Ask someone to name an American barbecue city and you'll hear Memphis, Kansas City or Austin. Chicago rarely makes the list, but it has a barbecue style all its own. It was built on the South Side during the Great Migration, and it looks like nothing else in the country.
The Chicago style
The smoker. Classic South Side joints cook in an aquarium smoker: a tall, glass-walled pit, usually right behind the counter, where you can watch the meat cook over wood.
The meat. Chicago's signature cuts are rib tips, the meaty, chewy trimmings from the end of the spareribs, and hot links, coarse, spicy smoked sausages. Order them together and you've got a "tip and link combo."
The presentation. Everything comes piled over French fries, sauced, with a couple slices of white bread on top to soak it up, all in a paper tray or foil pan. Most of the classic spots are takeout counters, so plan to eat in the car.
The sauce. You'll be offered barbecue sauce, and in much of the city mild sauce: a tangy-sweet red sauce that's a South and West Side staple. It's also poured over fried chicken.
How to order
- "Tip and link combo, sauce on the side" keeps your fries crisp.
- "Sauce on everything" is the full experience.
- Most counters have bulletproof glass and a turntable window. That's normal. Pay, wait for your number, and take your tray.
Where to go
The classics (South Side aquarium-smoker style)
- Lem's Bar-B-Q: open since 1954 and a James Beard "America's Classic." This is the benchmark. Takeout only.
- Honey 1 BBQ: wood-fired rib tips and links in Bronzeville, with no shortcuts.
- Sanders BBQ Supply Co.: buttery, snackable rib tips in Beverly, plus excellent brisket.
- Lexington Betty Smokehouse: meaty tips from a champion pitmaster in historic Pullman.
Texas-style and beyond
- Smoque BBQ: the city's longtime benchmark for Texas-style brisket, on the Northwest Side.
- Green Street Smoked Meats: a Texas-style smokehouse down a West Loop alley, and the easiest good barbecue downtown.
- Soul & Smoke: Black-owned barbecue with brisket and ribs in a riverside beer-garden complex in Avondale.
- Twin Anchors: baby back ribs in an Old Town tavern that dates to 1932. It's a different tradition, but a Chicago classic all the same.
Don't stop at barbecue
The same mild sauce goes on Chicago's fried chicken. Try it at Harold's Chicken Shack or on sauce-soaked wings at Uncle Remus. For the rest of the local lingo, see the Chicago Food Dictionary.
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