City guide · Illinois
Best Sausage and Peppers in Chicago
Where is the best sausage and peppers in Chicago?
Chicago's best sausage and peppers comes from the Italian-beef stands and Taylor Street institutions, usually as a combo — Italian sausage laid over beef on French bread with sweet peppers and giardiniera.
| City | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
|---|---|
| Ask for it as | Sausage and peppers |
| Top 100 spots here | 2 |
| Best time to go | Year-round indoors, and every summer street festival from June to September. |
| Local rule | Sweet peppers and hot giardiniera are an either/or choice in Chicago, not a both. Pick a side. |
Chicago folded sausage and peppers into its own sandwich grammar. Order the combo and you get a char-grilled Italian sausage sitting on top of dripping-wet Italian beef, sweet peppers over the whole thing.
Taylor Street is the historic Italian spine of the city, and the stands there still grill the sausage over open flame rather than griddling it — which is why it tastes smokier here than on the east coast.
Chicago on Larry’s Top 100
| Rank | Where | Order this | Larry’s note |
|---|---|---|---|
| #13 | Taylor Street sandwich shops | Sausage with sweet and hot peppers | Giardiniera is legal here and highly encouraged. |
| #14 | Chicago summer street fests | Char-grilled sausage, peppers, onions | The griddle has not been cleaned since 1974. Good. |
Menus, feast dates and opening hours change. Call ahead before you travel.
How to order it in Chicago
- The combo, dipped, with sweet peppers. Hot giardiniera instead of peppers is the other legitimate order.
- Char-grilled, not boiled. Ask.
- Eat it standing, leaning forward. There is no clean way to do this.
The local rule: Sweet peppers and hot giardiniera are an either/or choice in Chicago, not a both. Pick a side.
Best time to go: Year-round indoors, and every summer street festival from June to September.
Questions people ask about Chicago
What is a combo in Chicago?
An Italian sausage laid on top of Italian beef in the same roll, topped with sweet peppers or hot giardiniera. It is the city's answer to sausage and peppers.
Where is the best Italian sausage in Chicago?
The Taylor Street stands and the classic Italian-beef counters. Larry's list keeps the Taylor Street corridor at the top.
What is giardiniera?
A pickled relish of celery, carrot, cauliflower and sport peppers in oil. In Chicago it is on almost every sausage sandwich sold.
Make it at home instead
You do not need a plane ticket. Larry’s own version takes about forty minutes in a cast-iron pan.
Sausage and peppers in other cities
Elsewhere in USA
Further afield
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