Hank's Juicy Beef New York, Ny

Supposedly, eating it necessitated a special bent-over stance, legs apart, to prevent your clothes from being dribbled on with juices. The archetype Chicago Italian beef sandwich may also be topped with sweet and hot peppers and is sometimes farther customized with marinara sauce, giardiniera, provolone, or an Italian sausage. Dozens of places serve the sandwich in the Windy City, and every Chicagoan has a favorite place to get 1 and a favorite configuration.

The Italian beef with hotgiardiniera

The sandwich has been slow coming to New York City, on the heels of other items of Chicago cuisine that include deep-dish pizzas and Vienna Cherry-red Hots. When Hank's Juicy Beef debuted recently on Chambers Street, some colleagues at Vox Media who have lived in Chicago decided we'd improve effort the sandwich correct abroad. Nosotros got four in a variety of configurations — from sweetness peppers on beef to giardiniera on a beef and sausage combo — and carried them to our Midtown office. The sandwiches were priced from $9.50 to $14.

The buns were seven inches in length, pale and spongy. They were perfectly adequate but not distinguished. I sandwich seemed to be dipped in actress gravy, and in that case, you lot could really gustation the oregano. The beefiness was fine, merely not particularly beefy tasting. What was really distinguished, meat-wise, was the Italian sausage, which had plain been shipped from Chicago. It was finer grained and denser than the ones yous get here, and engagingly flavored with fennel. While virtually Chicagoans can go sweet and hot peppers on their sandwich, at Hank'due south you have a option of hot or sweet giardiniera. The hot peppers in the sometime were deep green and actually hot, while the sweet peppers, bachelor with no accuse separate from the giardiniera, were bitter and not very expert. The optimal sandwich at Hank's would be a combo beef and sausage, dipped in extra gravy and piled with hot giardiniera.

Henry "Hank" Tibensky, a native of the Chicago suburbs, decided to open the restaurant considering he missed the archetype food from his childhood. How does information technology hold upwards with former Chicagoans? Here'due south what some of us thought of his version of the meaty treats. — Robert Sietsema

Jasmin James, Social Media Managing director, Eater National

As a native south sider, I judge a skillful Italian beefiness by its au jus every bit much every bit I do the meat, peppers, and breadstuff. It's all about remainder. Sweet to spicy, moisture to dry out, tender to chewy etc. If ane gene is slightly off, the sandwich volition inevitably miss the marking. The get-go bite will ultimately determine if yous're dealing with a existent Italian beef or a dry, chewy impersonator.

Growing up, my personal preference at any one of my favorite beef purveyors was an Italian beef (non a philharmonic), dipped, with sugariness peppers on and hot peppers on the side. Occasionally, I'd get a side of marinara or add provolone. but this combination of sweetness and hot and juicy was admittedly perfect equally is.

An Italian sausage sandwich with sugariness peppers

What I enjoyed nigh about Hank's was the meat. It was seasoned to perfection, non too salty or chewy. Surprisingly, this sausage was better than a lot of sausages I've had in Chicago. The casing was tender, and the insides had the right amount of spice and fatty. Information technology had all the powerful season yous should expect in a good Italian sausage. And so at that place was the au jus, a very tasty goop that perfectly soaked the Italian bread and held the entire seize with teeth together nicely. Everything, including the hot and mild peppers, tasted fresh, and the portions of meat were absurd.

On the other manus, the sugariness peppers were biting, not sweet, and I think size wise, my 2nd favorite slinger of archetype Italian beef, Bartolini'due south, has Hank's beat. I didn't get to taste the ruby-red sauce and the provolone, only a true Italian beef sandwich shop includes all the fixing options in the cost since everyone's combination of spice and sauce volition be unlike. (Cheese costs an extra dollar at Hank'due south, and while love apple sauce is available on an eggplant parm, it's not listed on the menu as an addition to the Italian beef.)

I'd definitely order it over again. Biting into it took me back home, where you can literally smell the meat and au jus wafting in the air at any archetype Italian beef articulation. This sandwich tasted much improve than the clone car that is Al'southward Beef and instead reminds me of some of the Southward Side's best, including Freddie'southward (Bronzeville), John's (Midlothian), Portillo's (Crestwood), Bartolini's (Midlothian), and Ricobene'southward (Armour Square). Good job, NYC.

Matt Ufford, Editor-at-Big, SBNation

It'due south a risky proposition to make regional nutrient outside its geographic home. Po' boys belong in New Orleans, paella in Kingdom of spain, pasties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Effort to recreate them elsewhere, and your core audition — expats who've had the real thing — will too be the most demanding critics. Your production, at its best, can transport customers habitation for the length of a sandwich, simply it will invariably neglect to replicate your sepia-toned memories.

So is Hank's Juicy Beef as proficient as my favorites, similar the Giordano'southward chaff-encased oddity? Probably, just how would I e'er know? My memories of Chicago's Italian beef sandwiches are infused with the carefree ease of college life. Hank'southward beef is flavorful and — as advertised — juicy, but I can't eat it in 1998 while ignoring chemistry homework and watching a new episode of golden-age "Simpsons," so there'south no fair comparison. Nostalgia sets an impossibly high standard.

But I'll give this to Hank: his hot peppers are the perfect residue of spicy and tangy, and ten bucks for a sandwich is cheaper than a ticket to Chicago. He needs to offer the sandwich with more au jus, though. C'mon, homo, I'one thousand trying to recreate my youth here.

A combo sandwich with both Italian sausage and Italian beefiness

Daniela Galarza, News Editor, Eater National

Hank's Juicy Beefiness nails the Chicago-style Italian sausage sandwich. The meat mixture is blended with so much garlic and herbs and fennel seeds that the meat becomes a vehicle for the spices. It's sealed in a chewy — but not too snappy — casing that has been browned in grease. The bread soaks up this grease, as it should, and a side of giardiniera adds acidity and rut to cut the fat. Hank's Italian sausages are much like those at Portillo's, a Chicago institution, and I wouldn't change a thing about them. Only the eating house falls brusque on its namesake, the Chicago-style Italian beef. Here the beefiness is a little bit also chewy, and the jus a picayune bit too salty. I grew up going to Al'south, where the shredded beef practically melts in your mouth, and the jus is so proficient you order a bit more on the side for dipping or sipping.

Serena Dai, News Editor, Eater New York

I spent my college years and several after in the Chicagoland area, and my first taste of the Italian beef happened over one Thanksgiving weekend. I was just starting to realize that that a friend from my dorm room floor would soon get my all-time friend, and while I don't want to say it'due south all because she introduced me to a sandwich that puts Italian beef on tiptop of an Italian sausage, let's just say that helped. We stopped at Portillo'southward for a combo sandwich and a chocolate cake shake before she dropped me off at O'Hare. It was cumbersome, calorie-laden, and super delicious.

Hank's Juicy Beefiness hits all the right notes to bring me dorsum to one-time times. The sausage meets the ideal of a spiced, flavorful encased meat with just the right amount of give. The Italian beefiness sandwich looked like the wet, meaty specimens from Chicago. And together, in a combo topped with giardiniera , the sandwich made sense. In fact, it might have fifty-fifty physically held together ameliorate than some I've had in Chicago. Like Robert said, the sweetness pepper was flavorless and mediocre, and definitely avoid the sausage-just sandwich. (The bread, without the extra beef juice, is not much better than what you tin can become at your local bodega.) Side by side time, I'll probably ask for extra hot giardiniera and a loving cup of au jus on the side. It's non perfect, but information technology'll practice.

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Italian Beefiness and Chicago Fashion Hot Dogs at Carm'due south

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Hank'southward Juicy Beefiness

84 Chambers St, New York, NY 10007

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Source: https://ny.eater.com/2016/7/19/12212272/italian-beef-nyc-review

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