Taylor Gourmet, D.C. Hoagie Favorite, Arrives in Chicago in November

D.C.’s popular hoagie shop, Taylor Gourmet, is coming to Chicago in November. The sandwich purveyor, which will open at 1 North Dearborn, dishes cheffy sandwiches like a cheesesteak with beef ribeye and fresh bread. Plus, there’s plans to have a taste of Chicago coming to the hoagies with collaborations with local restaurants. Eater Chicago caught up with founder Casey Patten to learn a little more about what these sandwiches are all about.

Can you give Chicagoans a quick rundown on what Taylor Gourmet is?

I started the brand roughly eight years ago here in D.C., I grew up in Philadelphia where there’s a hoagie rich culture. I started working in 9 to 5 culture and wanted a good hoagie shop to call my own. So I thought about how you make everything from scratch and make all your meats in house and use local ingredients, which is what we do at Taylor Gourmet. We roast our own turkeys and make our own meatballs and that’s how the whole idea was born, it was “how can you create a better hoagie?”

What kinds of hoagies are on the menu?

Everything’s cooked from scratch, everything’s been prepared that day. We make bread that day. All the turkey, pork, it’s done in house. It’s a lot of classic sandwiches, like the Ninth Street, an Italian-inspired hoagie with Genoa salami, hot capicola, prosciutto, provolone, and vinaigrette or you can take a look at our seasonal side, where we do a spin on what a Thanksgiving dinner is called the Colonial, with sweet potato, sage, ricotta, and kale. It’s on a quarterly schedule, so there will be new hoagies and salads for every season. We stress purchasing local when it’s local and seasonal and makes sense. We think about how we treat our menu in a seasonal capacity — how can we be utilizing corn in the summer months when it’s in season and sweet? How can we be using Brussels sprouts seasonally?

What’s something that you’ll be bringing from the D.C. location to Chicago?

We love collaborating with our friends in a food space so we’re really excited to get going and teaming up with local restaurants and purveyors. The idea came from hanging out at a bar late at night and thinking about how to turn recipes into hoagies, so we can’t wait to work with local Chicago chefs to come up with new sandwiches.