Evanston Italian Beef

At last! A place in Evanston with decent Italian Beef.

D.D. Dogs is one of those quintessential stands with something for everyone. Besides the usual hot dogs and burgers there are subs, Italian sausage, Philly beef, gyros (also chicken version), BLTs, falafel, a shrimp plate, salads, etc. They even serve omelettes at breakfast time.

It’s in the tiny Noyes Street business district in northeast Evanston about ½ mile from the lake. Parking is tight and Evanston patrols ferociously, so watch your meter carefully. D.D. Dogs is next to the CTA’s purple line stop.

The beef is the reason I tried D.D. Dogs for lunch recently. An advert in the Evanston Roundtable mentioned a special of Italian beef with fries and a drink for $5.49. I ordered the beef dipped, with sweet and hot peppers on the side. I had to return to work quickly, so they wrapped it in foil which made me nervous, but there was little I could do about it.

Ten minutes later everything was still warm. The crinkle-cut fries (not my favorite style) were decently crisp. Same for the giardiniera which had some heat, though not blazing. Amazingly, the sweet peppers lacked the bitterness you find at most places. They had little flavor, but at least avoided the usual hellishness. At this point I was a bit more optimistic.

Then came the real test. Biting into the sandwich I found decent texture to the beef and a nice slightly peppery flavor. It’s definitely an OK sandwich. Not near Johnnie’s greatness, but certainly respectable. My son and I tried it again a few days later and again thought that it was a good sandwich.

They also had a hot dog special at $1.29 instead of the usual $2.15. Wife #1 said her hot dog was fine. Caveat: I greatly respect my wife’s opinion in most things, but she does put ketchup on her hot dogs (aarrrgh!), so I’ll defer judgment on that one.

Italian beef $4.09; Italian sausage $3.19; combo $5.29; fries $1.39; soft drinks $1.19 / $1.55

What’s important is knowing that Evanston does indeed have an OK Italian Beef sandwich.

Evanston Note: Mustard’s Last Stand uses Scala products. I learned this recently while going to catch a bus on Central Street which would take me to the garage where my van was being repaired. While waiting for the bus, a Scala’s truck passed me going east.

There was no bus in sight so I did the only reasonable thing and took off on foot after the Scala’s truck to see where it was heading. I caught up with it shortly as it was parked behind Mustard’s making a delivery. I’ve tried Mustard’s before and was not impressed with what they did, but knowing they use Scala products inclines me to give it another try.

D.D. Dogs
825 Noyes Street
Evanston, IL
847-864-1909
M-W: 8a-8p; Th-F: 8a-10p; Sat: 8a-8p; Sun: 9a-6p

Mustard’s Last Stand
1613 Central Street
Evanston
847-864-2700

Evanston Note: Mustard’s Last Stand uses Scala products. I learned this recently while going to catch a bus on Central Street which would take me to the garage where my van was being repaired. While waiting for the bus, a Scala’s truck passed me going east.

There was no bus in sight so I did the only reasonable thing and took off on foot after the Scala’s truck to see where it was heading. I caught up with it shortly as it was parked behind Mustard’s making a delivery. I’ve tried Mustard’s before and was not impressed with what they did, but knowing they use Scala products inclines me to give it another try.

Very impressive research! We don't always learn what we know casually, do we?

Thanks for putting in the extra leg work!

Regards,

I haven't tried the beef.Hotdogs there are ok but they lack a good french frie. What they serve really takes away from it.

Today I tried Mustard's again at the noon hour, figuring that at a busy time they would be fully prepared to dish out the Italian Beef.

The beef sandwich was a little better than I remember from last time, but still nothing special. The meat was lean but didn't have much flavor and, despite having been dipped, it was cool inside! Obviously, splashed in the gravy for a millisecond and then out again. The sweet peppers were also cool (as I expected from my last experience); only the OK giardiniera saved the sandwich.

I also ordered hot dogs which were pretty good -- they had flavor and snap.

However, when I returned to work and first opened up the parcel it turned out that my wife's regular dog ($2.49) was exactly the same size as my junior hot dog ($1.99) -- smallish! Don't know whether it was a mistake or a matter of marketing policy.