A Maxwell Street Polish consists of a grilled all-beef Polish sausage topped with grilled onions and yellow mustard and the optional sport peppers, on a bun. The
sandwich was first created by
Jimmy Stefanovic, a Macedonian immigrant, who took over his aunt and uncle's hot-dog stand (now Jim's Original) in
Chicago's Maxwell Street marketplace in 1939.
The Maxwell Street Polish soon grew to be one of
Chicago's most
popular local sandwiches, along with the
Chicago hot-dog and Italian Beef. It is served by restaurants around the city, and is common at sporting events. Many small vendors specialize in the Maxwell Street Polish along with the pork-chop sandwich.
Some variations exist. For example, some hot-dog vendors offer a "Maxwell Street hot dog" in which a hot dog is substituted for the Polish sausage.
Due to UIC's South Campus development, the two famous Maxwell Street Polish stands, Jim's Original and Maxwell
St. Express Grill, both of which coexisted side by side for decades at Halsted and Maxwell streets, have now relocated a half block east to Union Avenue, adjacent to the Dan Ryan Expressway on-ramp at Roosevelt Road.
