The beef is from Chicago, the bread is the New Orleans classic and the sandwich is a special at a downtown dive bar with a lot of character and a generous streak.
It’s an Italian beef, the Chicagoland sandwich that’s become a national phenom thanks to its role in the Hulu chef-life series “The Bear.” It’s a lunchtime special through the month of June at the World Famous Corporation Bar & Grill (931 S. Peters St., 504-527-6069).
This is a tasty, garlicky, salty, sloppy specialty with a big-hearted backstory and a fundraising aim for a Hogs for the Cause team. It’s a worthy destination lunch all on its own. It’s not a French dip, it’s an Italian dunk, and they’re calling the special “Au-Jus June.”
A dive with heart
The Corporation has been around since the World’s Fair in 1984. It’s a low-key neighborhood fixture, and an industry bar for people working at the nearby Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Donald Link’s excellent sandwich spot Butcher (930 Tchoupitoulas St.) on the same block sees a lot of conventioneers. “The Corp” gets a lot of the people who put the show together (and some of Butcher’s staff post-shift too).
From the street it’s a gruff looking cinderblock bunker, inside it’s all corrugated metal, taxidermied hunting trophies, year-round Mardi Gras colors, big tables, tall cocktails in insulated foam cups and easygoing conviviality among regulars at the finish line of a workday. It’s a dive, and as with so many others around New Orleans, that term is applied with admiration.
Camouflaged by clutter in the back is a grill swiftly slinging po-boys, gumbo and sandwiches that rise above basic tavern fare without getting fancy about it.
Consider the burger: it’s a classic bar burger, not a slim smashburger, not a giant either, served with cheese that’s melted (not a given with bar burgers). You can taste the grill on the patty and on the bun, which is from Leidenheimer and much better than the picnic standard.
A beef for Hogs
The Italian beef has entered the line up through a Hogs for the Cause connection.
The bar owners are members and big sponsors of a Hogs team, House of Hogs, known for the elaborate booths created each year at the barbecue cook-off and festival. These teams are active year-round raising money for Hogs, which is the nation’s leading funder supporting families contending with childhood brain cancer.
Team co-founder Sam Panice lives in Las Vegas, where he works in the events and trade show business. Friendships and bonds through House of Hogs connect him to New Orleans, and he reached back to his hometown roots in Chicago for the Italian beef idea, capitalizing on its newfound cachet to raise more money.
His team has an ambitious goal for this year of $200,000, which double their last contribution. So Panice recruited the Corporation for a long-range Italian beef effort…