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Ricobene's

Iconic/NotableBridgeport · Italian-American Community-sourced, unverified
📍 252 W 26th St, Chicago, IL 60616

Ricobene's has been feeding Bridgeport since 1946, and it calls itself a historical staple of Chicago late-night eating for good reason: the 26th Street counter is open until 12:30am on weeknights and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, a few blocks from Sox Park, with its own parking lot — a real luxury in this part of town.

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The Vesuvio Italian Classic — a crisp, garlicky breaded chicken cutlet with onions, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a length of Italian bread — gets cited by regulars repeatedly as the actual best sandwich here, ahead of the breaded steak that made the restaurant famous.

The breaded steak sandwich is the one that made it famous. It's a thin, breaded and fried steak cutlet drowned in red sauce and mozzarella on a length of Italian bread, the kind of sandwich USA Today's Ted Berg once called the best in the world and Anthony Bourdain put on CNN's Parts Unknown. Not everyone agrees — Chicagoist ran a direct rebuttal, and regulars admit the execution can wobble on a busy night — so take two pieces of local advice: order the red sauce on the side to keep the breading crisp, and try the Chicken Vesuvio sandwich, a garlicky breaded chicken cutlet with onions, lettuce, tomato and mayo that plenty of regulars quietly rank above the steak.

Beyond the sandwiches it's a full Italian-American counter — pizza, beef-and-sausage combos and red-sauce plates — with online ordering, catering and nationwide shipping if you need a breaded steak somewhere that doesn't have one. There's no deal or special; the value is a huge, cheap sandwich at an hour when almost nothing else is open.

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Specials at Ricobene's

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Hours

Mon-Thu9AM-12:30AM
Fri9AM-2AM
Sat10AM-2AM
Sun10AM-12AM
🥡 Takeout unconfirmed 📞 (312) 225-5555

Amenities & accessibility

❔Takeout: unverified
❔Wheelchair access: unverified

Location

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