Chicago’s First-Ever Italian Beef Festival to Benefit Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation

It’s as Chicago as “Da Bears” and the “Machine” that ran the city for decades  – just a whole lot tastier. For uninitiated foodies, an Italian beef is a sandwich comprised of thinly sliced beef served in its own gravy on Italian bread and served “hot” (with pickled vegetables a.k.a. giardiniera), “sweet” (with grilled bell peppers), and then either “dipped” or “baptized” in gravy – or served “dry” (with just a few spoonfuls of gravy).

The First Annual Italian Beef Festival™ will be emceed by Elliott Bambrough (host of Emmy-Award winning Chicago’s Best on WGN-TV), and will serve food from Chicago’s original Italian beef brands Al’s Beef, Buona and Mr. Beef. The event will be take place at the Revolution Brewing Tap Room (3340 N Kedzie Ave) on Saturday May 26th. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, a charity dedicated to fighting cancer.

There is much more to the Italian Beef Festival than just sampling the region’s finest Italian beef. Attendees will share tasting notes on the beer and beef, giving them a chance to win a “Passport to Beef”, which entitles the bearer to free beef for a year from each of Chicago’s Italian beef legends (yes, free beef for a full year from Al’s, Buona AND Mr. Beef!). Revelers can also compete in social sports, trivia games, beef-eating contests and more.

Tickets sell for $30, and include sandwiches from each of the three original beef brands paired with Revolution brews. The party is divided into two day-parts – from Noon until 3PM, and from 4PM until 7PM. In addition, every attendee for each of the two timeslots will be entered to win an Anthony Rizzo-autographed collectible bat or jersey.

Tickets for this event are on sale at italianbeeffest.com