J.P. Graziano Grocery
The city’s West Loop has in recent years morphed from an appealingly gritty former industrial zone filled with the hulking remains of wholesale market buildings and warehouses into a nightlife mecca of wall-to-wall restaurants, bars, and boutique hotels. But if you want a taste of what once was (both figuratively and deliciously), stop for a sandwich to-go at the nearly 90-year-old Italian deli J.P. Graziano Grocery. Its signature giardiniera is famous throughout the city as a key ingredient in Italian beef sandwiches. Here, though, this elixir (which comes in both hot and mild versions) anoints subs constructed on bread cut from crusty, yard-long loaves.