- Michael Gebert
- Breaded steak sandwich at Johnny O’s
A sportswriter named Ted Berg took a page in USA Today yesterday to tell the world that Chicago had the best sandwich in the world. Italian beef? An Edzo’s cheeseburger? Something from Publican Quality Meats? No, compared to those relatively celebrated items, this was a somewhat obscure ringer—the breaded steak sandwich at Ricobene’s, an old Italian sandwich spot on the edge of Chinatown in Bridgeport. And Berg couldn’t let it go at praising us for having it—he had to chastise us for not appreciating it enough: “That perfect sandwich failed to rank on Chicagoist’s list of top 25 sandwiches, or on a CBS Chicago list of best sandwiches in 2010 or 2012, or on top Chicago sandwich lists compiled by Thrillist and Zagat.”
For me a better-crafted sandwich is the version at Johnny O’s at 35th and Morgan. As you can see in the video I made there a couple of years ago, care is taken at several key points to sharpen up the individual components; the cheese is put on the griddle to soften it up and the peppers are griddled as well. Even the simple red sauce just has more pizzazz. It’s still a monster of a sandwich which you’ll probably want to follow with a good nap, but it’s about more than sheer excess. Berg is right that this is a sandwich Chicagoans should appreciate more, but he should’ve dug deeper into the neighborhood to find the best one. Also, given the Irish Catholic makeup of the neighborhood, couldn’t he have waited until Lent was over to make you crave a big hunk of beef?
