The food that fuels hardworking Chicagoans needs to be hearty, portable and inexpensive. Featuring select stories and recipes, author Amy Bizzarri surveys the delectable landscape of Chicago's homegrown culinary hits. Enterprising locals transform standard fare into Chicago classics, including Spinning Salad, Flaming Saganaki, Jumpballs, Jim Shoes, Pizza Puffs and Pullman Bread. The restaurants, bakeries, taverns and pushcarts cherished from one generation to the next offer satisfying warmth in winter and sweet refreshment in summer. This timeless balancing act produced icons like the Cape Cod Room's Bookbinder Soup and the Original Rainbow Cone, as well as Andersonville Coffee Cake and Taylor Street's Italian Lemonade. Amy Bizzarri is an extreme Chicago history buff and freelance writer. She lives with her two children in a vintage 1910 home in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. When she's not writing, you'll most likely find her swimming laps at Holstein Park pool, riding her bicycle around Humboldt Park or sharing an Atomic Sundae at Margie's Candies. Amy blogs at DiscoveringVintageChicago.com Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts By Amy Bizzarri The History Press Copyright © 2016 Amy Bizzarri All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4671-3551-1 Contents Introduction, Bertha Palmer's Brownies, Chicago-Style Giardiniera, Blackhawk Spinning Salad, Berghoff Creamed Spinach, Andersonville Coffee Cake, Margie's Atomic Sundae, Fannie May Pixies, Maurice Lenell Pinwheels, Flaming Saganaki, Bookbinder Red Snapper Soup, Mrs. Herring's Chicken Pot Pie, Taylor Street Italian Lemonade, Stuffed Melrose Peppers, Italian Beef Sandwich, Cracker Jack, The Jibarito, Chicago-Style Hot Dog, Chicken Vesuvio, Chicago-Style Hot Tamales, Ann Sather's Cinnamon Rolls with Powdered Sugar Glaze, Mother-in-Laws, Jumpballs, Jim Shoes and the Maxwell Street Polish, Subgum, The Rainbow Cone and Palmer House Ice Cream, Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza, Shrimp De Jonghe, Chicago-Born Cocktails: Chicago Fizz, Chicago Cocktail, Cohasset Punch, Chicago Cocktail, Cohasset Punch, Mickey Finn, Eli's Cheesecake, Chicago-Style Pizza Puffs, Chicago-Style Oysters, Chicago-Style Paczki, Roeser's German Chocolate Cake, Frango Mint Chocolate Cheesecake, Henrici's Coffee Cake, Pullman Bread, Chicago-Style Rib Tips, Green River Soda, Twinkies, Portillo's Chocolate Cake, Morton's Baked Five-Onion Soup, Akutagawa, Recommended Reading and Eating, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 BERTHA PALMER'S BROWNIES If Chicago had royalty, Bertha Palmer would be considered one of the most generous queens in city history. Intelligent, inventive and beautiful, she bestowed her charm and grace on a gritty city on the move. Born in 1849 in Louisville, Kentucky, with a silver spoon in her mouth, she was so striking that Chicago retail and real estate magnate Potter Palmer, rendered instantly dumbstruck the first time he met her, waited until she came of age, in 1870, to marry her. Historian Ernest Poole described her best when he said, "She was beautiful, dashing, quick, and smart; and more than that, she was sure of herself." But Bertha Palmer was not a mere socialite, content with living the gilded life in a rapidly growing Chicago. When Potter Palmer's Palmer House Hotel — a wedding gift to Bertha — burned to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she supported her husband as he rebuilt his fortune from the ashes. She played a key role in the city's social and cultural development and was an early member of the politically active Chicago Woman's Club. Bertha Palmer voiced her support of universal kindergarten as an integral part of the Chicago school system. She campaigned for basic women's rights, including subsidized milk for impoverished children and better care for the children of imprisoned mothers. As president of the board of lady managers for the World's Columbian Exposition, she worked to ensure that women were well represented in both the Women's Building and beyond; her first step was her insistence that a competition — open to women only — be held to select the architect of the Woman's Building. She was a savvy patron of the arts, collecting a number of French impressionist works, now the central masterpieces of the Art Institute of Chicago's collection. At the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 dedication ceremony, Bertha remarked, "Even more important than the discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is the fact that the general government has just discovered women." Many people don't know that this grand dame invented one of America's tastiest treats: the brownie. During the 1893 exposition, Bertha Palmer worked with the Palmer House pastry chef to create a delicious dessert that would be compact enough to fit into a boxed lunch for attending ladies. Smart, stylish ladies need not worry about crumbs landing in their laps. The result was the rich,