What Happened to Joe Boston's Italian Beef After Best Thing I Ever Ate?
Best Thing I Ever Ate, Season 2 Chicago, Illinois Closed 2017
Current status
As of October 2026, Joe Boston's Italian Beef has closed — confirmed via chicagoist.com, May 11, 2017.
What the source shows: Chicagoist reported the closing announcement on 2017-05-11, and Yelp's listing (updated 2026-09) continues to mark the address closed. How we decide a status →
- Episode Season 2, Episode 5
- Address 2932 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
- Website No current website found
- Show map
© OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO
What happened after Best Thing I Ever Ate?
Best Thing I Ever Ate, Season 2, Episode 5
The 'Meat-Fest' episode featured Joe Boston's Italian Beef's classic Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches, along with sausage combos served at the counter. Joe Boston's was a sandwich shop at 2932 West Chicago Avenue in Chicago, run for nearly 70 years by the same family. According to Chicagoist, the shop announced its closing on May 11, 2017, ending its run as one of the city's longtime Italian beef spots. Yelp's listing for the address was updated in September 2026 and continues to show the business marked closed, consistent with the 2017 closure. No reporting was found indicating a new business has taken over the address as of this check.
Food Paradise, Season 9, Episode 11
In the Season 9 episode 'Iconic Eats', the show featured Joe Boston's Italian Beef, a Chicago sandwich stand at the corner of Chicago and Grand Avenues known for Italian beef sandwiches, Polish sausages, and hot dogs, with beef dipped and topped with giardiniera. The stand operated from a distinctive light-green building and had served the neighborhood since 1949, later run by founder Joe Boston's daughter Ellinor and her husband Spero Kutrubis. According to NBC Chicago, the owners announced a delay in closing the restaurant, pushing the final day back by 18 days. Yelp lists the location, at 2932 West Chicago Avenue, as permanently closed, per a listing updated September 2026. This appearance is treated as the same business already documented in this database under a separate record.
The episodes
Also in Season 2
Season 2: 64 of 102 still open · 8 renamed, moved or under new owners
All 13 Season 2 episodes →Nearest open restaurants
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Food Paradise
Open -
Best Thing I Ever Ate
Relocated -
Food Paradise
Open -
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Open -
Best Thing I Ever Ate
Open -
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Open
Before you go: Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.
Sources we checked
- chicagoist.com https://chicagoist.com/2017/05/11/joe_bostons_one_of_chicagos_all-tim.php
- Yelp https://www.yelp.com/biz/joe-bostons-italian-beef-chicago-4
- nbcchicago.com https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/joe-bostons-italian-beef-chicago-closing/14538/
We work hard to keep every status accurate and dated, but restaurants change fast and our sources aren't perfect. If something here is wrong — a status, a name, an address, anything — tell us what you're seeing and where you saw it, and we'll check it.
Record btiea-0127 · checked by Cal Marchetti.