Corned beef sandwiches on St. Patrick’s Day have become the ritual food for the day that we celebrate in Chicago by dyeing the river an unholy green.
This is my tenth year at the Tribune covering the corned beef beat, which began as an epic Jewish deli story.
Since then I’ve eaten more classic corned beefs on rye and Reubens — plus increasingly pastrami — than anyone ever should. We’ve traced corned beef culture from delis to Irish American pubs and Black-owned businesses across the city and out to the suburbs.
To mark our meaty milestone, we’re featuring the people behind mile-high masterpieces around Chicago, who make iconic sandwiches and indelible experiences with a sense of place, in what we’re calling Meet Your Maker.
Jim Radek at Moon’s Sandwich Shop
“It’s what we call a diner,” said Jim Radek, owner of Moon’s Sandwich Shop in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. But Moon’s dates back to 1933, long before Radek took over.
The original owner was Anthony Gambino, he added, and the story goes that Gambino and his brothers and sisters were moonshiners during Prohibition. The siblings switched to hot dog and hamburger places when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
Gambino and his oldest son carried on with their own little burger and chili joint. That original location at 22 S. Western Ave. was across the street.
The second son joined the family business in the 1940s, and the third son after World War II ended in 1945. Moon’s then moved to its current location in 1947.
They worked together until their father died in 1964, and then the oldest brother died in 1978.
That’s when the younger brothers asked Radek, the regular who became a close family friend, to join the business.
“I used to be a policeman in this neighborhood in the ‘70s,” said Radek, whose wife wanted him off the streets when they had children. “I’ve had a half a dozen business partners over the years, but now I’m a single proprietor.”
He actually retired briefly in 2023. His son took over, but decided it wasn’t what he wanted to do after six months.
“That was fine with me,” said the elder Radek, who returned in early 2024. “The main thing with me is my kids are happy doing what they’re doing.”
He’s also fine with however you order the Moon’s Famous corned beef sandwich.
“It’s corned beef on rye with mustard, lettuce, tomato and pickle on it,” said Radek. “Lettuce and tomato obviously isn’t what they do at a real Jewish deli, but I never purported to be a Jewish deli.”
If you want mayonnaise, he’ll put it on there for you, too.
“I even had a few customers over the years that put ketchup on it,” he said. “When they say that, I ask them four times before I even make the sale.”
And some people order their corned beef on raisin bread.
The crisp lettuce and juicy tomato make it uniquely Moon’s enough for me, with a half pound or so of Vienna corned beef sliced thin and piled high.
“The old timers are probably the only ones,” said Radek. “Only about 30% of customers still order it that way.”
Do note that Moon’s is now closed on Monday and Tuesday, including Saint Patrick’s Day this year.
“I’m 75 years old,” said Radek. “I can’t do all the hours that I used to do.”
He does have help with longtime employees.
“I have two ladies here that have been with me for over 35 years,” said Radek. “And four or five people have been here over 20 years.”
He also made time to mentor India Jenkins of The Corned Beef Hideout in Romeoville.
“Even if she was going to open on the next block, I would have done it,” said Radek. “And it sounds like she’s been successful, so God bless her.”
He hasn’t tried her super spicy jerked corned beef sandwiches yet.
“My wife and I talk about going out there,” said Radek. “And I’m sure we will — after I retire.”
$15.95 (Moon’s Famous corned beef sandwich). 16 S. Western Ave., 312-226-5094
Dan Raskin at Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen
“Manny’s was started by my great-grandfather,” said Dan Raskin, fourth-generation owner and operator of Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen in the South Loop. “And it’s just become a melting pot for people who love Jewish delis across the city.”
Jack Raskin opened his first restaurant with his youngest brother Charlie Raskin in 1942. The older brother would go on to open his own restaurant and name it for his son Emanuel. That son, Manny Raskin, took over the business and moved to their current location in 1964. His son, Ken Raskin, took over when Manny died at 53 in 1983, two days after surgery for lung cancer.
Ken’s son, Dan, first started working at Manny’s in high school.
“My grandma would drive me down and my dad would take the day off on Saturday,” Dan Raskin said.
But it was Gino who taught Dan how to make sandwiches. Legendary mustachioed counterman Gino Gambarota started working at Manny’s almost 43 years ago. Gambarota, the longest-tenured employee, has become beloved for his old-school banter.
Their classic corned beef, loading nine towering and tender ounces of meat onto rye, remains their bestselling sandwich.
“If people don’t ask, we just make it a mix of lean and fatty,” Raskin said. “It’s the point and flat of the brisket.”
I don’t think I’ve ever asked. In Gino we trust.
They make their own brand of corned beef, 3D Baking bakes their custom soft yet sturdy seeded rye bread, and Manny’s head-clearing horseradish mustard is on the table along with Woeber’s yellow mustard.
“We’re very proud that our family decided to continue on and keep the tradition going,” said Raskin. “A lot of restaurants don’t hand over to the next generation, because they’re not interested in it.”
Historically, corned beef was a Jewish deli item, popularized around St. Patrick’s Day. But many of the corned beef sandwich dedicated restaurants around Chicago are Black-owned businesses. Some of those owners took over from Jewish deli families who decided not to continue on.
“That’s exactly what happened with Nate’s,” said Raskin.
The Lyon family opened their Jewish deli on Maxwell Street in 1921. Nate Duncan began working for the Lyons in 1947. Duncan bought the business in 1972. Nate’s Delicatessen was famously featured in “The Blues Brothers” film, before it closed with the expansion of the University of Illinois Chicago campus in 1995.
“In the past, I think people looked at each other more as competition,” said Raskin. “Now we like to talk to each other and work together.”
$21.95 (corned beef sandwich). 1141 S. Jefferson St., 312-939-2855, mannysdeli.com
Bette Dworkin at Kaufman’s Bagel & Delicatessen
“We’re not really a restaurant,” said Bette Dworkin, owner-operator of Kaufman’s Bagel & Delicatessen in Skokie. “We’re a Jewish deli, bakery and catering facility.”
They do counter service so you can buy meat, salads and fish by the pound, plus made-to-order sandwiches before seating yourself at a handful of tables.
“We also have a full-scale scratch bakery,” said Dworkin. “We make all of our breads and pastry.”
In fact, the bakery is where the business began.
Maury Kaufman, a Holocaust survivor, owned Kaufman’s Bakery on Kedzie and Montrose avenues in the Albany Park neighborhood. He wanted to get into the deli business too, so he built two buildings farther north.
“One side was the bakery and one side was the deli,” said Dworkin. “And he opened in Skokie in 1963.”
The business was a refuge for survivors.
“When my folks bought the business in ‘85, I think all but maybe two or three employees had numbers on their arms,” said Dworkin.
Her late father, Arnold Dworkin, a descendant of the Imperial Baking family and a baker himself, purchased Kaufman‘s in Chicago and Skokie with his wife, Judy Dworkin.
“I joined the business in ‘93 or ‘94,” Bette Dworkin said. “I bought out my mom in about 2014, 2015.”
Mama Judy died at 90 last August.
“There’s a lot of people who depend on this business,” Dworkin said. “For shivas and holidays and life cycle events.”
Their most popular sandwich is what she named The New Jersey Bypass, balancing beautiful ribbons of fattiness on fragrant house-baked seeded rye.
“It’s a double-decker sandwich with both regular corned beef and regular pastrami,” said Dworkin. They source from Sy Ginsberg’s in Detroit, but custom finish their corned beef in-house. “We are one of those weird places that offers four different cuts of corned beef, which I probably need my head examined for.”
They make sandwiches that are only deckel, which is the top cap of corned beef, and about 75% to 85% fat.
“That was my father’s favorite,” she added. “Hence the reason he had clogged arteries.”
Then there’s the regular, which is both the bottom and the top.
“And we do the lean, which is the bottom portion of the brisket with a very small cap of fat,” said Dworkin. “Then we do what’s called super trim, which is where we cut off all the fat that is visible to the naked eye. In my opinion, it’s a little bit like eating crummy flavored cardboard, but you know, to each their own, right?”
Jesus Mendez has been working with her for 30-plus years, first on the bakery side, then on the sandwich counter.
“When I want to remember something, I go to him,” said Dworkin. “He’s my memory.”
It takes a real skill to be able to put together a great sandwich, especially the Bypass, which would fall apart in lesser hands.
“One of the other really cool things about my store is that right now, if you walk in, you could speak Assyrian, Arabic, Spanish, French,” said Dworkin. “That to me is part of the old world kind of a feel that the delis all used to have.”
$19.25 (The New Jersey Bypass). 4905 W. Dempster St., Skokie; 847-677-6190; kaufmansdeli.com
Ralph Rosenbaum at Burt’s Deli
“Burt was my dad,” said Ralph Rosenbaum, owner of Burt’s Deli in Libertyville.
Burton Rosenbaum worked in a deli in Highland Park called Goldie’s in the ‘60s and ‘70s. He opened his namesake deli with his wife Judy Rosenbaum in 1975.
“I was 13 when I started working,” Ralph Rosenbaum said. “I’ve learned to be a good deli man.”
He invented the Yummy (which he also spells as The Yummie), as a warm, comforting hug of a sandwich, the year his father died at 67 in 2004.
“The Yummy has corned beef, pastrami, creamy Swiss cheese, mustard and horseradish on rye,” said Rosenbaum. “We use Ginsburg’s corned beef and pastrami on Rosen’s rye bread.”
He slices the meats to order, and offers you a taste, while warming the stacked corned beef, pastrami and Swiss in a microwave behind the counter.
One of the most interesting things about Burt’s Deli is that the suburban strip mall setting gives no hint that you’re about to walk into what could be a tiny storefront theater with a one man show about a deadpan Jewish counterman.
“I just learned to talk nice to all the customers,” said Rosenbaum. “I kibbutz with them.”
His son, Michael Rosenbaum, a fourth- and fifth-grade special education teacher in Skokie, comes in on Saturdays to work.
“My son takes one day off for his dad, and that’s on St. Patrick’s Day,” Ralph Rosenbaum said. “Last year we did 170 Yummys and like 700, 800 pounds of corned beef.”
They had lines out the door all day on their busiest day of the year.
I highly recommend going instead when you can take your time to look at all the memorabilia throughout the store and you have a better chance of snagging a seat in one of the cozy orange booths. The deadpan deli man will work the room from behind the counter.
“All the customers ask if my son is taking over one day,” he said. “I go, he’s a teacher. If he stays teaching, he’ll have a pension, right?”
Ralph Rosenbaum was talking about retiring when his mother died at 84 in 2024.
“Then my wife’s like, you need to work,” he said. “She wants me to work so she can retire.”
Marla Rosenbaum has been a nurse at Highland Park Hospital for over 40 years.
“I’m thinking another three years,” Ralph Rosenbaum said. “Maybe, we’ll see, we’re taking it one day at a time.”
$15.95 (Yummy aka The Yummie). 114 Greentree Center, Libertyville; 847-367-9687
India Jenkins at The Corned Beef Hideout
“It’s a destination place where people come, because it is discrete and off the beaten path,” said India Jenkins, owner and chef of The Corned Beef Hideout in Romeoville. “It’s like their little secret.”
Jenkins grew up on Moon’s, and learned how to make corned beef sandwiches from owner Jim Radek, before opening in 2023. Trust your GPS when it sends you through a winding residential subdivision to a community center, and eventually the sandwich stand.
You will be rewarded with That Jerk. The spicy jerked corned beef sandwich is spread with an even spicier secret jerk sauce. But the heat, held in luxurious layers, is bright and tempered by soft bread from Milano Bakery and crisp potato chips on the side.
Jenkins has also created a jerked corned beef and classic pastrami variation with Swiss cheese called the Two Faced Jerk.
“When Mr. Super Goode came by, a content creator who’s a foodie, he actually requested his Two Faced to be jerked,” she said about the spicy customization to one of her specialty sandwiches. “And it went viral.”
We are still a corned beef town in the Chicago area, but pastrami is picking up, and now accounts for 30% of her sales, even with a common misunderstanding.
“Some customers think that pastrami is pork and it’s not,” said Jenkins. “My pastrami comes from Vienna Beef.”
For corned beef, however, she prefers Black Steer, which she finishes with a custom blend of jerk spices.
Around St. Patrick’s Day this year, Jenkins will launch a new sauce for her long-awaited fully jerked Reuben.“It’s called the Jerk Island,” she said about the sauce that’s her spicy take on Thousand Island. “I want to spice it up this year.”
She also created a secret menu item, originally for one day only.
“I’m a Chicago Bears fan,” said Jenkins. It wasn’t just about the football team winning. “What resonated was their message: Good, better, best.”
Her Good Better Best sandwich piles corned beef on top of pastrami on top of turkey. You can also request jerked corned beef, and even make it a Reuben. Despite the over-the-top secret menu item, Jenkins is careful about her sodium intake, but faced some health challenges recently.
“Let me just say this, please take your blood pressure medicine,” she said. “I don’t like to take medication, and I did have an episode where high blood pressure almost won.”
That day was a life-changing experience for her.
“I have two boys, who are 13 and 22, who depend on me right now,” said Jenkins. “And I had customers who found out, because I didn’t open up the restaurant that day, and they were reaching out.”
Plus, she’s been having anxiety issues about the upcoming holiday.
“Last year we had a beef shortage after St. Patrick’s Day,” she said. “I was out of corned beef for three or four days.”
This year, she’s trying to make sure they’re fully stocked ahead of time.
“I have one regular customer who’s Irish, and probably in his 70s or 80s,” said Jenkins. “He calls me his Black Jewish deli.”
$16.50 (That Jerk). 175 Highpoint Drive, Romeoville; 815-743-2603; thecornedbeefhideout.com
Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
