elakin wrote:Not to be confused, of course, with Johnny's Uncle Jim's in Portage Park!

Where?

Here!

OK, I thought maybe they had reopened someplace else. The one on Montrose and Central is closed, right?

elakin wrote:Not to be confused, of course, with Johnny's Uncle Jim's in Portage Park!

Thank god Jim & Johnny's isn't around anymore*, or my head might explode.

(* - In actuality, I miss Jim & Johnny's)

elakin wrote:Not to be confused, of course, with Johnny's Uncle Jim's in Portage Park!

R.I.P.

elakin wrote:Not to be confused, of course, with Johnny's Uncle Jim's in Portage Park!

stevez wrote:R.I.P.

Okay, not the greatest loss our restaurant scene has ever experienced.

Mike G wrote:Okay, not the greatest loss our restaurant scene has ever experienced.

Maybe not to you and me, but Johnny's Uncle Jim's was a haven for Big Eaters, a once a week stop for the quantity over quality crowd.

Johnny's Uncle Jim's

Mike G wrote:Okay, not the greatest loss our restaurant scene has ever experienced.

Agreed, plus I don't think Italian Beef was on the bill of fare (if it was, ordering it would have been one of the biggest mistakes you'd be likely to make).

Dmnkly wrote:
Adding to the confusion, there's apparently a Johnny's in Westmont and Darien that I've never tried.

http://www.johnnysbeef.com/

Phil wrote:

Dmnkly wrote:
Adding to the confusion, there's apparently a Johnny's in Westmont and Darien that I've never tried.

http://www.johnnysbeef.com/

That place is a couple doors down from Katy's. Needless to say, given the choice between the rather pedestrian looking Johnny's and Katy's, I've never been to Johnny's.

I assume it's no relation, but I noticed once that they had some clipping declaring Johnny's (in Elmwood Park) the best beef in Chicago on their door as if it referred to them. That's another reason not to go... if Katy's weren't all the reason you could need.

Phil wrote:

Dmnkly wrote:Adding to the confusion, there's apparently a Johnny's in Westmont and Darien that I've never tried.

http://www.johnnysbeef.com/

Tried it a couple of years ago...

Meh. Average.

FWIW, Johnny's in Westmont is a long-standing, respectable beef outfit. The beef is house-made and just fine. There's better to be had around there, and I can't see making the trip and not eating at Katy's or getting a Desi snack at the Indian grocery/chaat place next door.

Panther in the Den wrote:

Katie wrote:

abf005 wrote:...a new place opened up in Round Lake Park at the corner of Hainesville Rd & Washington called Big Jacks I had to give them a try. This place is an absolute surprise!

Burt, can you give me a little more guidance on where this is? I searched in Microsoft Streets and Trips but wasn't able to find it.

Big Jack's Chicago Style Red
507 N Hainesville Rd
Round Lake Park, IL 60073
(847) 548-5225

Google is your friend.

And here's little more google help!

Map link: http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&q=big+jacks,+round+lake+park&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=42.354104,-88.059969&spn=0.04478,0.076904&z=14&iwloc=A

Heres a little picture to wet your appetite!


http://picasaweb.google.com/burt.fleisher/BigJacks#

Did I mention it's one of the only beef places I know of that sells their beefs in three sizes? 8", 10" and a 14" hungry man!

The worst Italian beef I have had in a long time was at DD Dogs on Noyes St. in Evanston. I stoped in today after I noticed that Al's Deli across the street was closed as it was a Wednesday.

I was suckered in by the "world famous" Italian beef puffing. Food service beef and gardinara. Wrapped in tin foil. Vomit.

DD Dogs
825 Noyes St
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 864-1909

Thanks for taking one for the team. (I love that expression in this context).

Due to many experiences like that, I now have a strict policy of never eating a beef sandwich from anywhere that doesn't specialize in beef sandwiches. That is, if the name of the place is "Joe's Red Hots", I won't eat a beef there. Nor if it's "Peter's Gyros" or "Wimpy's Burger Barn" or "Gianni's Pizza & Grinders". No matter how badly I might want a good beef at that moment.

You get the point. If their beef sandwich is an afterthought, I don't want it.

I literally cannot think of one exception to this rule, where a place that's not called "[something] beef" or [sombody's] Italian sandwiches" has ever served up a decent beef sandwich.

elakin wrote:Thanks for taking one for the team. (I love that expression in this context).

Due to many experiences like that, I now have a strict policy of never eating a beef sandwich from anywhere that doesn't specialize in beef sandwiches. That is, if the name of the place is "Joe's Red Hots", I won't eat a beef there. Nor if it's "Peter's Gyros" or "Wimpy's Burger Barn" or "Gianni's Pizza & Grinders". No matter how badly I might want a good beef at that moment.

You get the point. If their beef sandwich is an afterthought, I don't want it.

I literally cannot think of one exception to this rule, where a place that's not called "[something] beef" or [sombody's] Italian sandwiches" has ever served up a decent beef sandwich.

I have to disagree with that logic, even though in theory you should be absolutely correct.

I think you might have a better salt test if you can determine whether the ownership is of Italian decent, and not just a mocked up faux Italian names like some of the pizza places in town (Stefano's, Edwardo's & Bacino's for example). I know I cant think of a real Italian owned place that's not on every one's top 10 for beef.

For example; Big Jacks Chicago Style Red Hots immediately rushes to my mind for truly great beefs. Portillos is another hot dog place with well respected beef, so there goes the name theory right there, but both are owned by Italians, go figure. Perhaps that's why its called an Italian Beef, no?!

As to the rest or run of the mill pizza and hot dog joints serving beef; the ones using Scalla's Prefered (which is Italian) have the better prepackaged version, while the ones serving Vienna Beef's version (which is Austrian) are my least favorite...

I literally cannot think of one exception to this rule, where a place that's not called "[something] beef" or [sombody's] Italian sandwiches" has ever served up a decent beef sandwich.

Al's Bar-B-Q? (What Al's Italian Beef was called for its first 50 years or so.)

I have to disagree with that logic, even though in theory you should be absolutely correct.

Theories do me no good when I'm staring down the barrel of an "italian beef" with thick, dry slabs of beef sporting that weird rainbow patch. I live in the real world. I'd rather miss a diamond in the rough than have to wade through all the garbage I'll encounter searching for it.


Mike, you got me on semantics!

elakin wrote:I'd rather miss a diamond in the rough than have to wade through all the garbage I'll encounter searching for it.

We have very different viewpoints.

abf005 wrote:For example; Big Jacks Chicago Style Red Hots immediately rushes to my mind for truly great beefs. Portillos is another hot dog place with well respected beef, so there goes the name theory right there, but both are owned by Italians, go figure. Perhaps that's why its called an Italian Beef, no?!

For some reason, I thought Dick Portillo was of Hispanic heritage. I could be wrong on that but the Portillo family grew up in the Addison/Villa Park area right around the same time as my parents did. Hispanic, Italian, who cares?

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

This week I found myself up in the area of...

The Original Roma
6161 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
(773) 594-2885

... this week around lunchtime as I had it in my GPS as a recommended place.

Got the Big Beef and it was good! The au jus was not as heavily spiced as some but had a good strong beef flavor and the beef was nice and tender. A nice traditional Chicago beef.

tyrus wrote:

abf005 wrote:For example; Big Jacks Chicago Style Red Hots immediately rushes to my mind for truly great beefs. Portillos is another hot dog place with well respected beef, so there goes the name theory right there, but both are owned by Italians, go figure. Perhaps that's why its called an Italian Beef, no?!

For some reason, I thought Dick Portillo was of Hispanic heritage. I could be wrong on that but the Portillo family grew up in the Addison/Villa Park area right around the same time as my parents did. Hispanic, Italian, who cares?

Your right! I just Googled it and came up with one link saying Mexican-Greek and another listing him as Hispanic. So much for theories and salt tests!!

I say do the legwork, walk in, ASK if they make their beef in house, if they say no, thats your cue. Either order something else or politely leave. I'm all in favor of turning over a few stones to find the hidden gems, that's what make great food discoveries so satisfying for me.

Panther in the Den wrote:Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

This week I found myself up in the area of...

The Original Roma
6161 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
(773) 594-2885

... this week around lunchtime as I had it in my GPS as a recommended place.

Got the Big Beef and it was good! The au jus was not as heavily spiced as some but had a good strong beef flavor and the beef was nice and tender. A nice traditional Chicago beef.

That's great to hear about Roma's. That location was closed for quite awhile. I'm in that area every now and then and noticed a couple of months ago that they reopened. I'd been meaning to stop in, but never got around to it. I'm not a big IB guy, but I think I hear a Big Beef calling me. Thanks for the info!

Roma's beef is good. Definitely above average and worth getting, but where they really shine is their Italian sausage. It's one of the better sausages in the city, imo.

I'm not usually a combo guy, since eating it is quite difficult (bread breaks, sausage spurts out the rear end when you bite the front, and the beef tends to get lost), but I always order a combo at Roma's, eat the sausage by itself, and then eat the kind of condensed version of the beef sandwich after.

Don't be confused. There is a difference between Roma's (on Cicero north of Irving) and Original Roma, which is on Milwaukee. They are not related to one another at all and there is a significant difference in the quality of the food. I haven't been to Original Roma since it (evidently) changed hands and reopened, but when it closed a year or so ago, I didn't shed a tear.

The Original Roma
6161 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
(773) 594-2885

Roma's Italian Beef and Sausage
4237 N Cicero Ave
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 725-5715

I tried, I really tried, to not post this but I can't help it. Sorry in advance.

Panther in the Den wrote: The au jus was not as heavily spiced as some....

"Au Jus" is French for "with juice", specifically a juice or broth whose source is the food with which the jus is being served.

The juice or broth is jus, and food that comes with juice is served au jus.

So, "The au jus was not...." translates to "The with juice was not...."

No wonder the French hate us.

scottsol wrote:I tried, I really tried, to not post this but I can't help it. Sorry in advance.

Panther in the Den wrote: The au jus was not as heavily spiced as some....

"Au Jus" is French for "with juice", specifically a juice or broth whose source is the food with which the jus is being served.

The juice or broth is jus, and food that comes with juice is served au jus.

So, "The au jus was not...." translates to "The with juice was not...."

No wonder the French hate us.

In the spirit of debate so rampant in this thread couldn't it be also taken to mean...

"The au jus was not...." translates to "The juice it came with was not...."

We ain't in France buddy. This is America! We can twist their words as we please.

Where do you hail from, scottsol - Des Plaines?

Sorry - you hit one of my hot buttons. This and "misuse" of RSVP are common complaints in my family of origin. Never mind that language is a living thing and that "proper usage" is a construct meaningful only within a specific context. We bend words to fit what we need them to mean - take the word "nice" - in 1290 it was an insult, meaning foolish, stupid and ignorant - but we wouldn't call someone out for using it in its current meaning of kind or thoughtful.

Personally, if I'm talking to American English-speakers, I'm OK with Au Jus meaning "a thin meat sauce," and RSVP with an extra please at the front - but I also would expect odd/confused looks from native French speakers if they overhear this usage. /rant