LTHForum.com

Jim's Original is celebrating their 71st anniversary tomorrow,Monday July 12th. Polish sausage sammys wil be 75 cents between 2PM & 6PM. Limit 3 per person.

Jim's Original Hot Dog‎
1250 South Union Avenue, Chicago, IL‎
(312) 733-7820‎

Jim's Original‎
16 East 95th Street, Chicago, IL
(773) 785-9865‎

My Bride, a friend and I stopped by twice yesterday. Once at 1:45 pm (they started the special early), we went to Stern's Quarry for a picnic lunch and then again about an hour later.

2 lines that were moving well (about a 15 minutes) and after lunch, and my friends 2 that he ate, we ended up with about a dozen to augment meals for the next few days.

Mmmm... Maxwell Style Breakfast

Eggs with sliced sausage and twice grilled onions with sport peppers diced up with a dash of mustard
A toasted hot dog bun soaked in Polish and onion juice
Diced and pan refried french fries

_________________
"Make Lunch, Not War" ~ Anon

My recent trip to one of the wannabe's on Broadway had me craving an actual trip to Maxwell (Union). I have also had both McJeff's and Johnny Whopper Carmineputo Jr's this week. So I needed something new and explosive in my sandwich rotation tonight. Something that could take either of those on in a street brawl.

Introducing: Da Combo Part II

Directions

-Take an all beef Polish sausage with everything from Jim's Original ( My pref. for a Polish) and a pork chop sandwich with everything from Express Grill (My pref. for a pork chop) and remove the bottom bun from the pork chop and place the chop on top of the Polish and eat.

Note: beware of the bone in da chop and watch your teeth.


The combo: a second coming

_________________
Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

/\ not convinced

I dont need to convince you. The proof is in the Polish/Pork chop.

_________________
Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

Hi,

When eating a bone-in chop sandwich, the technique is to feel for the bone. You then keep your fingers on it for orientation. You rotate the sandwich eating around the bone.

Your combo might make it hard to keep track of (and feel) the bone.

Regards,

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

While Tropics remains unconvinced and Cathy offers practical advice I, for one, am amused, flabbergasted and slightly in awe of of the Polish/Pork chop. Quite brilliant combining your favorite parts of the two rival stands.

Da Beef Polish/Pork chop, count me a fan!

Enjoy,
Gary

_________________
Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

I believe what you have is a deathwich !

Evil genius, love it!

=R=

_________________
I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

Beautiful! You were halfway through the cycle. For those not familiar with the phrase, "doing the cycle" is Maxwell Street shorthand for eating a Polish, a pork chop, a hot dog and a burger, almost invariably in the wee hours of the morning. For full credit, one must eat all the fries too. Here's the cheater's version of the cycle.

Cycle-on-a-bun

Where else in the world can you get advice on how to eat a pork chop sandwich? I love this place.

_________________
trpt2345

Didn't find much current info on this via Google -- Twitter's another story, apparently -- so I went to check out the current deal in person. Got a $1.50 Polish "sandwich" w/fries at Jim's Original on Union by Halsted, Roosevelt, & 94. Like the signs outside prominently state, the price should be good in February (for Black History Month) on Mondays through Thursdays from 3-5 P.M. The deal's also good at Express Grill off the regularly $3.50 sausage, but when you've got short lines at Jim's even at 3:15 on a Thursday afternoon, why settle?

Other possibly relevant notes: the chewier pieces of fat in the sausage were a bit more noticeable to me on this visit (to the point where I decided to just pull 'em out rather than swallow 'em down), but the meat was still fairly warm if not hot on first bite. Jim's now also takes credit, for those of you without a lot of cash on hand (and want to get some restaurant reward points back on your VISA card). At any rate, the discount days are up for this week, but here's to the next, fellow food lovers!

HI,

Last year was the first time I was at Jim's (or Maxwell's) to take advantage of the Black History Month Special. It was 2:45 pm with lots of people waiting in their cars for the golden moment.

I didn't want to wait. I went up to the window inquiring if I could have the 3 PM special just a little early. They agreed. As I was being served, everyone started piling out of their cars.

At least on this occasion, they would not sell me a can of pop. They only offered the plastic bottles. Any other time, they have had cans. I'm guessing this may their way of making a little more money while giving something else away.

It's a good deal, if you can make it there.

Regards,

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Hello all,

I've been abroad a lot the past couple years so I don’t often get a chance to visit Chicago. LTH has been sort of a food craving/sanity lifeline to tide me over until the rare times when I can make it back. In honor of this thread and to settle a long standing argument with my brother I strolled over to UIC this weekend to do my own side-by-side taste test.

Jim's Original:


Oh window splattered with onion grease, how I’ve missed you.


Jim's Polish:



Maxwell St:


Maxwell Polish:


The actual sausage at these places tasted exactly the same, kind of rubbery and overcooked, but with a nice snap to the casing. Spices, grind texture, greasiness, and temperature were indistinguishable as far as I could tell. I do like Jim's finely shredded caramelized onions better than Maxwell's lightly cooked coarse cut onions because they provide a better contrast to the tangy mustard. Jim's fries are crisp on the outside, creamy on the inside, and well salted; they are objectively superior to Maxwell's flavorless starch sticks. It looks like after two years of absence, my old favorite Jim's retains the crown based on fries and onions alone.

Hi,

You will be surprised, I have never replied to the poll I initiated so long ago ...

Stopped by Jim's today to pick up a Polish on my way home. I noticed the big pile of carmelized onions had some raw or less than fully cooked onions mixed in. They lready dug some of the mixed onions and began mounding them on my Polish.

I notice the onions on the other end of the grill were perfectly cooked. I surprised the cooks by having them remove the mixture of cooked-and-uncooked onions to be replaced by the fully cooked onions.

At the 24-hour-athon, Jim's served up these raw to cooked onions on a Polish, which nobody liked.

If you want the better experience at Jim's, you need to keep track of what onions they are offering.

Regards,

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

A couple weeks ago I stopped at Jim's for a hot dog "with everything." Sure enough, it came with raw greasy onions at one end and properly cooked ones at the other. If there was mustard it was hard to taste. And definitely no peppers.



I didn't watch my hot dog being assembled but noticed them putting it in one of the dozen or so waiting bags that had earlier been packed with fries (there was no need for pre-assembly as they weren't busy at all). When I asked about it I was told, "Everything fresh, only the fries." Whatever you say, sir. So for "the better experience" at Jim's, I'd suggest keeping track of the mustard, the peppers and the fries as well as the onions.

With still-fresh memories of that awful Polish in the early morning hours of Chowathon II (Nadir: Jim’s Original. How do they possibly pack so much tasteless grease into a small space?) and now this disappointing visit, it's getting tough to muster enthusiasm to return.

Just wanted to send a reminder that $1.50 Polish sandwiches are back Monday through Thursday from 3-5 P.M. this month.


Oddly didn't receive hot peppers after an "everything" request, either.... Guess I'll have to explicitly ask for them next time.

Hi,

I was at Jim's on Saturday for a Polish and a pork chop sandwich. I received the peppers wrapped separately without my requesting them. Since I hand these over to my Dad, this was perfect for my purposes.

I did see some raw onions in the pile. I specifically asked for cooked and no raw onions. They did a little picking, but rather they did than I.

I was shocked when the guy ahead of me paid by credit card.

Regards,

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Apropos of the topic, a friend of mine in Portland, a poet, wrote this piece in which he metaphorically compares me (the H.S. school friend) to the "one unexpected, rubbery kernel" that one sometimes finds in a Polish:

Chicago, Illinois

There’s one unexpected, rubbery kernel
in every Polish Dog.
I learned that fact at Wrigley Field
when I was very young.
The teeth can’t penetrate.
It never fails to catch you off guard.

On Lake Shore Drive my high school friend
maneuvered north through sluggish midday traffic.
I leaned forward from the back seat,
pointed at Buckingham Fountain, and said,
“My first whiff of tear gas
at the Democratic Convention in 1968.
This is a piece of who I am.
It’s something I tell people about.”

He said, “You weren’t at the convention.
We watched it together on TV.
You’re thinking of 1969, a minor demonstration.
The police broke some heads
near the Picasso sculpture.
We saw what was happening
and ran like hell to catch the train back home.”

I watched myself grow pale in the rear view mirror.

At the game, I shied away from Polish Dogs
with their disturbing obstacles.
I stuck to cotton candy,
which vanishes the moment it hits the tongue.

_________________
“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Cast my vote for Jim's Original.

Had Jim's today. Nicely grilled sausage and onions. Even the fries had a crispy exterior (weird! ).

Short line around 3:15.

_________________
"Make Lunch, Not War" ~ Anon

That's an interesting one for me. I've always found hot peppers to be hit-or-miss in an "everything" request at any hot dog/Polish stand in Chicago. I always explicitly state "everything, hot peppers." It seems like I've been doing it that way for as long as I've know, as "everything" doesn't always include hot peppers, or elicits a question of "hot/sport peppers?" anyway, so I short the question. I find not including hot peppers to be reasonable, though.

What's quite different, though, -- if I can riff a bit-- is these days I find myself saying "no ketchup" on an order of "hot dogs everything on it" at unfamiliar places. I don't give a shit whether you put ketchup on your hot dog or not, but it used to be that an "everything" order would never include it, just like it would never include chocolate syrup on your dog. I'm kind of left in this weird place where specifying "no ketchup" makes me look somewhat crazy at places that have kept the "no ketchup" tradition which, to be fair, is a vast majority of them. But enough haven't that I have to specify the request when visiting a place I've never been to before.

During my visit to Jim's the peppers were wrapped in paper in the bottom of the bag.

Perhaps they were overlooked?

Although many will disagree, I remember when a hot dog with everything did not include peppers and they had to be asked for separately. For example... "Hot Dog with Everything and Hot Peppers".

_________________
"Make Lunch, Not War" ~ Anon

Used to be that I always got the peppers with just "everything" at Jim's, but that might be changing lately. An occasional confirmation question for mustard and hot peppers might be thrown in by my server, to which I'd reply in the affirmative. Not necessarily applicable to all hot-dog stands, I'm sure.


Totally understandable. Maybe once you get familiar enough with places where the service is consistent with what's included in everything, you can drop the extra "no ketchup" request and be at ease. You know taking ketchup off isn't the easiest thing in the garden-style topping arrangement, esp. if you follow the Chicago tradition seriously, so I get what you mean.

I've had them wrapped separately, right next to the bun, and even on top / inside before, but there were no extra hot peppers to be found in my batch the other day. Checking to be sure is always a good idea, just as at any takeout place, however.

As for hot dogs and everything, sport peppers are part of the modern Chicago style, are they not (along with no ketchup, etc.)? Having to ask separately isn't a bad idea, but I expect them in some fashion when ordered that way [that is, with "everything"] (with a confirmation question from the order taker if needed, a la typical Potbelly & giardiniera).

Yeah, I don't disagree. Like I said in my post, I make sure to specify hot peppers always with my order, as it wasn't always assumed growing up. I'm 37, if that matters.

I should also add that in my part of town (Southwest Side, near Midway), the whole "Chicago style" hot dog thing isn't really followed. Hot dog everything usually means, for certain: relish, onions, mustard. It will also usually include a pickle spear. You may get asked if you want celery salt. It will usually NOT be on a poppy seed bun. And rarely will you see tomatoes (ETA: Perhaps "rarely" is overstated. It was not usual, let's say that, unless you requested it specifically. And I've honestly never seen the green neon relish thing around here. Just the normal, non-nuclear type.) Sport peppers may or may not be included but, like celery salt, they will usually prompt an inquiry.

The ketchup thing, though, has nothing to do with my neighborhood. I already forgot the name of the place, but it was a downtown joint, by the northwest corner of the actual Loop (so, like a block west or so of LaSalle & Lake--somewhere in that vicinity), where I first encountered an "everything on it" dog with ketchup.

David, I like that poem a lot. Your friend is good. What's his name?

_________________
"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

I've seen places where "run it through the garden" includes not only tomatoes but lettuce and cucumber. That's not Chicago Style, IMO. But if Mustard Onions and Relish are the top tier, Peppers, and Pickles should be in the second tier with Celery Salt.

_________________
What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

Yeah, that would be ... wait ... it'll come to me ...Byron's, right?