Joey's of Chicago

Mel F.
Glendale, AZ

4/1/2011
"We slammed on the brakes when we came across Joey's of Chicago on West Bell Road. We were looking for a place to have lunch and being from Chicago, the Italian beef sandwich caused a watering effect in my mouth........ until we tried it. Ugh! I was expecting a treat, if from nothing but the price, as it indicated an expensive meal ahead. Two beef sandwiches were over $20 including the fries and drinks. By the way, they should stick exclusively to fries, they were excellent.
We waited an exasperating 20 minutes for two lousy sandwiches, that were delivered to our table by a polite young man. The beef was tasteless, the roll was nothing like what I was expecting and half the size of the Chicago variety. I ordered mine wet and from experience I knew what to expect, but it was dry and tasteless. We savored the fries and took the leftovers home to the dog. He was also disappointed. First and last try."

It was the afternoon of our Garage sale and both Julie and I were pretty hungry, so we stopped at this welcoming sign that read "Joey's of Chicago", and flew the flag of Vienna Products. Being from Chicago AND being very hungry, this was very meaningful for me. So as the rant begins, I literally slammed on the breaks to make our turn into hot dog happiness. An elderly couple were exiting as we entered and I asked if they were from Chicago and they replied, no. I figured that's why they were leaving, they'd been thrown out.

The first thing I noticed that was a little unusual, was the McDonald's atmosphere that their ordering system took on. I ordered an Italian beef sandwich (wet). Julie being from way off in Indiana, hadn't yet experienced the Chicago style delicacies and ordered hers (dry) with au jus on the side and cheese of all things? We were seated in the restaurant to await our lunches. We chatted and laughed about the garage sale and discussed some of our outrageous buyers of the day, when LJ mentioned that it was sure taking a long time for two lousy sandwiches. about 20 minutes of waiting and a polite young man delivered our selections to us. Uh oh, not good. My sandwich, although I ordered it wet, came on a dry 2" roll that was about 6" long, sparsely covered with tasteless meat.

We both agreed that the fries were excellent, however. Actually, you know all of that from my commentary above. After writing my rant on Yelp, I was contacted by email by a woman that claimed to be Tammi, the wife of the owner. She went ahead and explained that although they take a lot of heat on this website, it's all wrong and their products are really excellent, their prices are perfect and it was our mistake that we were dissatisfied. She wanted to know precisely what time we were there, because her husband was there most of the day and what I'm complaining about is all wrong. I read her email that also offered to mail me a gift certificate, if I'd supply her with my address. I did. Julie was pretty excited because she said we could sell the gift certificate on eBay and possibly recoup 1/2 of our money? Then we exchanged a couple of more emails, as Tammi wanted to know where I had eaten in the Chicago area and from where I acquired my expertise in Vienna Products? I explained that when I moved out of my parent's home, I was 6' 1" and 135 LBS, then got my own apartment and gained 40 LBS in a few months on Laurie's Pizza, where I ate an entire sausage pizza and an Italian beef sandwich almost every night for dinner.

Well, here it is 15 days later and it appears that Tammi's word is about as good as their Italian Beef, because the gift certificates never did come! I'm sticking with Luke's at 16th Street and Indian School.