Sure to create some wind: Sweet Home Chicago’s gyros plate with Greek salad.(Photo by Vishal Malhotra)
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Sweet Home Chicago
Jumbo dog,
Chicago-style |
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$2.99
Polish sausage,
Chicago-style
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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My Kinda Town
Big eaters unite! Sweet Home Chicago brings the homegrown magic of hearty cheap food to the Fort.
By PETER GORMAN
The outside of Sweet Home Chicago isn’t much. Set in a shopping mall, the place is nothing but dark glass with a sign on the door that reads, “No microwave or heat lamps here. Everything is cooked to order.” But inside is a different story. The walls are covered in fairly recent Chicago memorabilia — posters of Walter Payton, Michael Jordan, and the Black Hawks, a framed Tribune front page in which Mayor Daly’s resignation is announced, and more than two dozen Illinois license plates.
The food is similarly “authentic” Chicago, a mix of new immigrant food, from Polish sausages to Italian beef sandwiches to deep-dish pizza to chicken curry to a Greek gyro. One of the owners, Slavko Gromovic, arrived in Chicago from Yugoslavia 19 years ago. He worked in various restaurants before opening his own, mixing traditional dishes with the hearty street fare beloved by Chicago’s working class. He sold the restaurant six years ago, moved to Fort Worth, then opened Weiners Take All in Westcreek four years ago. His new venture — with partners Razia Abdullah and her son Ray Abdullah (both from Pakistan via Canada) — already looks to be making an impression among diners in north Crowley. The place was bustling on a recent afternoon visit.
Choosing what to eat, despite the extensive menu, wasn’t difficult: Any place that bills itself as serving Chi-town food is going to live and die on the working-class staples: the jumbo dog, the Polish sausage, and deep dish pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni.
The dog adheres to the Chicago standard — Vienna Beef, slathered in mustard, relish, diced green peppers, Polish sour pickles, and sliced tomatoes, served on a poppy seed bun. Sweet Home’s version was packed with plenty of good, juicy meat and had a nice zing — perfect for braving a Bears game in sub-zero temperatures, definitely not for the beach.
Equally impressive was the sausage. Looking like a hot dog — and dressed in relish, pickles, onions, peppers, and served with hot peppers — this pork product packs a wallop (and certainly will make any dieter feel sinful). It’s hot, filling, and flavorful, the sort of delight that makes you say “Gimme three” before you unbuckle your belt and call a heart doctor. The sausage, both sweet and spicy, is shipped directly from Chicago’s famed Fontanini Sausage company.
Of course, the one type of food that most quickly summons images of Chicago is deep-dish pizza, and Sweet Home Chicago’s was excellent, even though the sauce was a little salty. Baked with the traditional topping of sauce and mozzarella cheese, then covered with Fontanini’s sausage and Vienna Beef pepperoni, and then covered again in sauce, the pie is a nice blend of chewy-but-not-too-chewy crust, salty afterbite, and zesty meat. The 10-incher ($6.99) is enough for two hearty eaters. The 14-incher will serve four regular people, three Chicago Bears, or one William “Refrigerator” Perry.
Sweet Home Chicago
3501 Sycamore School Rd, Ste 138, FW. 817-361-1900. Tue-Thu 11am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-8pm, closed Mon. All major credit cards accepted.
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