Big Guy's Sausage Stand, Berwyn

Big Guy's has become the great stand of my immediate neighborhood, another dot on the map of good folks doing committed business in points south and west of the gravitational center of Chicagoland. With an opening tied to reality TV and a name that might run-on in memory to a major chain, it might be all too easy to dismiss until you've actually had the food, which is elevated with the same care the owners and staff show the surrounding stretch of Berwyn and Oak Park, with grateful smiles at all hours of the day, good delivery service, and regular community events.

The sausages are remarkably well-curated, a mix of some of the best from city butchers and their own creations, particularly the Italian chicken sausage, which works so well in standard and buffalo applications (with a tangy sauce and meticulously matchsticked fresh carrots and celery). The seasonal Rudolph and Turducken are capriciously well-crafted, and several here have sung the praises here of the hot links. Their smoky grilled peppers, and general touch with vegetables, are mouthwatering. Even their basic red hot with the now excellent fresh-cut fries - a steady and intentional improvement since they opened - breezes past Parky's, Portillo's, and other common local options. Their freezer case has also become well stocked with their own cuts and craft for cookouts. As a salted meat and fryer shrine, it now stacks up very favorably to Wiener and Still Champion and the former fRedhots in my book.

But it's actually their hamburger and weekly sandwich specials - po' boys and a pot roast sandwich in tribute to lamented GNR The Depot American Diner - that put this place in nomination territory for me. I have not found a better balance of toppings or flavor of house-made sauces in this category of shop. Big Guy's is not a fancy place, and even with some inspiration from Doug Sohn and Bobby Flay has decided to eschew slick in favor of substance. This is simple food served with a smile. And if you need some atmosphere, head around to the garden tent in back on a summer night, or next door to the bar. Some notes of praise from others:

TooHot wrote:out of this world good, with the toppings enhancing the sausage flavor to the max

Sweet Willie wrote:We both REALLY enjoyed the grilled shrimp po' boy, 7 plump shrimp, grilled nicely

seebee wrote:[On the Chipotle sausage] A real winner.

There are plenty of longer-time shacks on the South and West sides deserving of their GNR place in the sun, but I'm delighted to throw my chip in this year for Big Guy's, fuel that has kept me going in the past year from right in my backyard, and made me proud of how Roosevelt Road is developing.

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Big Guys Sausage
http://www.bigguyssausage.com/
7021 Roosevelt Rd
Berwyn, IL 60402
(708) 317-5213

I will gladly second this one, and I'm guessing others will be showing love as well. I don't make it to this joint nearly as often as I would like to, but this is a place that gives a serious crap about what they are doing. The 1 year anniversary/block party they threw was a fantastic "thank you" to the hood, and the food just speaks for itself. It definitely needs to be on the map if you enjoy interesting sausage preparations.

Big Guys screams GNR! What a great nomination. My wife and I have tried a large percentage of the menu and, rarely have we come across anything that wasn't delicious.

Recently we moved out of the Oak Park / Berwyn area, but we still find ourselves hopping of the Eisenhower every once in a while on our trips into the city to grab Big Guy's latest sausage and some of their butter garlic fries!

Let's do these big guys a solid and honor them with a GNR!

Our Top 5 from Big Guy's

1. Pot Roast w/ onion straws, gravy and giardineria (Monday special)
2. Regular Grilled Cheeseburger w/ onion straws, onions, pickles, american cheese and thousand island
3. Butter Garlic Hand Cut Fries
4. Pepper & Egg w/ Italian Sausage & hot
5. Hot Link w/ bbq sauce & pineapple coleslaw

I enthusiastically support this nomination. I had been to Big Guy's a few times and always enjoyed it. My lunch yesterday sealed the deal. Big Guy's for GNR? Yessss.

I just came across this now, and I can tell you that we truly appreciate the compliments and patronage of the LTH Community. We enjoy each other’s company here at Big Guys and that definitely includes our customers. Being nominated for a GNR is encouraging for us to grind harder and keep improving what we do. Almost everyone who works at Big Guys grew up within a couple blocks of it, our goal if anything is to be a favorite place in the neighborhood... so it’s nice to see people taking notice of our efforts.
Be happy and eat sausage-
Brendan O’Connor, Big Guys

If it was not for Katy's opening too, this would easily be the best place to open in the Oak Park area in recent years. As it stands, it's a close race for tops.

Of the places like this that I've tried, including Hot Doug's, Frank n Dawgs, and the now closed Fredhots, Big Guys is by far my favorite. They succeed with great, solid bases; the sausages. Then, their combinations, sure no unduly risky, pretty much all work. For instance, when one time, a cheddarbrat, bacon, 1000 island, lettuce and tomato, was fostered on me, I hesitated. Wrong. That worked just fine. Given the generous potion of fresh cut fries with each sandwich, it's a hell of a deal too.

I've tried nearly the whole menu at this point. And at this point found only one sandwich I did not love, the Wednesday brisket. I'm especially fond of the burger, the pot roast, the grilled shrimp, the aforementioned brat; really good chili (which is the standard order for one daughter). I tend to go to them first, but am about as happy with the chicken sausage, a pork chop, the prime rib, or one of the specials. Yes, it's that hard to choose.

More, the staff are uniformly friendly. They try hard to make it an enjoyable experience. Or you can take it next door and eat it with cheap booze.

This is surely a GNR.

I haven't made it to Big Guys as often as I would like since moving back to Oak Park, but that's largely due to the intense aversion to meat my wife went through for the first trimester of her current pregnancy. Now that her appetite is back to normal (and beyond) I was able to go pick up dinner to split tonight. The crawfish sausage, hot link, and sausage of the week tear jerker absolutely lived up to expectations based on past lunch stops for a turducken sausage and ham sandwich special. My only disappointment was that the pot roast was sold out for the night, but the sausages made up for it easily.

Overheard while waiting in line:

"So that's the only one that's wrapped in bacon?" (Referring to the cheddar brat)
"We'll wrap anything you want in bacon."
"Alright!"

They certainly do aim to please, and always have in my visits thus far. An excellent addition to the area, and absolutely a GNR in my book.