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.
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.
4 editor picks for Chicago hot dog in Chicago, ranked by editorial score. All Chicago signature dishes · Chicago hot dog across every city.
Gene & Jude's ★ 4.5
river-grove · 2720 N River Rd, River Grove, IL 60171
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.
Superdawg Drive-In ★ 4.3
norwood-park · 6363 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60646
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.
The Wieners Circle ★ 4.2
lincoln-park · 2622 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614
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.
Portillo's Hot Dogs ★ 4.2
river-north · 100 W Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60610
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.