The Hi-Lo Food Show features acclaimed chef Erik Anderson (a Food & Wine Best New Chef, founding chef of Nashville’s The Catbird Seat, and chef-owner of the forthcoming Brut in Minneapolis) along with me, the editor-in-chief of this website and a semi-professional eater. Here’s the simple concept: We visit a city and eat at two restaurants, one very expensive and one very cheap, but each highly recommended by professionals and our local friends. We’ll speak to the high-end chefs about their cuisine and vision, and we’ll talk to each other about the food. (That’ll be mostly me asking Erik questions.) For this first series, we visited three cities, which will roll out over the next three weeks. Yesterday was Chicago’s high-end wonderland El Ideas, and today we meet up with that restaurant’s chef Phillip Foss at Jim’s Original, a Polish sausage stand that has been operating almost continuously for 76 years, closing only briefly to move from its original home on Maxwell Street over to Union Street, where it’s open 24 hours a day, every single day of the year. (Yes, even Christmas and Thanksgiving.) Jimmy Stefanovic, who purchased the stand from his aunt way back when, is credited with inventing the Chicago-style Polish, which features grilled onions, mustard, and sport peppers. (And nothing else.) It’s fantastic. Next week we’ll be in Charleston, South Carolina, experiencing some Southern cuisine up close.
