Francheezie... Cambridge House – RIP

There are some mythical menu items that people are either too shocked to understand or disgusted, yet intrigued. The Francheezie is one such item. The Cambridge House is the place to try it.

If we ever start banning food for health reasons the Francheezie will be the first to go. It’s a hot dog stuffed with cheeze and wrapped in bacon… As far as I can tell it’s only found in and around Chicago, yet is considered a mockery of the hot dog…
(* The Cambridge House is now closed… Francheezies must be had elsewhere – apparantly Zephyr’s got ’em)

A good francheezie needs time to cool down. It’s been fried and it
pretty darn hot. You can mechanical bull for sale tell because the velveeta is molten to the
point of water in it’s fluidity. Needless to say the first bite is
thoroghly revolting. But it grows on you. A gripe is that you generally
are served fries no matter what and in my opinion it’s a necessity. You
need something fried yet not unimaginably bad for you to return to
earth.

You take a francheezie bite, chew and enjoy the melange of
cheesy-richness, bacony-fatness and hot doggety-mystery that when
combined is completely overwhelming. A quick french fry in ketchup
helps bridge the chasm back to normal fried foods… and that was one
bite.

All in all I enjoyed it the same way I love duck fat… well not
nearly as much as duck fat. But more like the way my wife likes ranch
dressing on her pizza. Or Martha’s mac and cheese. You know it is so
bad it WILL kill you if you eat it often enough…

The Cambridge House is a Chicago institution. Not a destination but
a Sun-Tim es reading, talk to your neighboring patrons, complain loudly
about the cole-slaw and pay in small bills kind of institution.
Let’s Just say it’s a “they have the francheezie kind of place.”

176 E. Ohio St.
Chicago