Johnny’s Beef in Elmwood Park has long been one of those sacred places in Chicagoland food culture — the kind of spot people speak about in the same breath as memories, not just meals. For decades, the small, no-nonsense Italian beef stand has drawn lines out the door, generations of regulars, and out-of-towners willing to detour just to say they’ve had “the real thing.”
That’s why a piece of chatter I recently overheard stopped me in my tracks.…