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Earl's BBQ

Super GemJefferson Park · BBQ/Barbecue Community-sourced, unverified
📍 4835 N Austin Ave, Chicago, IL 60630

Earl's BBQ doesn't get enough credit for Chicago's most unusual amenity: an actual barbecue drive-thru, tucked into the far Northwest Side in Jefferson Park, smoking everything fresh each morning and selling until it runs out.

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Half-slab baby back ribs ($20) with a spicy dry rub and crispy bark, plus made-to-order donuts from one of the only real BBQ drive-thrus in Chicago.

The baby back ribs are the reason people detour here — half a slab for $20, a full one for $33 — finished with a spicy dry rub and a bark The Infatuation singled out as genuinely crispy, with a four-sauce lineup (Carolina, Georgia, original, and a Chicago hot) that lets you build your own combination instead of committing to one house style. Smoked brisket, loaded platters, and a Nashville hot fried chicken sandwich round out the smoker list, but the real curveball is dessert: made-to-order donuts, sold a la carte or by the half-dozen, a habit the ownership group carries over from its other spots.

That group — Artur Wnorowski and Gosia Pieniazek — also runs Ella's BBQ in Lincoln Park and Pierogi Kitchen in Wicker Park, so loyalty to one of their restaurants usually means you've already heard of the others. No happy hour here, no gimmicks — just a smoker running on a schedule and a drive-thru lane that's rare enough in Chicago to be worth the trip on its own.

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Specials at Earl's BBQ

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Hours

Mon-Thu11AM-9PM
Fri-Sat11AM-10PM
Sun11AM-8PM
🥡 Takeout unconfirmed 📞 (773) 628-7870

Amenities & accessibility

❔Takeout: unverified
❔Wheelchair access: unverified

Location

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