Key Takeaways
Chicago's food identity centers on three dishes: deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and the Chicago dog.
Beyond the big three, dishes like the jibarito and chicken vesuvio reflect the diversity of Chicago's immigrant neighborhoods.
Chicago's iconic foods scale well for office catering because they're built for sharing or building your own plate.
Matching the dish to the occasion—whether it’s a casual lunch, client meeting, or all-hands—makes a Chicago-themed spread feel more intentional.
Ask anyone what food Chicago is known for and you'll get the same answer three times over: deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and a Chicago hot dog. These three dishes anchor the city's food identity, and they also happen to be some of the easiest regional foods to build into an office catering order. The Chicago food scene runs much deeper than the big three, though, from a Puerto Rican sandwich invented in Wicker Park to a five-layer ice cream cone that's been a local staple for generations.
This guide breaks down the dishes Chicago is famous for, plus how to turn them into a themed catered lunch, team event, or client meeting at your office.
The big three Chicago classics
Chicago-style deep-dish pizza
No food defines Chicago quite like deep dish pizza. The classic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is baked in a round, straight-sided pan, with the cheese layered on the bottom, toppings in the middle, and a chunky tomato sauce spooned on top. That's the reverse of nearly every other pizza style, and it's what gives Chicago deep dish its thick, pie-like bite.
The style dates back to the 1940s, when local pizzerias began experimenting with a deeper pan and a reversed layering order to create a heartier, knife-and-fork pizza. It caught on fast, and today it's the dish most visitors ask for by name. Not every Chicago pizza is deep dish, though. Order a tavern-style pizza around the city and you'll get something closer to a classic thin-crust pizza: a cracker-thin crust cut into squares instead of triangles, a style that's just as common at neighborhood taverns as deep dish is at tourist-favorite pizzerias.
Italian beef sandwich
The Italian beef sandwich is Chicago's other great sandwich export: thin-sliced, seasoned roast beef piled onto a long Italian roll, dipped in its own au jus, and topped with sweet peppers or spicy giardiniera. It traces back to Chicago's Italian immigrant communities in the early 20th century, when beef stands began seasoning and slow-roasting tougher cuts to stretch them further and serving the drippings as a dip. The result is a sandwich built to be eaten over a napkin, ideally leaning over a trash can, and it remains one of the most requested items on any Chicago menu.
For a classic example, Portillo's serves its Italian beef with sweet peppers, hot giardiniera, and a choice of gravy, from dry to fully dipped, and its catering menu is available to order through DoorDash.
Chicago-style hot dog
The Chicago-style hot dog is instantly recognizable by what's on it, and just as much by what isn't. The classic build is an all-beef frank on a steamed poppy seed bun, “dragged through the garden” with yellow mustard, neon green relish, chopped onion, tomato wedges, a pickle spear, sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt. Ketchup is not invited, and asking for it is a quick way to get a friendly hard time from whoever's behind the counter.
The style traces back to the Great Depression, when hot dog stands piled on inexpensive vegetable toppings to make a nickel frank feel like a full meal. A regional cousin worth knowing is the Chicago-style Polish sausage, a grilled sausage on a bun with grilled onions and mustard, a dish that grew out of the same street vendor culture that shaped so much of Chicago's food scene.
Chicago institutions like Portillo's also serve the classic Chicago dog build alongside their Italian beef, and both are available on the same DoorDash catering menu, making it easy to add to one order.
Other foods Chicago is known for
Jibarito and other neighborhood classics
Not every Chicago classic came from an Italian kitchen or a hot dog stand. The jibarito is a sandwich built on two flattened, fried plantains instead of bread, stuffed with steak, chicken, or roast beef, plus lettuce, tomato, and garlic mayo. It was invented in Chicago's Puerto Rican community, and it's one of the clearest examples of how the city's neighborhoods keep adding new dishes to the Chicago food scene.
You'll find the jibarito at Puerto Rican spots throughout Humboldt Park and Division Street, not far from Wicker Park. If deep dish and Italian beef represent Chicago's old guard, the jibarito is proof the city's food story is still being written.
Burgers, steak, and diner favorites
Chicago's diner and bar scene has produced its own cult classics, from thick, griddle-smashed double cheeseburgers piled high with bacon and a fried egg, to the kind of no-frills grilled cheeseburger that's been a lunch-counter staple for generations. On the more formal end, Chicago's downtown steakhouse scene has quietly built a national reputation for dry-aged beef and old-school service, giving the city a fine-dining identity that stands right alongside its casual classics.
Chicken vesuvio
Chicken vesuvio might be the most Chicago dish that never leaves Chicago. Bone-in chicken pieces are roasted alongside potato wedges and whole garlic cloves in white wine, olive oil, and oregano, often finished with a scoop of peas, and served straight from the skillet in all that garlicky pan sauce. The dish grew out of the city's Italian-American restaurant scene in the early 1900s, and it's still a fixture on red-sauce menus across Chicago today. It also happens to travel well for a group: the chicken and potatoes hold their texture in a chafing dish, which makes it a solid pick for a sit-down catered lunch rather than a build-your-own spread.
Sweet treats and desserts
Chicago's dessert scene has its own icons. Chicago-style popcorn, a sweet-and-savory blend of caramel corn and cheddar cheese popcorn known locally as Chicago Mix, has been a hometown snack for decades and travels well in a tin or a bag for a group.
Garrett Popcorn Shop, the brand behind that combo, is also available to order through DoorDash in group-friendly sizes like Family and Celebration, making it an easy add-on for an office dessert spread.
For something cold, the rainbow cone is a Chicago original: five ice cream flavors, typically chocolate, strawberry, a cherry-and-walnut vanilla, pistachio, and orange sherbet, sliced rather than scooped and stacked on a single cake cone.
Also, for a dessert with an even older Chicago pedigree, the city is credited with inventing the fudgy, walnut-topped chocolate brownie back in 1893, when a local kitchen was asked to create a portable, cake-like dessert for the World's Columbian Exposition, making it one of the earliest documented brownies in American food history.
How to bring Chicago's flavors to your next office event
Not every office event calls for the same spread. Matching the dish to the occasion makes the whole thing feel more intentional, and it's an easy way to decide when you're staring at a long list of Chicago classics.
Casual team lunch or Friday wind-down: Deep dish pizza by the tray is hard to beat for an easy, low-lift lunch. It holds up well after a short delivery window, slices cleanly for a group, and everyone gets to build their own plate.
Client meeting or executive lunch: An Italian beef bar, or a more polished steakhouse-style spread, feels appropriate for a smaller group where presentation matters as much as speed. Set out extra giardiniera and let people build their own sandwich at the table.
All-hands or large team meeting: A build-your-own hot dog station scales easily for a big group, keeps the line moving, and covers dietary needs since everyone assembles their own plate instead of waiting on a set menu.
Celebration or milestone: Close out the day with a gourmet popcorn bar or a rainbow cone-inspired dessert table. Desserts travel well, don't need much setup, and give people something to grab on their way back to their desk.
Welcoming an out-of-town team or new hire: A sampler that covers deep dish, Italian beef, and a Chicago dog gives visitors a genuine taste of the city without asking them to commit to just one dish. Add a jibarito on the side for anyone who wants to try something a little less expected.
How to order Chicago food for your office, wherever you're located
You don't have to be in Chicago to put this food on the table. The big three, along with plenty of other Chicago classics, show up on menus in most major cities, so a Chicago-themed spread works just as well for an office in Austin or Atlanta as it does downtown Chicago. Once you've matched the dish to the occasion, the only thing left to sort out is logistics.
The logistics are where things usually get complicated: finding a restaurant that can handle a large order, tracking dietary restrictions, and getting everything to arrive on time and ready to serve. That's exactly what DoorDash for Business is built to solve.
For a team of 15 or fewer who each want to pick their own dish, a group lunch program lets everyone order individually from the same restaurant while it's billed as one order. For bigger office lunch needs, from an all-hands meeting to a client event, corporate catering connects you with pre-vetted restaurants that can reliably handle 10 to 200 people, with clear dietary filters and serving guidance built in.
Looking for more inspiration beyond Chicago classics? These office party food ideas cover formats and themes that work well for teams of any size, and if you're setting up an ongoing perk rather than a one-time event, this guide to meal budgets walks you through how to structure and allocate resources for recurring catering needs.
Frequently asked questions
What are the top three foods Chicago is known for?
Deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and Chicago's own hot dog style are the three dishes most closely associated with the city. All three trace back to Chicago's stands and kitchens from the early to mid-1900s and remain the dishes most visitors try first.
Why is there no ketchup on a Chicago-style hot dog?
It's a matter of local tradition rather than a formal rule. Chicagoans consider ketchup too sweet for the hot dog's savory toppings, and most classic hot dog stands simply don't offer it as an option.
What's the difference between Chicago deep dish and tavern-style pizza?
The deep dish is baked in a deep, round pan with the cheese on the bottom and sauce on top, giving it a thick, pie-like texture. Tavern-style pizza is a thin-crust pizza cut into squares, closer to what many other cities think of as a “normal” pizza, and it's just as common in Chicago neighborhood bars as deep dish is at destination pizzerias.
Is Chicago food good for a themed office lunch or catered event?
Yes. Deep dish, Italian beef, and Chicago dogs all scale well for groups because they're built for sharing or building your own plate, which makes them a strong fit for a team lunch, all-hands meeting, or client event.
