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Best Italian Beef in Chicago · Chicago, IL
Al's #1 Italian Beef has been the standard-bearer of Chicago's signature sandwich since 1938, when the Ferreri family began thin-slicing slow-roasted beef, piling it on French bread, and dunking the whole thing in seasoned jus on Taylor Street in Little Italy. Order it dipped with hot giardiniera and eat it standing, elbows out, in the posture Chicagoans call "the lean."
From that original beef stand it grew into an institution credited with launching the city's national sandwich — and the 2025 Centurion Award winner in Chicago.
A Centurion Award doesn’t replace the public record — it verifies it. Read it for yourself, on the platforms where it lives.
Public-record snapshot as of July 2026. Live ratings are always current on each platform.
Selection is by the published criteria, evaluated on public evidence. Al's #1 Italian Beef cleared every one.
The full verification report — the specific data behind this award — is held by the business. The exact thresholds stay internal so the bar can’t be gamed. Read the methodology.
Award record
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This is a dated award record, published by The Centurion Awards after Al's #1 Italian Beef cleared the 2025 evaluation for its market and category. It was not bought, voted on, or sponsored — the criteria are public, only winners are published, and an award that stops holding up is revoked, not quietly removed. Awards run one calendar year and renew only if the business clears the bar again. For everything else — hours, bookings, live reviews — go straight to the business itself.
Taylor Street stand founded in 1938 by the Ferreri family, widely credited with pioneering the Italian beef sandwich that defines Chicago street food.
Yes — Al's #1 Italian Beef is the 2025 Centurion Award winner for Best Italian Beef in Chicago, a verified, criteria-based award. Named best Italian beef in Chicago for 2025 as the Taylor Street original that helped invent the sandwich, still dipping every one to order.
Al's #1 Italian Beef is in Chicago, IL.
If you’ve put in the years, you may already clear the bar. Evaluation is free, private, and never for sale.