BEST CORNED BEEF IN NASHVILLE

Every great city deserves an easily identifiable sandwich of its own. Whether it's the Philadelphia cheesesteak or the New Orleans po'boy, a gut-busting sandwich is a matter of civic pride.

When most people think of Chicago's sandwich of choice, the first answer is usually the Italian beef sandwich. After all, you can find one in most neighborhoods, and locals love to argue relentlessly about where to find the best.

But looking through the Chicago Tribune's archives, it's a bit shocking to find that the Italian beef hasn't been the obvious sandwich choice for that long. Unlike barbecue, which shows up in the archives all the way back in the 1850s, the Italian beef doesn't even make an appearance until the 1950s.

Chicagoans were eating sandwiches with beef long before then, though. It's just that they were either roast beef sandwiches or, more likely, corned beef sandwiches.

As critic Louisa Chu explained, “Chicago is a corned beef town, unlike New York, Los Angeles or Montreal, where they prefer pastrami.” While true today, Chicagoans were apparently even more obsessed with corned beef in the early 20th century.

That was when John P. Harding, also known as “Corned Beef John,” had 12 restaurants downtown serving the dish, including Harding Grill (131 N. Clark St.) and Harding's Colonial Room (21 S. Wabash Ave.). According to an article from Sept. 22, 1922, Harding “started the craze for the ‘make 'em before your eyes' corned beef sandwich.”

Flash forward over 100 years and you'll find the best corned beef sandwiches around being made at Staleys Chicago Italian Dining. Sliced fresh in-house and piled high on fresh rye bread.