Beef Is Star of the Show: Barry Sorkin’s “Elevated” Italian Beef

Barry Sorkin serves a sandwich/ Photo: David Hammond

At the Windy City Smokeout in early July, we spotted Barry Sorkin (Smoque BBQ, Smoque Steak) offering up his version of the Philly cheesesteak sandwich. I’ve had Philly’s most famous sandwich only a handful of times, and was never much impressed, but this version was fantastic: premium meat and good quality cheese. Mixed into the meat and mushrooms was a blend of Havarti and Brie, which added a lot of rich flavor. You knew what you were eating, but it wasn’t the standard Philly cheesesteak: it was much better.

There is probably no recipe that cannot be improved with higher-quality ingredients, and Sorkin’s versions of the Philly cheesesteak sandwich and, now, the Chicago Italian beef sandwich, leverage the prime meat that’s served at Smoque Steak.

At Smoque Steak, Sorkin is taking a different approach than the traditional steakhouse to the preparation of red meat. His process is to first smoke the meat in the kind of smokers he uses at Smoque BBQ; then he cooks the meat using an industrial-quality sous vide system. With sous vide, meat is put into plastic bags and lowered into a warm-water bath that holds the meat at exactly the right internal temperature, edge to edge; then the meat is seared and served. What this means is that at any time during service, the kitchen needs to have meat ready to be finished and put on the table; consequently, at the end of a night, there’s a lot of high-quality meat that that cannot be sold as steak and put on a plate the following day. The solution is to take that excellent meat, slice it up and put it in a sandwich. “Lucky for us,” says Sorkin, “we’ve got all this great quality meat to work with. So, let’s really elevate the sandwiches and take Italian beef to the next level.”

Having the goal to improve the Italian beef seems to be asking for trouble. Messing with a classic is always risky. Chicagoans, many of whom have a lifelong affection for the Italian beef, may resist any effort to modify the paradigm and change their notion of what they believe a good Italian beef should be. “We just wanted to make a version of Italian beef,” says Sorkin, “that would be appropriate to a steak house: somewhat elevated, but not a giant step away from what an Italian beef ought to be. We wanted the sandwich to be built on good quality ingredients by people that have a sense of flavors and balance. We weren’t trying to mimic an Italian beef sandwich; we wanted to take that sort of template and create our own sandwich.

“Everyone’s got their variations on the Italian beef,” says Sorkin. “But with the jus, there’s always garlic, onion and herbs, usually oregano and thyme, and every beef stand has got their own sort of variation. And you must have a bread roll that’s hearty enough to stand up to being wet, but that also kind of gets out of the way because the beef is the star of the show.”

“The meat is smoked,” says Sorkin, “but that smoke very much gets backgrounded. I don’t think it eats like an overtly smoky steak, but it does provide just a little bit of background depth. And that’s the idea.”

Having sampled Sorkin’s Italian beef, I can confirm that the smoke is not in any sense overwhelming; it’s there, but you almost have to look for it, and it adds another dimension of flavor without becoming the principal flavor.

“We tried to stay true to the essence of Italian beef and just amplify a few things,” says Sorkin. “We up the richness a little bit and give it just a little bit more body. So, we’re fortifying the gravy. Rather than just using the broth and herbs according to the standard flavor profile, we fortified the jus with some pureed garlic and veal demi-glace, so the beef gets a little beefier. And the beef is a slightly thicker cut, to eat a little bit more like steak, so texturally, it’s a little bit different. But I think we’ve stayed very true to the flavors: it’s instantly recognizable as a Chicago Italian beef.

“This isn’t us trying to outdo places like Al’s and Johnnie’s. Those are some of my favorite places to eat! We’re trying to be very respectful to what that sandwich means to Chicago. And it means a lot, now probably more than ever, because everyone’s seeing it on ‘The Bear.’ It’s one of Chicago’s most iconic and essential foods. So, we’re not trying to do anything other than offer our take on the Italian beef and present it in a way that makes sense for a steakhouse.”

Smoque Steak’s Italian Beef Sandwich/Photo: David Hammond

As soon as you bite into Smoque Steak’s Italian beef sandwiches, you’ll feel the difference between Sorkin’s creation and the traditional Italian beef: the meat in the Smoque Steak version is much more lush and beefy, and it’s not so dark. Italian beef restaurants usually let the meat sit in jus for an indefinite period; the Smoque Steak version spends less time in the juice and is overall less “juicy”—though the delicious fat characteristic of USDA Prime beef is there, so the meat is not in any sense dry. Unlike the beef at your local Italian beef joint, Smoque Steak’s meat is not held in a broth and at present, you can’t get the sandwich dipped, but you can get a container of juice to take home with your sandwich. “The sandwich is juicy,” says Sorkin, “but it’s not falling apart. And certainly, if somebody wants their sandwich a little wetter, we are happy to do it. But because the meat is a little heartier, if the meat were too wet, it’d be harder to eat, and by the time you get it home, it would be just a sloppy mess.”

The jus on the Smoque Steak Italian beef is somewhat milder than what you might expect at beef stands and the spices are dialed down. There is exceptional beef on this sandwich—USDA prime ribeye and USDA prime strip steak, with some bistro steak mixed in there—and when you have meat that good, you probably don’t want to add a lot of additional flavors.

As an added enhancement, the Turano’s Italian bread segment used for the sandwich is smeared with a garlic paste that significantly ups the flavor in each bite, but again, it’s in the background and doesn’t upstage the beef.

The giardiniera contains milder peppers than you might find in the same condiment at Al’s or Johnnie’s, but that mildness works well with the meat.

The menu price for this sandwich has not been finalized, but it will come in around $15, which is higher than it is at places like Al’s and Johnnie’s, but the cost of the meat going into it justifies the price. And it’s a big sandwich, about eight inches long, with six ounces of meat. All sandwiches are prepared to-go, but with this sandwich, the wrapping has the additional benefit of holding the sandwich together in a way that makes it easier to eat. This sandwich is not yet on the sit-down menu, so when you come by to get one, prepare to take it home or consume it al trunko in the parking lot.

Incidentally, if meat is your thing, know that Sorkin and his crew will sell you any of the steaks on their menu to take home and finish; having already gone through the sous vide process, all these steaks are offered at “perfect pink” (chef’s recommendation), “pale pink,” or “juicy well done.” All you have to do is take the meat home, remove it from the bag and sear it in a pan, over a fire or with a torch, and you’ll have one beautiful steak, done just as you like it, edge to edge.