Sport Peppers? Celery Salt? A Chicago Dog Origin Story

hot dog
oncetherewasagirl/flickr
hot dog
oncetherewasagirl/flickr

Sport Peppers? Celery Salt? A Chicago Dog Origin Story

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

WBEZ’s Curious City gets around 75 questions about Chicago and the region from listeners each month, and several of them over the years have had to do with the Chicago hot dog. They wanted to know when it was invented, how it became a cult favorite and who exactly decided to put yellow mustard, chopped onions, two slices of tomato, a dill pickle spear, two sport peppers and a dash of celery salt on a hot dog. 

WBEZ’s Monica Eng went out in search of the Chicago dog’s origin and discovered a tale of immigrants and the American melting pot.