Submarine City (Orland Park)

• 9573 W. 144th Place
• Orland Park, IL 60462
• (708) 349-4909
• No Known Website
• Menu

My plan was to get to Orland Park in time to see B’s last skate of the night. Thanks to traffic on I-294, that didn’t happen.

We were in Orland Park, IL last week for the annual Ladybug competition. It moved this year to the Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park.

J and I are both pretty familiar with Orland Park. She worked at the mall when she was in high school college. I used to go shopping at that mall when I was in high school. It was the “fancy” mall that my parents would drive to when we wanted to do something different. There were also better sporting goods stores in the area and that what my brother and I were really interested in when we were that age.

I got to the arena just as B’s scores were being read. His event was the last of the night so I finished watching the event, helped him get his stuff together, and talked to my mom for a bit who drove up for the day to watch the kids skate.

Because I was in such a hurry, I didn’t stop for dinner on my way from Kalamazoo to Orland Park. I hadn’t really eaten all day, just some gas station mini tacos, so I was hungry.

I was about to just head to fast food but realized that was a dumb idea. I was in the Chicago suburbs, I needed to get an Italian beef.

I headed north on LaGrange/US-45 to Submarine City. The longtime sandwich shop is in a shopping plaza on the corner of LaGrange and 144th Place. The building faces 144th and that’s the only way to access to the parking lot. The long brick building is home to five businesses. Submarine City is on the corner facing LaGrange.

The restaurant is set up like so many Chicago sandwich shops. It’s counter service at a counter that was probably built in the 1970’s. The menu board is behind that counter and also probably hasn’t been updated since the 1970’s. There’s no LED monitors. It’s the old fast food style backlight menus boards with pictures of some of the popular items.

I put in an order for an Italian beef sandwich, dipped, with hot peppers. The guy taking my order asked me if I wanted the special. It was 8:57 and the deal ended at 9:00. It was an Italian beef with fries and a drink. I was going to order all that anyway so I said yes. The cost of the meal was just under $17.

You can’t eat an Italian beef in the car so I made the order for dine in. There are some cheap, wood laminate booths along both of the outer walls. I sat down in one of these first but was a little uncomfortable and knew I would end up dripping gravy on my shirt so I moved to one of the two tables in the restaurant.

It only took a couple of minutes for my name to be called. I grabbed the cup first and went to fill up my drink. I got a little bit of a surprise when I stepped in front of the pop machine. I was expecting it to be Pepsi but it was actually RC Cola. Not my favorite but it will do.

I started with the fries when I got back to the table. I like to let the Italian beef sit for a while and steam…letting all that juice soak in to the bun.

The fries were simple frozen crinkle cuts. Nothing special. Nice and crispy on the outside with a heavy salt dusting. They were fine but they were just extra food. Nothing I’d crave or go back for.

The Italian beef was exactly what I needed. We don’t get to Chicago very often anymore so getting an Italian beef doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d like it to. This sandwich is made with Vienna beef and Turano rolls. It’s topped with the good mix of giardiniera and there’s a lot of it. The bread was soaked with the delicious beef gravy but it actually held together. It was still a mess to eat (as it should be) but it didn’t fall apart when I picked it up. It’s kind of a generic Italian beef but it’s a Chicago Italian beef. This was the best thing I’ve eaten in a while.

Submarine City has been around for decades because it does the simple things well. Chicago sandwich joints are my favorite places to get a meal. I passed a Portillo’s on the way to Sub City and it didn’t cross my mind for even a second to change plans. I loved everything about this place from the throwback atmosphere to juicy, spicy, beefy Italian beef.