CHICAGO — Where’s the beef?
In Chicago, it’s thinly sliced and dripping in au jus, layered in a crunchy French roll and topped with sweet or hot peppers.
Three hours south in Springfield, it’s sitting between a piece of toast and a pile of cheese-covered fries.
Chicago’s handheld Italian beef and Springfield’s open-faced horseshoe sandwich are beloved hometown delicacies — but which one deserves to be crowned the state’s official sandwich?
Though the horseshoe has unofficially held the title in Springfield for years, if House Bill 4669 passes, the Italian beef would become the state sandwich. State Rep. Rick Ryan, a Democrat from southeast suburban Evergreen Park, introduced the bill Jan. 28, and it has since gained seven co-sponsors with bipartisan support.
The idea came about last year at a Christmas party in Springfield attended by dozens of state staffers from across Illinois, Ryan told Block Club. It’s tradition each year for attendees to come up with a bill to introduce in the legislature, he said.
“Every year they try to come up with a bill [that’s] kind of fun, something they can pass that they call their own,” Ryan said by phone from Springfield.
Knowing that Ryan’s office in Springfield has a poster on the wall showcasing iconic Chicago foods, including Italian beef, the group of staffers from Chicago, Rockford, Springfield and elsewhere asked if he would be the one to sponsor a bill designating the Italian beef as the state sandwich.
As an Italian-American who used to sit in his grandma’s kitchen while beef was simmering on the stove, he was happy to do it, he said.
“It’s a food that goes back to my childhood, so it’s just kind of a natural fit for me,” Ryan said.
Ryan’s bill received a unanimous “do pass” recommendation on Feb. 18 from the State Government Administration Committee, including support from Republican Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, who represents the Springfield area.
Ryan is tentatively planning to bring the bill for a vote on May 19 or 20.
Most Chicagoans know the Italian beef sandwich. They’re less knowledgeable about the horseshoe and understandably so: You can’t find it in the city, although it is a seasonal menu item at TriBecca’s Sandwich Shop in Avondale.
Which sandwich most speaks to the hearts and stomachs of Illinoisians? Let’s dive in.
The Horseshoe
The horseshoe sandwich is a hearty, open-faced knife-and-forker consisting of two pieces of toasted bread topped with a protein and a wad of french fries and smothered in a homemade cheese sauce.
A half-size portion with one slice of bread is called a ponyshoe. A mega-size portion is called a clydesdale.
Becca Grothe, chef and co-owner of TriBecca’s Sandwich Shop, 2949 W. Belmont Ave., described the horseshoe as a “nap-inducing sandwich” that is also “great for a hangover.” She grew up in Galesburg, Illinois, and made a tradition out of eating horseshoes when she would visit family near Springfield.
It is “quite a commitment” to eat, she said.
According to a plaque commemorating the Springfield hotel where the sandwich was invented, the name “horseshoe” refers to the shape of the original cut of ham. The fries represent the “nails” of a horseshoe, and the sizzling platter it was served on was the “anvil.”
Originally served ham-and-egg-style, it has evolved to include chicken, beef patties, corned beef, turkey, veggie burgers, sausage, Sloppy Joe and any combination thereof.
A key component of the horseshoe is the homemade sauce, which may or may not include beer. There are also breakfast and dessert versions.
At Charlie Parker’s Diner in Springfield, you can get varieties like a Philly Shoe, a Chili Cheeseburger Shoe and horseshoes topped with tater tots instead of fries. D’Arcy’s Pint, also in Springfield, offers at least seven horseshoe options with either spicy or traditional cheese, including an Irish cheesesteak shoe, the Mac Daddy shoe and a rotating weekly special.
A Capitol Idea
Nearly all accounts trace the horseshoe to 1928 at Springfield’s Leland Hotel.
Books and articles written about the sandwich say the hotel’s Chef Joseph Schweska devised the concoction with the help of his wife after telling her he was having trouble coming up with a new lunch item for the menu. Some accounts say Schweska created it late one night out of necessity when a hungry hotel guest requested a meal as the kitchen was closing.
Regardless, both versions assert that his wife Elizabeth gave him the idea of using a Welsh rarebit recipe. Welsh rarebit (sometimes spelled “rabbit”) is toast topped with cheese sauce and typically broiled.
A note on the menu at Obed and Isaac’s microbrewery and eatery in Springfield adds to the mystery, saying it was created by a 17-year-old dishwasher at the hotel, or “maybe the chef who taught him how to cook.”
The horseshoe was on the menu at the hotel’s Red Lion Tavern, first as a high-end dish, according to the book “We Eat What?” edited by Jonathan Deutsch. It spread from there to the Red Coach Inn when Steve Tomko, who previously worked with Schweska in the Leland kitchen, began working there, according to Deutsch and others.
Schweska’s original recipe, including the cheese sauce, wasn’t revealed until about a decade later when it was published in a Springfield newspaper on Christmas, according to Visit Springfield, the city’s tourism branch.
In 1973, the horseshoe was declared “Central Illinois’s most popular dish” by the Herald and Review newspaper. In the article, Tomko confessed that although he’d been making the sandwich for over 40 years, he had “never eaten one yet.”
Today, the horseshoe is no longer considered fine fare; you’ll find it at sandwich shops and diners across central Illinois.
A Springfield Rite Of Passage
Fans of the horseshoe proudly stand by it. Springfield’s tourism arm even promotes a Horseshoe Trail route of 33 restaurants and a historic site that celebrate and offer the dish.
“It’s all about the cheese sauce,” Kristi Muller, creative director at Conn’s Hospitality Group, which operates Obed and Isaac’s, told Block Club. “That’s the staple, the one thing that everybody can agree on.”
The Springfield brewery has been serving them since it opened in 2012 and the sandwich is among its top sellers at about 1,000 sandwiches a month, Muller said.
Obed and Isaac’s version is hamburger piled on two pieces of Texas toast, plus cheese sauce made with the brewery’s beer and a mound of fries, though there are different protein options, like pulled pork, Buffalo chicken or lamb.
While Block Club did not find the horseshoe offered as a regular menu item in Chicago, TriBecca’s in Avondale’s seasonal version will return to the shop in the fall.
When Grothe opened TriBecca’s in 2022, she wanted to focus on “Midwest-style” sandwiches and Chicago-centric dishes as well as “things that have not yet made it all the way north to Chicago yet,” she said.
“It’s kind of the perfect sandwich for this type of shop,” she said. “It’s got all the stuff you want on it.”
And it’s always a conversation starter, Grothe said.
“A surprising number of people knew about it,” she said. “They would look at the menu [and] be like, ‘Oh, you have a horseshoe? How do you know about a horseshoe?’ [And I would ask], ‘Well, how do you know about a horseshoe?”
TriBecca’s co-owner Christine Cikowski said the restaurant gets messages on social media about once a month asking about the horseshoe. But until fall arrives, you’ll likely need to head south of Chicago to try one.
It’s a “rite of passage” in Springfield, Muller said. “If you’re here, you’ve got to try one, and you’ve got to ask the locals where to get one.”
The Italian Beef
Italian beef is a staple of many Chicago diets.
Thinly sliced, seasoned beef is roasted, marinated and bathed in its juices, then stuffed between a French roll. It’s often topped with sweet or hot peppers and perhaps a little melted mozzarella. Serious eaters ask for it to be completely dipped in au jus.
The original Al’s No. 1 Italian Beef, 1079 W. Taylor St. in Little Italy, recommends eating a beef using the “Italian Stance“: standing with your legs about 2½ feet apart, your elbows on the counter, leaning in and “[digging] your face into it.”
When Rep. Ryan is in the Chicago area, he said his top two spots for a beef are Pop’s Italian Beef & Sausage, 10337 S. Kedzie Ave. in Mount Greenwood, for a traditional version and Rosangela’s Pizza, 2807 W. 95th St. in Evergreen Park, for a toasted, red au jus version.
An Immigrant Tradition
The savory sandwich came to Chicago in the early 1900s by way of Italian immigrants who brought a wave of culinary traditions, according to “The Chicago Food Encyclopedia,” edited by Carol Mighton Haddix, Bruce Kraig and Colleen Taylor Sen.
“Italians, most from the southern part of the country, created Italian beef, which was probably first served at weddings in the Taylor Street neighborhood known as ‘Little Italy,’” according to the book.
Working-class Italian home cooks often used cheaper cuts of beef to create filling sandwiches that cost little to make, a custom that caught on at weddings in the 1920s, known as “peanut weddings,” according to the encyclopedia.
“Working-class Italian American families would rent halls and supply their own food for the events, commonly including roasted peanuts and sandwiches filled with slices of wet-roasted beef,” according to “The Chicago Food Encyclopedia.” “Given the volume of food required … families would prepare the beef and often take it to a local Italian bakery for cooking in a large oven, with the bakery supplying the bread.”
From this tradition came neighborhood Italian beef stands, particularly in Little Italy, according to the food encyclopedia. After World War II, the beef stand business proliferated, gaining a fanbase outside of Chicago’s Italian community.
Two of the earliest Chicago businesses to commercialize beef sandwiches in the ‘20s and ‘30s were Scala Packing Co., headed by Pasquale Scala, and Al’s No. 1 Italian Beef, run by Anthony Ferreri. Also included in the Italian beef hall of fame are the parents of Mario Ferraro, who runs Ciccio restaurant at Navy Pier. Ferraro told writer David Hammond his parents began selling Italian beef sandwiches down the block from Al’s a few years earlier than Ferreri.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Scala Packing Co. “approached hundreds of hot dog and burger joints that already were getting their Italian sausage from his family’s meat wholesale operation … and pitched them on the virtue of adding Scala’s Italian beef to their menus,” according to the Sun-Times obituary of Scala’s son, Pat Scala. From there, the company expanded to sports venues and grocery stores.
Today, Italian beef is synonymous with Chicago and can be found in restaurants, stores, greasy spoons, stadiums and venues across the city and suburbs.
The sandwich has been further popularized by Hulu’s “The Bear,” which was inspired by Mr. Beef, 666 N. Orleans St. in River North; show creator Christopher Storer is close friends with Mr. Beef owner Chris Zucchero.
But Is The Horsehoe A Sandwich?
Opinions and official definitions are split on whether the horseshoe qualifies as a sandwich at all.
Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary define a sandwich as two or more slices of bread, or a split roll, with filling in between — or, one slice of bread covered with food. The Britannica Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary don’t include singular-bread dishes in their definition of a sandwich.
During a Feb. 27 press conference about his pending legislation at Pop’s Beef in Mount Greenwood, Ryan argued that the horseshoe is “not actually a sandwich” but rather “an open-faced thing” not meant to be picked up, NBC 5 reported.
“In my mind, it’s got to be something you can hold in your hands to be a sandwich,” Ryan said.
While Grothe typically thinks of a sandwich as “filling between two pieces of bread,” that would discount sandwiches like the jibarito, which uses fried plantains in place of bread.
She and Muller agree that open-faced sandwiches still count as sandwiches. The ability to pick it up with both hands is “not a limitation I would put on my sandwiches,” Grothe said.
“If they want a challenge, I can pick up a horseshoe and eat it with my hands,” she said.
But Savannah Watts, who has lived in northern and southern Illinois and grew up visiting family in Springfield, considers the horseshoe “more like a platter than a sandwich.”
“I think the horseshoe could easily be the state’s signature platter and Italian Beef as the state sandwich,” she said.
Which Sandwich Is More ‘Illinois’?
Between 2004 and March 10, 2026, searches for the term “Italian beef” far outnumbered “horseshoe sandwich,” according to Google Trends.
Searches for the horseshoe spiked on Feb. 27, when news of the Illinois sandwich bill was first reported. The Chicago area saw the largest increase in searches that day with the query, “What is a horseshoe sandwich?”
Fans of the Italian beef and horseshoe shouted out their respective choices in an informal social media poll on X. “Horseshoes are amazing” wrote one social media user, while another asked “what the hell” a horseshoe was.
Lizzi Tooley, a Berwyn resident who works in Chicago and went to college in Springfield, said she’s rooting for the “far more unique” horseshoe.
“Everyone and every region has their own spin on a beef sandwich,” Tooley said. “[But a] pile of fun foods covered in cheese? That’s only Illinois, my friend.”
Others said the horseshoe was too niche to represent the entire state. Wendy Fox Weber, a longtime Chicagoan and journalist, said in her six decades of living in Illinois, she had never heard of a horseshoe sandwich.
“I looked it up but I am still not entirely sure how it works,” she said.
Before deciding which of the two should be considered the state sandwich, people should sample an authentic version of each, Grothe said. In other parts of the state where Italian beef may be available, it’s not always very good or representative of a true Chicago Italian beef, she and others said.
“I don’t think it’s fair to pick one over the other, because the people up in Chicago haven’t got to try horseshoes yet, and maybe the people in Southern Illinois haven’t gotten to really experience the Italian beef,” Grothe said. “We gotta spread these things throughout the state and let everyone try them.”
Room For Both?
There may not be a reason to choose between the two sandwiches.
At the February press conference, Ryan said he expects a colleague in the legislature to propose that the horseshoe is formally recognized as the state’s official open-faced sandwich.
“It’s a regional thing down in central and southern Illinois that they’re very proud of, so I don’t want to take that away from them,” Ryan said at the press conference.
While Ryan hasn’t eaten a horseshoe himself — “and I don’t know that I want to,” he said — he’s open to amending his bill to recognize the Italian beef as the official state sandwich and the horseshoe as the official open-faced sandwich.
“We can coexist,” he said.
Giving both sandwiches their flowers could be a way to make all Illinois residents feel seen without the need to compete against each other, Muller said.
“[In] the whole lower half of the state, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, well, Chicago thinks they have everything, thinks they do everything.’ So there’s definitely a little bit of rivalry there,” Muller said. “I think definitely … that Central Illinois would want to hold on to that horseshoe” while Chicagoans champion the Italian beef, she said.
Ryan, meanwhile, continues to campaign on behalf of the beef sandwich. On May 20, he’ll host an event in Springfield where he’ll give out Italian beefs to staffers who work around the capitol.
The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police are set to operate a food truck at the event and some actors from “The Bear” may make an appearance — though “it’s not etched in stone yet,” Ryan said.
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