Second City Subs

Thumann's - The Deli Best

As a young man, raised on a working farm in Germany, the farm fresh taste was instilled within my Grandfather, Henry Thumann. When he came to America eager at 17 to live the American dream, he brought with him his European traditions and treasured recipes of quality and taste. Mr. Thumann began his career as a butcher apprentice and 4 years later became a master butcher. It is during this time that he cultivated the family recipes using his new found knowledge of spices, meat curing, and recipe creations from scratch . Mr. Thumann realized early on that fillers, MSG, gluten, artificial flavors and coloring, and large amounts of salt were not at all necessary when using superior quality cuts of meat and when the complementary spices were blended just right.

Several years later, in 1949, Mr. Thumann decided to devote himself to bringing "The Deli Best" to the public and opened the first Thumann's plant, located in Wallington, New Jersey. The company was young and started with only 5 employees and 2 trucks. From its current location in Carlstadt, New Jersey, Thumann's has been distributing all over the country, from coast to coast, available only at the finest supermarkets and gourmet delis.

Even today, we still use Grandpa Thumann's family recipes. While he is no longer personally doing the preparation, our butchers are still using his methods. Thumann's has become one of the largest, most modern, and environmentally conscious meat processing facilities in the east.

Three generations later, Thumann's is still the family owned and operated company that Henry Thumann founded in 1949. At Thumann's, healthy, nutritious products aren't just our family's business; they are our way of life, too, just as Grandpa Thumann wants it.

For more information, visit www.thumanns.com

Vienna® Beef Ltd.

Vienna Beef was founded in 1893 when Austria-Hungarian immigrants Emil Reichel and Sam Ladany introduced their family frankfurter recipe to their fellow Chicagoans at the legendary Columbian Exposition. The hot dog was a hit, and Vienna Beef was born. More than 100 years later, we’re still making our sausages the old-fashioned way, with premium domestic beef and our original recipe, made to the highest of quality standards and hickory-smoked for authentic flavor.

Today, Vienna Beef today is a whole lot more than hot dogs. Still headquartered in Chicago, we manufacture and distribute a wide variety of foods, from our flagship sausages and deli meats to soups, chilis, entrees, condiments, desserts and Kosher specialties. Yet no matter what we’re cooking up, we adhere to the same standards that have made us the favorite of hot dog afficionados from Chicago to Europe and beyond. We choose natural ingredients because we believe they really matter when it comes to taste-real cream for our soups, our own meats for our chilis, harvest-fresh vegetables in our entrees and condiments. And we pay just as much attention to the preparation. Most of our products are cooked in small batches, and our food safety process is state-of-the-art.

You'll find our products at supermarkets, quick-serve restaurants, hot dog stands, sports arenas and entertainment venues across the United States and around the world. We even ship our gifts directly to dog devotees and other food fans wherever they may live. Vienna Beef. It’s the taste of Chicago that knows no bounds.

For more information, visit www.viennabeef.com

Gonnella Breads

The name Gonnella, for Chicago food connoisseurs, conjures up visions of freshly baked, aromatic, crisp-crusted bread. A true hearth-baked product baked fresh every day of the year.

The Gonnella Baking Company now produces over three million pounds of product weekly, in six facilities. The current production capabilities are far more sophisticated and extensive than the original operation, which processed a few hundred loaves weekly in a basement shop on Chicago's De Koven Street. The bread that comes out of the ovens today is the same top quality product that Alessandro Gonnella produced in his small, wood burning oven when he founded the company over a century ago.

For more information, visit www.gonnella.com

Bobtail Ice Cream

Founders Jeff Wilcoxon and Chris Hill established Bobtail Ice Cream Company in 2004 after participating in the Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge, an annual business plan competition at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Their success in the competition gave Jeff and Chris the opportunity to partner with local alumnus, John Rutledge, to bring Bobtail to life and open the first location on Chicago’s Broadway Avenue. Since 2004, the Bobtail team has opened five additional locations throughout Chicago, including the company’s first suburban location in Wilmette, IL.

Jeff and Chris were inspired to create Bobtail by Grandpa Wilcoxon – Jeff’s grandpa – who, beginning in 1950, sold ice cream from a tiny factory and door-to-door from a truck to his neighbors in Bexley, Ohio. He believed in ringing doorbells, knowing customers by name and staking his reputation on a quality product.

Now. Close your eyes and picture the ice cream parlor you loved as a kid. Combine Grandpa’s time-tested product and small-town ideals with fresh energy and an urban touch. That’s Bobtail Ice Cream Company.

We offer the best-tasting scoops, shakes, floats and sundaes you’ll find - all made to bring out the subtle flavor of each distinctive ingredient. And since we’re from the Windy City, we know the secrets to making ice cream a food to be savored year-round. We’ll keep you warm each winter with piping fresh Steamers,™  hot brownie sundaes and sweet Bobby Joes™  - all created with truly homemade ice cream from our own hometown factory.

Whether you’re enjoying Bobtail ice cream at our neighborhood shops, a local restaurant, community event, or in your own home, we think it will put a smile on your face.

Things we think you should know about Bobtail!
• Bobtail is the only Chicago company that makes truly homemade, hard-pack ice cream.
• We specialize in classic, seasonal and locally-inspired ice cream flavors and specialty products to be savored year-round (even during cold Chicago winters!).
• Our ice cream is super-premium and we use only top-quality ingredients.
• Bobtail ice cream has lower butterfat content and calories than most other super-premium ice creams which better captures the subtleties of each ingredient.
• We sell our homemade ice cream through three channels – store locations, wholesale and catering / delivery.
• Bobtail is committed to making best-quality ice cream, modern custom conveniences and traditional comfort.
• We are dedicated to serving and supporting the community – especially kids and education.
• Bobtail combines three generations of Wilcoxon family recipes and small-town ideals with fresh-energy and an urban touc

For more information, visit www.bobtailicecream.com