My order:
1 Beef, extra extra juicy (dipped), no peppers.
1 Large Fry
1 Diet Coke
Still hungry? Top it off with a milkshake.
I'm also a huge fan of Duke's cheeseburgers. The Italian Sausage -- extra red sauce -- is an old favorite as well.
Let me tell you...once you get a few miles outside of Chicago, you're not going to find a good Italian Beef, if you can find one at all. No one where I live now -- in Winston-Salem, North Carolina -- has a frickin' clue what an Italian beef even is. (The pizza here sucks, too.) I remember when I moved to Iowa City in 1987 and ordered an Italian sausage sandwich, and it came out looking like a hamburger: a round flattened patty on a bun. And I was like, "What the hell is this?" I say this for the benefit of all of you (or "you's," in true South-Side-speak) who still live in and around Chicago. You can piss and moan about the long winters all you want and no one will blame you, but you have no idea how good you have it food-wise.
If you want to see Duke's old sign, click here. And if you want to salivate over your keyboard, their menu is here. (My favorite item: "Piece of Bread. $1.25.")
I dedicated a chapter to Duke's in my novel The Book of Ralph. The owners were then kind enough to let me do a book-signing there; they've also been displaying a poster for the book going on four years now. How did I repay them? I inserted a scene in my next novel, America's Report Card, in which two inmates argue about the best beef sandwich joints in the Chicago area. Duke's, of course, was one of them. Look: Some filmmakers and TV stars use product placement so they'll get free luxury cars, free jewelry, or free vacations to exotic lands. Me? I'll go for the free beef sandwich every time.
Long live Duke's!
10 comments:
Why bother with the diet coke at that point?
You are exactly right, John. Italian beef is strictly a Chicago phenomenon. I like mine dipped with sweet!
Duke's was really a fun place to hang. Always the sound of cars lighting it up as they exited the lot onto Harlem. The amber neon lights so prevalent in drive-ins gleaming on chrome super chargers. The hot babes painfully uninterested in the likes of me and my buds...Ah, the good ole' days!
I hear where you’re coming from. Whenever you hear an interview with a celebrity, (especially sports celebrities) when asked, “What do like most about Chicago?” the answer is always “the food.” Dukes are by far my favorite place for beef sandwiches. I prefer the beef and sausage combo fries and a chocolate milkshake. I honestly think that is all I ever had off that menu.
Who can forget the Friday nights in the summer with Dukes parking lot loaded with muscle cars and the sound of big engines roaring up and down Harlem ave. As a kid it was so cool, but as a teenager when you could drive in you felt like you were a part of something very special. I’m not sure if they still do that but if they do, I’m going to make a point this summer to stop in for a beef combo then shoot over to the Plush Horse in Palos for a homemade banana split.
I love dukes! When I was a kid and played softball over at the baseball fields a few blocks from there we would always go there for ice cream after our games.
Always loved the beef from there too, we served it up at many family get togethers over the years.
Also always really loved their tamale boats too.
I still try and stop there when I get down in the area, which isn't too often these days.
Oh, I almost completely forgot about that it's been so long since the last time I was there on one of those nights. All the cool old cars that used to come up there! That was always a lot of fun to check out in the summer, my friends and I used to ride our bikes up there.
I love Duke's whemn my sister first got married she lived accrossedthe street from dukes.
so every saturday night we would go over and look at the cars.
Again, a great old hangout. I remember the old Bridgeview Drive-In sign before Duke's bought it. Awesome beef (love the gravy bread, too!). And talk about hot counter girls. I dated one when I got to Reavis, one of my best memories of Duke's!
My Dukes experience was so funny! My grandmother lived right next door to Dukes and I was over at her apartment visiting one weekend. During the weekends at Dukes, the parking lot was always full of hot rods and awesome cars that everyone was so proud of. When I left my grandmother's to go home, I was driving my mom's really old Plymouth Fury and I made a wrong turn and couldn't get out onto Harlem and had to drive through Dukes parking lot while they were judging all the cars and I had to get in the line of cars to be judged just to get out. Needless to say, mom's car didn't win. LOL It was SO embarassing!!
John,
Thanks for immortalizing Burbank forever! Many people that I tell stories to about Burbank stare in disbeliefe. It was a unique town to say the least, but we survived it, none the worse for the wear. I look forward to seeing future entries and comments.
Of all my childhood memories, and unfortunately there aren't many left, Brdgeview Drive-In/Dukes is the one I haven't lost. Having the benfit of living about as close as anyone could, I just naturaly ended up being a regular. The best days were before the "car shows", there was just a handful of us hanging out there with our cars waiting for someone from Archer to show up for a race. Then it was a convoy out to 107th or Rt. 6 or 183rd....funny I live out in those areas now and whenever I'm on one of those roads a memory of one race or another would pop up.
Post a Comment