Reviewing Frankie’s Chicago Beef: Bringing a taste of Chicago beef to the Florida coast in St. Augustine. 

If I told you a fully loaded cannonball was one of the best things I’d eaten on a recent trip to St. Augustine, what would you think? Images of big guns and historic weaponry might cross your mind and make you wonder whether I’d lost mine. Let me explain. A visit to Frankie’s Chicago Beef food truck requires one to learn a certain lingo. I’ll admit I was a little hazy on what a Chicago-style Italian beef was until just recently. Frankie and Eddie set me straight.  

The photos on the side of the food truck and their enthusiastic sales pitch explained that this quintessential Chicago sandwich takes thinly sliced beef, piles it high on French bread, adds toppings, and dips it in au jus. The customer decides on the dip style. Here, the Chicago duo decided to have a little fun with the menu by adding a beachy Florida vibe. Skip the au jus, and it’s called a Beach Bum, just hanging out and staying dry. Dipping both corners of the bread before serving is called “toes in the water.” If you want to go all the way and dunk the sandwich in au jus, it’s called cannonball.  Add in all the toppings, and it’s a Fully Loaded Cannonball.

“The best part is dipping it in au jus,” says Frankie Loulousis, who owns Frankie’s Chicago Beef with brother-in-law Eddie Ledezma. “The beef is seasoned with love and slow-roasted for hours. (The key to tasty au jus.) And it has to be specific bread. We use Turano bread from Chicago. We tried to use Florida bread but it’s not the same,” Frankie told me. Toppings include sweet, mild, and hot peppers, along with melted mozzarella cheese. You can also add giardiniera, an Italian-style vegetable relish. 

Frankie and Eddie are from Chicago’s South Side, where every neighborhood has an Italian beef joint. When Frankie moved to Florida a few years ago, he asked around for a place to get some Chicago Italian beef. He was met with a blank stare. Since he couldn’t find any place that served that familiar flavor from home, he decided to fill the gap in the market. He seized the opportunity to show off his recipe for this meaty treat. 

“My mom’s a cook, so we would just make our own sometimes. I’ve been perfecting my recipe over the years,” Frank said. He shared a sample with coworkers and the enthusiastic response encouraged him to hit the road with Eddie, selling Chicago Italian Beef at Farmer’s markets along the North Florida coast. In early June, they folded up their traveling tents and took a permanent spot in the Marina Munch food truck park. 

The menu also includes gyros, Souvlaki, Vienna beef hot dogs (Chicago-style of course) and fries. But I went straight for the beef.

I’m an Italian beef newbie, so I don’t have any basis for comparison, but I know I’d order this again in a heartbeat. Tender, moist, flavorful beef with a little spice from the peppers and cheesy goodness melted over the top – you can just taste the love and passion these guys put into the sandwich. And their secret beef seasoning blend doesn’t hurt either. There’s no better place to try this imported Chicago flavor than at Frankie’s Chicago Beef in the Marina Munch Food Truck Park, with the yachts bobbing in the marina and the breeze blowing off the San Sebastian River. Grab a picnic table by the water, order a beer from the cantina and celebrate the glorious Florida weather.  

“Back home in Chicago, everyone had their favorite place. That’s what we provide, a taste of home,” Frankie said. We’re glad they came.