Mr. Beef

This guide to Mr. Beef in Chicago opens with a puzzle: how a stand-up counter with room for a dozen people moves as many sandwiches as it does in a single day. It traces owner Joe Zucchero's 1979 start on Orleans Street, a 2009 brush with a bank that nearly closed it, and a childhood friendship between his son Chris and a television writer that later put this counter on screen. Listen while watching the same small grill Joe worked for decades.