Can You Still Get A Chicago-Style Italian Beef From Arby's?

A long, long time ago, the world's most famous roast beef and curly fry peddler arranged at least one of its menu items into a beloved regional favorite. That's right, Arby's once sold the Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches that, outside of the area and in the present day, might be more familiar to viewers of "The Bear." It was part of a trio of city-specific sandwiches the chain offered in 2017, and public reaction at the time was critical of its authenticity, as you might imagine. (Arby's topped it with Swiss cheese, for goodness' sake.) It was still a fast food take, of course, but it did convincingly approximate the combination of spices, jus, giardiniera, and peppers with the thinly-sliced beef that Arby's already trades in to create a passable dupe. And then it disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. And there isn't a single hack, swap, or addition that'll put it back in your hands.

Things change, and fast food specials and even whole restaurants come and go. The space that previously hosted one of New York City's last remaining Arby's, for example, has since been elegantly flipped into one of the best restaurants in town. (It does not serve Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches, either.) The barrier to recreating the sandwich in Arby's case is the erstwhile peppers. The throwback sandwich included red, yellow, and banana peppers, which are no longer all available at the chain. So, although Arby's has a French dip that's similar to the Italian, it cannot capture the flavors of Chicagoland.

Although Arby's still includes banana peppers on its list of menu items and ingredients, the option to add them did not appear as an add-on in any part of the country we pantomimed ordering from. Moreover, banana peppers are only clearly identified as being on its loaded Italian sandwich, which itself was discontinued in 2021. The red and yellow peppers aren't available on any current sandwich either, so it tracks that franchisees simply stopped ordering them. Sure, Sir Arby can't be in every location at once, so there could be some outpost somewhere in the world still peppering everything, but we have not identified it. (Arby's press office did not respond to emailed questions at the time of writing.) So, should you really just have a compulsion to try this sandwich, you'll need to center the self in do-it-yourself

Start by buying banana peppers. You can get a jar of Vlasic's deli-style rings on Amazon for three bucks. Cento's fire roasted red and yellow peppers are available there, too. And you probably have a shaker of Italian seasoning, or at least its ingredients, on your spice rack. Locate your friendly neighborhood Arby's, order the French dip, and get to stuffing it with seasoned peppers for a near-taste of the halcyon days of the twenty-teens.