WHO ARE WE?

The original Jerry’s, dearly departed, opened on Madison Street in 2002 at the front of a catering kitchen. With the rent paid and the West Loop skid row neighborhood gentrifying, we had a whimsical notion to open a freaky sandwich shop serving ersatz restaurant entrees, obscure regional stuff, and basically anything else on bread and calling it a sandwich. (And then we discovered New Orleans!) In a nutshell, the idea was that if you’ve got "somethin'", say like pot roast, and some good bread and a Louisiana hot sauce, you might have yourself a heck of a sandwich.  And figuring that it would be a deli (a notion that didn’t survive the first week), we choose the solid deli name of “Jerry’s”, not to mention as an homage to our old pal Jerry Garcia.

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We truly love sandwiches, and we’ve eaten our share from Philly cheesesteaks, Pittsburgh hoagies, southern barbecue, New Orleans po boys & muffalettas,  lobster & fried clam rolls, Zingerman’s, French bar sandwiches, Miznon in Tel Aviv, Mexico City hipster fare, and just plain odd restaurant concoctions.

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That original Jerry’s had only 5 stools at the window, but by the end of the first day the office table and chairs had been commandeered and in short order storage space was demolished to make room for more seating.  Present day Lincoln Square Jerry’s seats many more and what was once a more limited menu has evolved into the beast that it is today, confounding poor suckers who wander in for a ham sandwich but delighting our friends.

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​Jerry’s now offers a Bumsteadian lineup of sandwiches including named creations, burgers, sausages, hickory-smoked stuff, grilled cheeses, and a rotating collection of specials.  In addition, we allow customers “in the know” (not you) to create their own sandwiches by mixing and matching. Yikes. Factor in the genius to add American craft beer, thereby possibly inventing the combination of a sandwich and a beer. Nobel Prize anyone?​

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​​And we’ve still got things up our sleeve. Jerry’s is and has always been a work in progress.

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Hey, you asked.