Lardon
Steve Lewis and Chris Thompson cure the meat in the building and then put it in a Reuben with goat gouda and their own sauerkraut. The Infatuation called the pastrami the best in Chicago and said it knew what that meant.
Why go
This is a salumeria first, so the cheese counter and the cured meat are the shop and the sandwiches come out of them.1 The pair opened it on California Avenue in summer 2021, added the beer-led restaurant Union next door the following spring, and put a cocktail bar in the back of the same 100-year-old building, which used to be the vegan room Township.3 The Michelin guide files it under Deli and Italian at two dollar signs and gives it a Bib Gourmand.2 Weekends the kitchen goes further: crispy pork trotters, confit duck leg with poached pears and squash, roasted carrots with amaranth and quinoa under smoked carrot puree and pickled dates.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Reuben. House pastrami, housemade sauerkraut, Thousand Island, and goat gouda in place of the usual Swiss, which the reviewer says he did not know a Reuben needed.1
- Order: the Chef's Board rather than building your own. It comes with the house accoutrements, onion jam, smoked almonds and truffle lardo among them.1
- Order: the finocchiona and butter sandwich if you want the quiet one. Spicy finocchiona, a thick smear of butter, salted arugula.1
- Order: the pork trotter croquettes, which come square, with olive aioli and pickled cauliflower.1
- Avoid: arriving midweek expecting the duck leg. As of January 2022 dinner ran Friday to Sunday only.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation Chicago (Adrian Kane, 14 January 2022), scoring it 8.2:
Lardon makes the best pastrami in Chicago. And yes, we realize the gravity of that statement.
1 - The Infatuation, on the truffle lardo:
we classify [it] as a condiment because we put it on everything.
1 - MICHELIN Guide Chicago: Bib Gourmand, on the guide's own venue page read 28 August 2026.2
Good to know
- The room is small. Book if you want a table.1
- The service split: primarily daytime during the week, with dinner Friday through Sunday, as the January 2022 review describes it.1
- Same building: Union is next door at 2202 and The Meadowlark is behind an unmarked door round the back.3
Verdict
should-visit — A shop that cures its own meat and then puts it in a sandwich is answerable for the whole thing, and the one critic who scored it staked a city-wide claim on the pastrami and said out loud that he knew what he was claiming. The Bib Gourmand is current. It is a rung below the top because that review is from January 2022 and nothing has re-tested the pastrami since.