ll be back for a Belushi Burger and the chili cheese fries, which we’ve been promised are worth the visit alone.