An all-beef Vienna frank on a poppy-seed bun, dragged through the garden: yellow mustard, neon-green relish, chopped onion, tomato, sport peppers, pickle, celery salt.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Vienna Beef has been making the canonical frankfurter in Chicago since 1893, when Austro-Hungarian immigrants Emil Reichel and Sam Ladany debuted theirs at the World's Columbian Exposition. The fully dressed Chicago dog crystallised during the Depression, when Maxwell Street vendors gave you a hot meal of a frank, salad and pickle for a nickel. Ketchup has been banned by unwritten city law for at least sixty years, a rule that locals enforce with both gentle eye-rolling and absolute seriousness; the prohibition was reaffirmed by the late Mayor Richard M. Daley in public on more than one occasion. The poppy-seed bun is from S. Rosen's, the city's other 100-year-old bakery.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. Drag the dog through the garden, do not bury it. The bun should still be visible at the edges.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Superdawg in Chicago is the 1948 Norwood Park drive-in on Milwaukee Avenue, with car-hop service and a pair of giant Superdawg-and-Maurie figurines on the roof.
Signature: Superdawg with everything, Crinkle fries
Order: Superdawg with everything (mustard, relish, onion, sport peppers, pickle, fries inside the box).
Tip: Use the car-hop. It is the same price as the counter and the experience is the point.
The Wieners Circle in Chicago is the Lincoln Park late-night hot dog counter on Clark Street, open since 1983, famous for the staff-and-customer banter past 02:00.
Signature: Char dog, Chocolate milkshake
Order: Char dog with everything; cheese fries on the side. A chocolate milkshake to walk home.
Tip: The shouting is the show. If you are not up for the banter, the daytime queue is exactly the same dog without the audience.
Portillo's in Chicago is the Ontario Street flagship of the chain founded 1963 by Dick Portillo, with Chicago hot dogs, Italian beef and the chocolate cake shake.
Signature: Chicago hot dog, Italian beef sandwich, Chocolate cake shake
Order: A Chicago dog, an Italian beef dipped, a small chocolate cake shake.
Tip: Drive-thru is faster than the counter. The chocolate cake shake is a chocolate shake with a slice of chocolate cake blended into the cup.
Gene & Jude's in River Grove is the 1946 hot-dog stand on River Road, west of Chicago: no ketchup, no tomato, no cheese, no chairs, just dogs, fries and drinks.
Signature: Hot dog with everything (no tomato, no cheese)
Order: Double dog with the works (mustard, relish, onion, sport pepper) and the hand-cut fries.
Tip: Fries are tucked into the same paper as the dog. Eat them off the dog as you go, that is the point of the design.
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