There ’s nothing more symbolic of Chicago than its hot pawl : Sears Tower , Wrigley Field , systemic political corruption , all take a back seat . There is no act more American than piling a bunch of delicious toppings onto a hot dog , and no place on earth need its core as badly as the Windy City . The Chicago Dog , a beacon of neon green zestfulness and xanthous Indian mustard , is not just our township ’s capital donation to culture of any kind , it both encapsulates how Chicago was built , and what make this metropolis great .
The American Hot Dog Craze
The exact time and location the hot dog first took our bona fide Republic by storm are unluckily suffer to memory , unlike cities and mass claimed to have been the first to serve the forward-looking red-hot frump on a bun , but its ancestral root are clear . Before Hispanics , Italians , Judaic , or Polish , the country ’s first mass immigrant group was from the native land of terra firma tube meat , Germany . German immigrants had been a part of the US since before the revolution , though they did n’t start flooding the nation until the 1840s . Displaced by political upheaval back home , Germans populated not only the cultivated land of the Midwest , but filled the burgeoning industrial metropolis as well . By the final stage of the 19th century , 25 % of Chicago ’s population was either have a bun in the oven in Germany or first generation .
As anyone who take the air Taylor St in 1920s or Devon Ave today could tell you , nutrient is an crucial part of ethnic individuality . What we corrode , how we eat it , and who we eat with will make up the back of daily life , and as immigrant groups attempt to subsist and assimilate it is often their cuisine that sustain them . The Germans of Chicago were no different than any group that came after , they bring a gustatory modality of home along in the pattern of sausages , in especial the frankfurter , the penny-pinching admixture of pork , beef cattle , and spice from Vienna , godfather of the live dog we do it today . American English of the nineteenth hundred were no less hungry than us for the newest food craze , and the frankfurter exploded across the country as a quick , meretricious , and most importantly , pleasant-tasting on - the - go meal .
With their sausage balloon skills in demand and a immense pond of meretricious labor , Germans master Chicago ’s sum industry . In 1880 its estimated 36 % of all butcher in the metropolis were German immigrants and many more were of German origin . The frank they play with them were the perfect industrial food detail . Chicago was the meatpacking capital of the creation , butcher hogg and kine from all over the Midwest , and thus was a loss leader in the industrial enterprise of food . The introduction of steam - power gist choppers allowed Chicago mill to turn less desirable marrow trimming , from their industrial plant in the Union Stock Yards , into the low-priced street food . Chicago ’s oldest hot dog brand , David Berg , was ground in 1860 , and home blade like Armour and Oscar Mayer presently keep an eye on .
Thrillist
By the end of the 100 the mass produce frankfurter was commonplace , but there was one essential element of the Chicago dog that had yet to take storage area . It would take a second wafture of in-migration from Germany , this meter Jewish , to preface the all - beef hot dog . come from a miserable socio - economic background , many Judaic immigrants acquire up line of work as street trafficker and pusher . The hot dog handcart itself became the lifeblood of immigrant residential district . It was a broken - barrier - to - entry Book of Job that allow thousands of foreign entrepreneur to put up their families and make a aliveness . In a time of foul wellness standards in the meat-packing business diligence the Jewish kosher tradition also had a reputation as producing food that was safer and more vestal . The tastier , spicy all - beef version of the hot dog took off and Jewish immigrant became the new kings of the Chicago hot dog game .
" To this day Vienna use the original instinctive - casing , all - beef recipe developed by Jewish immigrants that gives the Chicago dog its distinctive flavor profile , snap , and texture . "
It was this wave of unexampled Chicagoans that gave birth to our most beloved red-hot dog brand . Although they were not the first to sell the blimp , two Judaic immigrant from Austria - Hungary , Samuel Ladany and Emil Reichl , recognized the profitable potentiality of hot dogs and open their own business . They made a big splash with their popular stand sell andiron on the street at the Columbian Exposition . They made so much money they used the proceeds to gift in a larger business and key it after the pinnacle of blimp city , Vienna Beef . To this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Vienna uses the original natural - casing , all - gripe recipe originate by Jewish immigrant that gives the Chicago Canis familiaris its distinctive nip visibility , snap , and grain .
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Dragging It Through the Garden
The all - beef live dog was n’t just a hit , it was a phenomenon , the piston chamber of reason kernel became a symbol of American prosperity . The assembly line worker jazz them as much as Babe Ruth loved them . It was low-cost , it was satiate , it was good , the American dreaming on a bun , and nobody downed them like Chicago . But the original sausage was only the foundation of our metropolis ’s great smasher . Tastes were starting to commute on the street , as more immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe filled the working - class locality .
One such enterprising individual was Sam Rosen . A Polish - born immigrant Rosen had first moved to Germany to pick up the art of baking . He first came to New York and opened a bakeshop at the unlikely age of 16 . assay dependable destiny only a few years later on he came west to Chicago , buy a bakehouse and opening his eponymic business in 1909 . It was a huge winner , not only on the strength of its Secale cereale bread beloved by the Germans and Poles of Chicago , but as the originator of the poppy - seed bun . It was another indispensable factor in the Chicago heel , insert by an upstart , enterprising immigrant , tailored to the taste of a divers city .
By the 1920s Maxwell St on the West Side was the centre of Chicago ’s immigrant residential area . A bustling market where Judaic , Italian , Greek , and Polish monger would sell apparel , trinkets , and food for thought . Hot dog were the dominant meal for the busy price - conscious crowds that would make full the streets hawking their product . Many of these vendors also have vegetable stands , and they begin to try out with a wide range of topping plucked unfermented from the grocery store . Up until the ' twenty traditional German / Jewish topping like mustard and pickles had been how someone would take their dog . Now , accord to Hot Dog historian Bruce Kraig , marketer set out adding their own spicy and rancid flavor profile – from hot peppers , cabbage , and celery salt – that invoke to the tastes of the new pagan groups .
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The melting corporation of western Chicago laid the groundwork for metropolis ’s signature combination of toppings , but it would take the twinkle and desperation of the Great Depression to at long last birth it . After the market wreck in 1929 hot dogs drop dead from a favourite cheap - eat to a requirement . Just as selling them has sustained generations of immigrant , eating hot dogs sustained out - of - work Americans . While other industries collapse , hot hound marketer became even bigger community mainstays . The only job was that even the lowly hot dog was often too expensive for such lean prison term . A down - on - his - fortune former mill worker would often eat three or four to make full himself up . thing had to be stretched even more to make it both filling and affordable .
Maxwell vendors , being the virtual people that they were , started pile dogs high with the vegetables sell all around them to transform a single hot pawl into a more filling and nutritious meal . The original Fluky ’s stand on Maxwell claimed to be the first , with its famous “ economic crisis sandwich ” that they sold for a nickel in the ' 30s , emblematical of how the ingenuity of small owners and the assorted immigrant community of westerly Chicago came together to work the area ’s nutrient acculturation . There were many different variations on being “ dragged through the garden , ” but it became apparent that the consecrated jazz group of short pepper , table mustard , pickle , zestfulness , Allium cepa , tomato , and celery table salt was the best of the bunch . The Chicago blackguard was born .
Takin’ It to the Streets
The victory of the Chicago dog does n’t finish with Maxwell St. It would take one last radical of blue - collar entrepreneurs to turn the meal from depressive disorder lifesaver to citywide ikon . As soldiers turn back home from World War II they look to a good biography just like their immigrant Father . Now second or third propagation , they would conduct the Chicago dog out from western Chicago to the rest of Cook County and beyond .
" What was once a urban center of immigrants from all over the humans was build its own polish , and their unique red-hot dog was at the mall of that identity . "
In the godsend of post - war America , the suburban land we know today finally took cargo hold . What was once a privilege of rich commuter train became the ideal of an entire nation , green lawn , wide - streets , and machine . As new couples impress to the new suburbs out of the old neighborhoods they carry an all - American love of blistering dog with them . The new residential area were being build up almost from scratch , huge swaths of countryside being eaten up by cattle ranch houses and freeways . Unlike the found neighborhoods the Chicago frank was born in , there were no cultural centers , no historic landmark and partake in tradition . The neighborhood hot dog stand became one of the first asylum to fulfil that void .
Flickr/juggernautco
As German and Jewish immigrants found the hot andiron suffer to be an approachable and cheap business enterprise to make their life with , so did the working class families fleeing to the suburbia . Many of the Chicagoland ’s most abiding red-hot dog rack mother their start in the ' 40s and ' 50s with the Chicago - style hot dog as their independent ( sometimes only ) attractive feature . Gene ’s & Jude’shas its origins in a hot dog stand on the west side at Polk and Western . After losing the original fund Gene Mormino decided to put up shop in the suburbia of River Grove , so undeveloped at the time the streets were n’t even paved yet . opening move in 1950 , Gene ’s & Jude ’s has become an introduction serving nothing but Fry , tamales , and high quality minimalist frankfurter . The original Fluky ’s itself migrate from the Maxwell St to the fresh developed far North Side at Western & Pratt .
The local red-hot dog stall became a gathering place , somewhere you could sit down or stand at a counter , and chat with a few friends over a inexpensive meal . Children walking home from school would stop by a bandstand and use pocket variety to plow themselves . You would see admirer or relatives when you popped by on the mode home from work , or the possessor would chat your pinna off . The 1950s also get word an explosion of roadside hot dog stands that catered to the new car - orient cultivation . The first movement - ins blow the hot frump , easy to hold quick to eat , as the first roadside fast food . The new suburban America ingrained the hot dog as one of its first and most imperishable ethnical traditions .
It was these local business that bring the Chicago blackguard as we know it all over the area , and it was their prominent place in the community of interests that help the Chicago dog endure for year after the depression . What had once been a way for Germans to stay connected to their ascendent became a way for people all over the urban center to bond . What was once a metropolis of immigrants from all over the humans was building its own culture , and their unique hot hotdog was at the center of that identity .
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Chicago’s Signature Tubed Meat
There are reason beyond its popularity that the hot dog has become a core part of Chicago ’s ethnic identity . Affordable , industrial , blue - collar , unostentatious , it ’s the stark food for the mecca of the Midwest . The hot dog came from Europe , was perfected in America , and stuff citizenry build the nation . Regional hot dog variation reflect the values and tastes of a local culture . With its overladen mess of topping and broad variety of fresh , spicy , and sour tastes it appeal to a various city of hard - working everyman , a potpourri of native and immigrants proud of their hardheaded , gratifying lifestyle .
" The oftentimes - mocked disdain for catsup comes from the basic mind of doing dewy-eyed thing the correct way . "
That ’s not to say the Chicago dog is merely immediate and cheesy , it is also really damn good . Our dogs are impregnate with a craft and care for timber ingredients that lesser metropolis might give the sack when parcel out with the lowly hot dog . We do n’t just practice any old dog , it has to be natural - casing , all - beef , and zest just right , a true aficionado will spot an fake a mile aside .
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The frequently - mock disdain for tomato ketchup comes from the introductory idea of doing elementary matter the right way . The overpowering sweet of the dreaded condiment destroy the balance of the other toppings . Mustard , on the other manus , was made for sausages , a little sweet , a small spicy , just tangy enough to give it a bang , the distillment of the entire Chicago dog into one ingredient . Even the fragile crunch of a poppy seed roll is essential . There are so few perfect thing in the populace , we know not to mess up with them by dumbing down our criterion .
you’re able to see the Chicago erotic love for the live dog in the persistence of our neighborhood hot pawl suffer . While fast - food chains and trendy foods dress up , local hot hot dog reefer have endured . The passel of Vienna beef signs over oleaginous counter stores may as well be the city ’s mailing-card . We grow confiscate to the uncomplicated places that throw their ground next to new coffee shops and flashy bars . Like treasured historical landmark they seem indispensable to who we are as Chicagoans . Straightforward , popular , and bloody good , the Chicago - style red-hot dog is the image we project to the world .
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