Lonnie’s Best Taste of Chicago: Windy City Hot Dogs and More
If you want to get a hotdog -- a real hotdog, like the ones you get in the Windy City -- then, no place will do but Lonnie’s Best Taste of Chicago. The family-owned Lonnie's has two locations: one at 121 St. Matthews Ave. in St. Matthews and another at 1034 Bardstown Road in the heart of the Highlands. In keeping with their devotion to Chicago, Lonnie’s serves only Vienna Kosher All-Beef hotdogs — known as “Chicago’s hot dog.”
These frankfurters snap when you bite into the casings. You can get it tricked out in authentic Chicago fashion, slipped into a poppy seed bun and loaded with yellow mustard, diced onions, sweet piccalilli relish, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, a dilled pickle spear with tiny, hot pickled “sport peppers” on the side. In Chicago, a hot dog with the works is called “walking through the garden” because of the many vegetables that end up on your hot dog.
At Lonnie’s Best Taste of Chicago, it’s called a “Clark Street Dog” on the menu, and it runs $3.29 for this meal in a bun. Or you can get your hot dog with mustard, diced onion and sauerkraut for a State Street Dog ($3.19), a Wabash Chili Dog (chili and onions for $3.49), a Rush Street Chili Cheese Dog ($3.79). Even plain, there’s nothing like these hot dogs!
The Vienna hotdogs aren’t Lonnie’s only nod to the Second City. Lonnie’s also sells Italian beef sandwiches — juicy, thinly sliced beef with sautéed onions and peppers and a rare find outside of the Chicago metropolitan area. A four-inch sandwich costs $4.29, while a six-inch grinder runs $5.89. Variations include the Cheesy Beef ($6.49), the Bar-B-Que Beef ($6.79) and the Spicy Italian Beef ($6.59).
Lonnie’s also sells other staples of Windy City restaurants: gyros, strips of broiled meat topped with onion, tomatoes and Greek tzatziki sauce in pita bread ($6.19), and a Beef/Sausage Combo, an Italian sausage smothered in that same Italian beef on a hoagie roll with sautéed onions and peppers ($6.99).
With photographs of Chicago’s landmarks, an autographed photo of Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith, ball caps from the many Chicago sports franchises, posters of Chicago’s sports teams and superstars Michael Jordan and Sammy Sosa — and even a brick from the old Comiskey Park — the décor adds to the Windy City feel — enough to make any transplant homesick. The only thing missing is Uncle Stan spinning a yarn about Da Bears.
Owner Lonnie Edwards, himself a transplant, first opened his restaurant in 2001; he relocated that eatery to St. Matthews in 2003; the second location opened in 2008.
The St. Matthews restaurant is open Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; the Bardstown Road location is open Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
HelloMetro Tip: With every $25 purchase, you get a free Chicago Dog.
Posted on Feb 8, 2011 by Ivonne Rovira
