Windy City Wieners, a newcomer to the Uptown Normal scene, has introduced a new, customer-centered way to create menu items.
The family-owned restaurant established itself in the region on East Douglas Street which is just a short walk from campus in 2009 and has been serving the best Chicago-style food in town ever since.
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| With Chicago paraphernalia in the background a couple of ISU students enjoy a Saturday lunch at the Windy City Weiner in uptown Normal. (Photo by Lynn Tangorra / Staff Photographer) |
When they first started off, Windy City Wieners had their menu set up like any other joint of the same character would: they had the standard Chicago-style hotdogs, Italian beefs and sausages, gyros, burgers, and all the other staples.
Their menu has since expanded, and they are now the only place I go to get my fix of foods that seem few and far between in Normal. They make, along with everything else mentioned earlier, spicy and buffalo chicken sandwiches, both grilled or breaded; Maxwell Street polish sausages, which are one of my personal favorites; chicken pitas; some of the best chili cheese dogs I’ve ever came across; and even grilled cheese sandwiches.
The quality of the food they put out is outstanding, though, and that has not changed.
What has changed, however, is the way they come up with fresh, new menu items. According to an employee, a customer came in recently and asked for something they did not have on the menu. As the customer described it, she wanted a burger and a gyro, but on the same sandwich.
Normally, any other restaurant would have said, “No,” or, “We can’t do that,” or any --more-- variation of the two. Wind City Wieners is not like other restaurants. They granted the customer her wish, took a standard burger, and topped it with yogurt sauce, onions, feta cheese, tomatoes, and even gyro meat.
The result: a perfect, delicious blend of two of the most famous Chicago food customs, and exactly the thing I eat every time I enter the place. It also marked the point when Windy City changed from being a restaurant that has excellent food but items that you would expect, into excellent Chicago-style favorites along with food you cannot get anywhere else.
That creation stayed with the restaurant, and they appropriately named it the gyro burger. They put it on a daily special for a couple months, and now it is a full-fledged standard at Windy City.
The gyro burger has inspired a second menu item of the same creation, which is currently on special. It is a variation on their classic Italian beef, but with a generous dose of melted cheese on top of grilled sport peppers and onions, and served on a split croissant.
They’ve also recently introduced loaded cheese fries. Think of them as a loaded baked potato, but with their excellent shoestring fries underneath the sour cream, chives, bacon chunks, and melted cheese.
Although Windy City Wieners hasn’t even had its second birthday yet, they’ve already shown that they have what it takes to be a successful establishment in Uptown Normal. They have won me and plenty of other students over with their quality of food; comfortable, albeit small, atmosphere with an HDTV constantly showing Chicago sports games; sociable employees who will answer any question you may have or simply talk to you about anything that you may have on your mind; and speedy service.
Next time you find yourself craving a hotdog just the way you like it, or something completely new, give them a try. And they deliver, in case you did not want to make the trip.