Cubs Fans Can Now Nosh on Pizza Bagels and Reubens Across From Wrigley Field

When Aaron Steingold opened his modern Jewish deli Steingold’s of Chicago in 2017, he already had baseball on the brain. A lifelong fan and self-described baseball historian who attended games at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx as a child, he harbored a dream of opening a location near Wrigley Field, the famed home of the Chicago Cubs.

Seven years later, Steingold is swinging for the fences with Steingold’s Bagels & Nosh, a new location across the Friendly Confines inside the Hotel Zachary. Steingold’s features classic deli hits and playful new additions and officially opened its doors Thursday, July 11 in the 1,200-square-foot former home of West Town Bakery at 3630 N. Clark Street.

“It’s always been a part of my long-term goals to open something closer to the ballpark,” says Steingold, nodding toward the longstanding romance between American Jews and the iconic game. “Nostalgia is a big part of our cuisine… and baseball is as Americana as it gets, so it’s a match made in heaven for us.”

Steingold’s Bagels & Nosh aims to pull off a tricky balancing act of maintaining tradition — the subject of animated discussion among Jews for millennia — while surviving and thriving in the modern era. That means fans can count on staples like hot pastrami on rye, classic bagel and lox sandwiches (the deli’s number-one seller, says Steingold), latkes, and bagels in bulk. The dynamics of ballpark crowds and hotel guests have also prompted some fresh additions like the Traditional, a build-your-own sandwich with numerous meat, cheeses, and condiments to choose from, and customizable breakfast sandwiches with new vegetarian ingredients like culinary director Cara Peterson’s (whose experience includes working at New Orleans’ award-winning Shaya) red lentil patties. Steingold has offered Vienna Beef bagel dogs on and off for a few years, but at Bagels & Nosh, they’re a permanent menu item with brown mustard for dipping.

In a sign of the times, Steingold has for the first time added gluten-free bagels to the lineup, sourced from California-based brand Original Sunshine, as well as a few additional vegetarian open-faced bagel sandwiches. “We’re hoping to not just be [associated] with the high-calorie, heavy-duty sandwiches that people probably know us for,” he says.

That isn’t to say that Bagels & Nosh is a health food spot — Steingold tapped operations director Sean Courtney to design a drink menu, which includes a dozen mostly local draft beers, “easy-drinking” wines, and rotating boozy slushies like a frozen watermelon limonada that riffs on Middle Eastern mint lemonade. The team has plans for “deli-inspired” concoctions like a twist on a classic egg cream for the winter. In the coming weeks, the deli will kick off knock-and-drop service for hotel guests, delivering smoked fish platters and more to their doors.

Explore Steingold’s Bagels & Nosh in the photographs below.

Steingold’s Bagels & Nosh, 3630 N. Clark Street, open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.