Working A Shift At Chicago's #1 Italian Beef Sandwich Shop

I feel a little on the fence

about dunking a whole sandwich in sauce, but we'll see.

Maybe I can be converted.

I'm in Chicago at Al's #1 Italian Beef.

Today I'm gonna be working here.

And I'm gonna be making a sandwich.

I'm gonna be roasting the beef.

I'm gonna be slicing the beef.

I might dunk a sandwich in jus.

I'm gonna be making Giardiniera.

I'm doing it all.

[light, jaunty music]

Hey Chris.

Hey Cody. How's it going?

[Cody] Good. How you doing?

Good. Good.

What should I know about the restaurant?

About the sandwich?

Like-

My Uncle Al, which the place is named after,

after he got out of a stay in jail for a while,

they opened up this beef stand.

It was a front for a booky place.

Nice.

Do you guys still have any of that old spirit going on here?

Not no more.

What does it take to get on the wall?

A letter.

[laughing]

All right.

They're obviously famous people.

As you see Muhammad Ali, mayors.

[Cody] Pretty important people on this wall.

[Chris] Yeah.

All right, I'm ready to start. Let's do it.

[jaunty music]

This is the first thing we're gonna do.

We use a top sirloin butt.

We got two pieces here.

They're roughly about 15 pounds each.

All right.

And I have a spice pack that's created

by my grandfather back in 1917.

And we still continue the same recipe.

Can you tell me what's in it?

No.

Any of it?

That's why I got this.

Oh. Oh, oh!

[Chris] So you can see the seasoning pack here.

Can I guess a little bit?

[Chris] Sure.

Fennel. Cumin.

There's a lot of stuff in there.

Coriander.

There's 17 different spices.

Mustard seed.

You're gonna have a good time guessing.

Paprika, celery seed, bay leaf probably.

What we're gonna do, Cody, is introduce you to our pan.

[Cody] All right. Nice to meet you.

Right there.

Allspice.

Now you gotta put the garlic in it also.

Now you're gonna get that bale of water there,

and I'm gonna introduce a little bit of that into here.

[Cody] Nice.

[Chris] I want you to mix it in real good.

All right. I can do that. Absolutely.

Now we're gonna introduce the meat to this.

This is the top sirloin butt.

The reason we use the butt is because this muscle,

when I cut it so thin, it's still gonna hold together.

Ah.

It won't fall apart or shred.

Oscar's gonna be your trainer and your boss.

Nice. So Oscar, you've been working here for 20-

About 23, 24 years.

24 years.

What's your favorite part of, of your boss

and what's your least favorite part of your boss?

Later part he doesn't have.

[laughing]

He's gonna open the middle a little bit.

[Cody] All right.

And then he's gonna slice it in there.

It cooks through and through.

Like I took, we want it well done.

Ah.

Piece of meat.

And he's gonna introduce it to this.

[Cody] Nice.

Over here.

Right here?

Just like in the middle? Like this?

[Oscar] Yep.

Right there. There you go.

Fat side down?

Yes.

Cool.

All right. Give it a little flip.

There you go.

The total cooking time is three and a half hours.

So add a little more water now.

All right, cool. And that's it?

That's it.

I mean, we set it at 450.

So we're done with this process.

This has been cooking for three and a half hours.

Three and and a half hours. Alright.

And what we're gonna do, he's gonna pull out a piece.

Now, I don't want you to get burnt,

so keep an eye on Oscar, how he does it,

and then you're gonna turn it around and introduce it there.

All right, Cody, now it's your turn.

[Cody] Give it a good stab?

Give it a good stab in there. Grab it.

[Cody] Stab on the side here? There you go.

[Chris] If you drop it, you get a deduction in pay.

All right.

How much are you paying me again?

Not- too much.

[Cody] Too much, yeah.

I did get myself on the thing. So there you go.

Pretty good.

Yeah, I know, it's hot. So be careful.

Yeah, I know.

Then we're gonna take the pan and we're gonna strain it.

It's a little heavy now.

Yeah.

Be careful.

There you go.

Got it?

It's not only heavy, but it's hot.

Heavy and hot. Just like me.

All right, should we go?

[Chris] Go right in there.

Let's do it. Oh yeah.

[Chris] Everything.

[Cody] Not so bad.

[Chris] Every little bit.

That smells nice.

So there's like,

I'm seeing mustard seeds is there fennel, cumin maybe?

We're gonna learn all their secret spices here.

This is going to be cooled down

and then when it gets down to like a room temperature

we're gonna put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Cool.

[classical music]

So the beef's been in for 24 hours?

24 hours.

Now it gets down

to about 38 degrees, which is slicing temperature.

[Cody] Nice.

[Chris] It's a little heavy.

That's all right.

All right.

Got the beef.

So this looks a lot different than when we pulled it out.

You'll feel it's-

It's hard.

Yes. It's hard.

So we can trim.

Yeah.

You don't wanna trim it when it's soft.

You digging into the meat,

and you know it's a little rougher.

All right, cool.

[Chris] So we're gonna get rid of all the fat and nerve.

Anything that you think you would,

see the nerve right there?

Yeah. You don't want that.

So at work, I sometimes, depending on what I work,

will butcher, you know, whole lambs and pork loins.

[Chris] So your experienced with meat?

[Cody] Yeah, a little bit.

[Chris] Okay, good.

Yeah.

[Chris] It's no wonder why you're coming on so good.

So this is kind of, this is the engine for the restaurant.

This slicer is probably about 70 years old.

I call it my Frankenstein because

we keep putting it back together.

Keep working on it.

It looks kinda like a torture device.

Yeah, it is, if you've gotta work on it all day.

Oscar's gonna show you how this mechanism works.

[Cody] Great.

[Chris] It's gonna come out with small pieces at first.

Another way we like to test it, you put it on your tongue,

and if the juice of your tongue goes through it,

you know it's-

See what I'm talking about?

Uh huh.

You gotta watch them over here.

So make sure the slice is coming right.

See any nerve, just stop the machine.

Are you guys feeling nervous

with me so close to the machine?

Well, I'm want you to be careful with that blade.

Yeah. I'm just-

[Chris] 'Cause it has no pity on you.

Yeah. That's true.

Has anyone cut themselves?

[Chris] It's a rotating razor blade.

[Cody] Yeah.

[Chris] This is the beef that's ready to go out front.

[Cody] Cool.

All we're gonna do is, because it's cold-

Yeah?

You're gonna introduce it to our hot juice here. Gravy.

[Cody] This is the sauce that we strained.

[Chris] Right.

So what we're gonna do is introduce this cold product,

let it get up to the temperature 104 degrees.

[Cody] Yeah.

[Chris] And then bring it out there.

Then I don't change temperatures in our-

[Cody] Sure, that makes sense.

[Chris] Then we're gonna pour some

juice in there afterwards.

You did a good job there, Cody.

[Cody] Yeah? Thank you.

Cody, so this is our Giardiniera.

You keep it in trash cans.

This is Italian Tupperware.

Yeah, there you go.

What makes Giardiniera, Giardiniera?

Giardiniera, in Italian, means vegetables in a garden.

It's like a Chicago idol.

Everybody makes their own way.

This is made for Italian beef.

This is basically-

Celery.

Celery and spices.

We have a seasoning pack for this also

Oh nice.

This is roughly about six pounds.

It'll make 30 gallons with the celery.

First of all, Oscar's gonna help us.

[Cody] Oh he is?

Oscar, it seems like you're

the engine behind this restaurant.

He's your trainer.

[Cody] Right, right, right, right, right.

You're gonna put about five stalks into this.

[Cody] Beautiful. Is that 20?

Yes. So, but the time, the numbers are-

[Cody] Oh, look at that.

It's amazing.

[Chris] He's gonna add the seasoning pack.

[Cody] Cool.

And you're gonna add oil to this.

Now it'll have to sit for three to four days.

[classical music]

We're gonna show you how to make a beef sandwich here.

All right.

What makes an Italian sandwich, like what unites them?

Italian beef sandwich is when I put the beef in here

and it blends, all the flavors come together.

Yeah. I'm seeing cheese whiz over there.

[Chris] Yeah.

I'm seeing peppers.

I'm seeing sliced beef, like, what's the difference

between an Italian beef, Philly cheese steak, French dip?

Philly cheese steak, you got a grill,

you throw your steak on there you chop it up,

throw some cheese whiz on it, scoop it up

and hand it to the guy.

It's called frying.

This just takes three and a half hours.

Right. Cooled, separated from its juice.

Then we blend it all back together

after slicing it to paper thin.

And that's called cooking.

That's definitely called cooking.

So what kind of bread is this?

Well the french bread that we use is very dense.

It holds together when you get a lot of juice on it.

It's not gonna fall apart on ya.

It's made here in Chicago.

So I see you got a pretty [beep] up fork here.

What's the deal with this?

This is Al's fork.

Did you [beep] these forks up yourself?

Yes I did.

Gonna move it around a little bit like this.

[Cody] Give it a nice little stir.

[Chris] Three decent scoops.

You know, like say, like this.

And we're gonna add some Giardiniera to it.

It's one big tablespoon.

Spread it unless somebody wants more.

Yeah. You wanna see me make one?

You give me feedback?

Well go ahead.

Yeah, there we go.

Let's try it.

So I got my bread, give it a little mixeroo.

Yeah. There you go.

Yeah, slap it on another one of those.

All right. Cool Giardiniera.

[Chris] Nice. Healthy.

[Cody] Like that?

[Chris] Do a little bit more.

[Cody] Yeah, why not?

There ya go.

No follow it.

[wrapper crinkling]

That's good.

Yeah? Just two?

Beautiful.

[Chris] As long as it ain't dripping all over the place.

Yeah. All right.

So what do you think?

You got that down?

I think I got it. Yeah.

Should I start cranking through some orders or what?

What do you got?

We got a beef, dipped.

[Chris] How many?

[Worker] Just one.

Just one. Dipped?

[Chris] Dipped.

All right, sweet.

No regular beef.

That's the big one.

Oh.

Sweet peppers means no Giardiniera or both?

[Chris] No Giardiniera.

Like this? This many peppers?

Are you on your phone?

We're in the middle of training.

Oh I'm sorry.

What the hell's going on?

That's it.

Oh, he wanted it dipped.

You got one more-

Dip. Dip.

Gonna grab it.

Oh yeah, gettin' freaky with it.

This is super soaked.

Great. There you go.

Here you are. Thank you very much.

[Customer 1] Thank you.

Take it easy.

You got a big order here.

One regular beef, hot.

Provolone, sweet peppers.

Then you got another regular beef.

[Cody] Two sandwiches.

Two sandwiches. This one's dry.

And then I got a hot dog.

With fries and everything on it.

[Chris] With everything too.

All right. Cool. Sweet.

So Cody, you gotta get the cheese.

Okay. Feel already that I'm moving slow.

Okay, so what we're gonna do, wait a minute.

We're gonna put the cheese on first

'cause we want it to melt.

Do they want it dipped?

I feel like they said dip.

Did you want one dipped?

[Customer 2] Yup. One Dipped. One dry.

[Cody] Dip it down. There you go.

[Chris] Dip it down again.

Yeah, why not? Come on.

[Chris] All right. That's good.

[Cody] Gotta get some Giardiniera on there.

Oh man, it's juicy.

That's a juicy boy.

[Chris] Yeah, it's 'cause you dipped it.

Next one's dry.

[Chris] Same idea.

Provolone here.

This, peppers.

All right. Let's make a hot dog.

You want it up like this?

Just a little like that?

[Chris] Yeah, that's it.

[Cody] Oh, there we go.

[Chris] Same thing with this.

[Cody] Why is it emerald green?

[Chris] That's the color we like.

You don't wanna put too many.

There you go.

[Cody] Yeah, that's cool.

[Chris] Now wrap it.

Pinch of napkins.

What's the order number?

I lost the ticket.

I got two sandwiches, a hot dog, and side of fries.

Yeah, there you go.

There she is.

So Cody, how was your day today?

Did you enjoy it?

I enjoyed it.

Yeah. I liked making the sandwiches.

I didn't hear no complaints.

Yeah, that's good.

So that's a good sign, huh?

I just noticed, you know, there's obviously

like all these like cool people that have been here before.

I just, I thought maybe, you know.

Oh, look at that.

If you wanted to.

I've never been on like a wall before so I think-

Yes!

Well think, you can think about it.

I'm happy to sign it or not sign it.

Yeah, sign it.

I feel like I'm gonna say, Chris,

I've never done this before.

I said you're my hero.

Okay. I'm your hero.

Best beef in town.

Smiley face.

Mr. Beef? Mr. Beef?

No, don't say Mr. Beef!

Al's Beef.

All right. Yours, Cody.

That's cool. It looks like I have a bone appetit tattoo.

You know I'll be back in a couple weeks

just to make sure you put it up.

I might have put it in the section over there.