Cuban sandwich @ La Unica ($3.99)
Getting a good Cuban sandwich (pork, ham, cheese and pickles on crusty bread, heated in a sandwich press) in Chicago is tough, mainly because we simply lack the large Cuban community to support lots of sandwich shops. One family in the small fold serves their fellow island immigrants via their little grocery store, complete with a counter-service eatery in back. The sandwich turned out here is truly worthy of its country’s name: The roasted pork is consistently nice and juicy, and the bread is toasted to ensure the eater will be covered in crumbs. 1515 W Devon Ave, 773-274-7788

Vegetarian frittata panino @ Vella Café ($6.50) 
Breakfast panini rock, but they’re incredibly difficult to find, and even more difficult to pull off perfectly. This cheery commuter’s haven (located just under the Western Blue Line stop) does it right, layering roasted-tomato and cremini-mushroom–frittata onto Red Hen’s French-style pane Francese. The bread is spread with cream cheese that’s been kicked up with black pepper, thyme and parsley. Just don’t torture your fellow El riders by eating it on the train. 1912 N Western Ave, 773-489-7777

$7.25, Lox-and-cream-cheese bagel sandwich @ NYC Bagel Deli

Photo: Jessica Dixon

Lox-and-cream-cheese bagel sandwich @ NYC Bagel Deli ($7.25) 
Attention bagel nerds: Yes, this place boils its batches, and no, it’s not as good as H&H in Manhattan. Attention rest of the world: This place turns out really good bagels, and if you’re into lox-and-cream-cheese sandwiches, you aren’t likely to find a better one in the city. We prefer to have the smoked salmon and cream cheese loaded onto the salty, garlicky, crunchy “everything” bagel. One of these sandwiches and a cup of the eyelid-lifting house brew are our citified stand-in for a rooster wake-up call.  1001 W North Ave, 312-274-1278

On the side
Chip off the new block

Photo: Donna Rickles

For some people, hitting 50 brings thoughts of retirement; for Danny Lena, that birthday spawned a new career. “I was sitting on the porch with my wife, Marie, and we started writing a list of things we could do,” Lena recalls. “My grandfather, who’s from Calabria, Italy, taught me how to make vegetable chips when I was ten, and Marie has also always had an interest in food. Voilà! Papa Lena’s was born.” Three years later, Papa Lena’s sweet-potato, beet and red-pepper chips can be found in restaurants and retail spots around the city—including Crust (2056 W Division St, 773-235-5511), Mercury Café (1505 W Chicago Ave, 312-455-9924) and Whole Foods (1000 W North Ave, 312-587-0648)—and the Lenas are getting ready to take an old-school family tradition into the next century by becoming certified organic. With help from the city, Whole Foods’ local vendor program and Crust’s Michael Altenberg (whose own restaurant is officially organic), Papa Lena’s should have its certification within a year. Using nothing but veggies, olive oil and sea salt to produce their addictive chips, the Lenas should pass with flying colors. 1438 W Chicago Ave (312-455-8100).—Heather Shouse

Will Special @ Riviera Italian Foods ($3.50) 
You know you’re a regular when a place names a sandwich after you. Mike Pugliese, who runs Riviera Italian Foods on Harlem Avenue, says that one of his best customers (“Will, no last name, just Will”) requested a custom-built sandwich so often, that about a year ago, Pugliese went ahead and dubbed it “The Will Special,” making it a cinch for Will’s friends and coworkers to get the goods they’d been hearing about. The hot sopressata, spicy cappicola, fresh mozzarella and giardinera that get piled onto the torpedo roll are all housemade, and are joined by imported prosciutto di Parma and salami. We’ve never met Will in the flesh, but here’s an official shout out.  3220 N Harlem Ave, 773-637-4252

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Club @ Lux Bar ($10) 
We know, we know—we didn’t think the rosemary-scented fried chicken at Lux Bar could get any better, either. And we certainly didn’t think it could get any less healthy. But the addition of bacon proved us wrong on both counts. Not that we’re complaining—topped with tomato and lettuce and stuck between slices of white bread, this fried chicken–and–bacon sandwich is a handful, but when you get ahold of it there’s no doubt that you’re eating one of the greatest combinations known to man. 18 E Bellevue Pl, 312-642-3400

$8.39, Serrano ham and Manchego cheese @ Hannah's Bretzel

Photo: Jessica Dixon

Serrano ham and Manchego cheese @ Hannah’s Bretzel ($8.39) 
Soft, addictive pretzels made with organic wheat. A store that’s eco-friendly yet remains more “hip” than “hippie.” And a chocolate selection so huge it almost—almost—makes picking the right one a chore. Any day now this local minichain is going to take off and start popping up all over the country. Until then, we’ll continue noshing on its Spanish ham-and-cheese sandwich (which is crowned with a gorgeous pile of crunchy fennel and slathered with sweet, spiced fig chutney) and bragging to all our out-of-town friends about how you can only get it here.  180 W Washington St, 312-621-1111; 233 N Michigan Ave, 312-238-9636

Cemita de Milanesa @ Taqueria Puebla ($6) 
Pork tenderloin is a rural American thing, right? Well, yeah, but they also find their way onto Latin American menus, in the form of the cemita sandwich. The father-and-son–run Mexican eatery Taqueria Puebla isn’t just a shrine to celebrities and soccer (the walls are plastered with photos of everyone from Madonna to the Mexican National Soccer Team); it’s a shrine to pork. Our favorite of the pig plates is this sandwich, which dresses up a crispy, breaded, pounded-thin pork tenderloin with a schmear of smoky smashed chipotles in adobo sauce, fresh avocado, Oaxacan string cheese and papalo, a pungent cousin of cilantro.  3619 W North Ave, 773-772-8435

Plus:

Saga of the sandwich: A brief history of the Earl’s famous invention.

Here’s looking at jus: We dig into Chicago’s iconic Italian beef sandwich. Plus, how to order one like a pro.