How Chicago eats: hot dogs, two kinds of pizza, smoked fish and Saturday markets

Chicago's food is a story of people arriving and staying. Generation after generation, newcomers brought their cooking with them and adapted it to a city of long winters and longer workdays. The result is food that is hearty, unfussy and fiercely defended, and much of it is still served by family-run places that have been at it for generations.

The dishes Chicago claims

Start with the hot dog. On the Northwest Side, Superdawg Drive-In has been serving from the corner of Milwaukee, Devon and Nagle since Maurie and Flaurie Berman opened it in May 1948, and the family still runs it there. The Superdawg arrives with golden mustard, piccalilli, a kosher dill pickle, chopped onions and a hot pepper, and carhops still bring it to your car on a tray beneath the two hot dog figures on the roof.

Then there is pizza, and in Chicago that means choosing a side. Pan pizza has its loyalists at Pequod's on Clybourn Avenue in Lincoln Park, where a ring of mozzarella pressed against the edge of the pan caramelizes into a dark, crisp crust; Burt Katz opened the first Pequod's in suburban Morton Grove in 1971. Many South and Southwest Siders will tell you the real Chicago pizza is thin. Vito & Nick's, on South Pulaski Road, is family owned, counts more than a century in business and says plainly that it is all about the thin crust.

Newer arrivals keep adding chapters. In Ukrainian Village, Kasama, on North Winchester Avenue, is a Filipino bakery and counter by day, and at night it serves a reservation-only Filipino-inspired tasting menu. Its site displays a 2023 James Beard Award and two Michelin stars for 2025.

On the Southeast Side, beside the Calumet River, Calumet Fisheries smokes fish on site over natural oak after an overnight brine, a method it has kept rather than switching to liquid smoke. In 2010 the James Beard Foundation named it one of America's Classics, an award for long-loved local restaurants.

Where the ingredients come from

The Midwest's farms are close, and Chicago's best cooks lean on them. Green City Market, a nonprofit market that centers its stalls on Midwest growers who farm sustainably, runs outdoor Saturday markets in Lincoln Park at 1817 N. Clark St. and in the West Loop at 900 W. Monroe St. through November 21. On December 5 it moves indoors for the winter at 3031 N. Rockwell St.

That farm-to-table thinking has a long-running home in Logan Square. Lula Cafe, on Kedzie Boulevard, describes its cooking as inventive, market-driven and mostly organic, and its brunch draws a crowd. In Pilsen, Pleasant House Pub on South Halsted Street, opened in 2016 by Art and Chelsea Jackson, the couple behind Pleasant House Bakery, bakes British-inspired savory pies and builds its menu around local sourcing, including seasonal greens from nearby farms.

Farming happens inside the city limits too. Urban Growers Collective runs a farm stand at its South Chicago farm, 9001 S. Mackinaw Ave., on Saturdays from mid-May to late October, with a sliding scale for shoppers who need help, and its Fresh Moves mobile market bus brings produce to schools, clinics and community sites on weekdays.

The market calendar

Chicago's market season runs roughly from May to October, with a few holdouts into November. Before you go, check each market's own page, since dates shift from year to year.

• Daley Plaza Farmers Market, 50 W. Washington St.: Thursdays from late May to late October; the 2026 season was its 48th.
• Lincoln Square Farmers Market, 2301 W. Leland Ave.: Tuesday mornings into mid-November (through November 17 this year) and Thursday afternoons through October.
• Andersonville Farmers Market, 1500 W. Winona St.: Wednesday afternoons from May to October.
• Bronzeville Farmers Market, 4702 S. Martin Luther King Dr.: Sundays from June through September.
• Maxwell Street Market, on Maxwell Street between Halsted Street and Union Avenue: six Sunday market days a season, with 2026 marking its 114th year.

Many city markets accept Illinois Link benefits, and at those taking part in the Link Match program shoppers can have their purchase matched dollar for dollar, up to a set amount, at the market's SNAP booth.

Coffee, and a few words of advice

Chicago roasts its own coffee, too. Metropolis Coffee Company roasts its beans in the city and pours them at its café at 1039 W. Granville Ave. in Edgewater, a good place to warm up after a winter market morning.

The best way to eat in Chicago is to follow the neighborhoods. Take the bus to a place your coworker's family has been going to for decades, ask what the regulars order and be ready to hear an opinion about pizza. Then come back next season, because the market stalls and the menus will have changed with the weather.