One Great Sandwich: Herm's Hot Dog Palace's Italian Beef

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jan 9, 2009 7:10PM

Keeping a day job in the northern suburbs has re-acquainted us with many of the charms of growing up on the North and Northwest sides. That includes exploring the "border" suburbs when we want to get our nosh on. A co-worker who keeps asking us for restaurant advice (but never heeds it) offered to make a run to a long-forgotten hot dog stand a few weeks back. He brought us back an Italian beef sandwich from Herm's Hot Dog Palace in Skokie (3406 Dempster St., 847-673-9757). As a teenager, we used to bike — or take the Skokie Swift — to visit "Big Herm's" and grab this delicious sammich.

One major difference we've found between Italian beefs on the North and South sides is that South side joints drown the sandwiches in au jus to the point that you have this doughy mess intertwined with perfectly seasoned beef slices. Not Herm's; we ordered our beef "sweet, hot and dipped." When it got to us it was still firm enough to hold, while still retaining the "gravy" in the bread.

Yeah, this is a hell of an example of a good Italian Beef.