AFTER MY WIFE AND I MOVED TO NEW YORK, I WAS FREQUENTLY ASKED WHAT I missed about Chicago. “Family, friends, and… Italian beef sandwiches,” I would say. It provoked a confused response, usually something like “What’s an Italian beef sandwich—and why the hell do you miss it so much?”
You’ll find the answer to the first question on page 13, where Chicagoan and James Beard Award–winning arguably last year’s buzziest TV series, which put Italian beef in the national spotlight. A decade ago, New York was an Italian beef desert. I once trekked from Manhattan to a shack in New Jersey because I was told it sold Italian beefs. They were Philly cheesesteaks. Now you can find Italian beef sandwiches in at least two boroughs of New York—Manhattan and Brooklyn—in versions that rival those made in the Windy City.
