Chicago hot dog staple Jim's Original opens in Orange
At long last, Orange has its dog day.
After more than a year in the works, Jim’s Original, a Chicago hot dog staple since 1939, opened in Orange on Saturday, June 13, following a soft opening Thursday.
The new Tustin Street location was met with a line out the door, with food selling out shortly after opening. Third-generation co-owner Jim Christopoulos, whose grandfather, Jim Stefanovic, founded Jim’s Original 85 years ago, called opening day “chaotic, but good.”
For the first few days, Christopoulos said the restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. He added that he hopes to shift to regular hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. as soon as the Tustin Street spot gets its footing.
Menuwise, the dog that put Jim’s Original on the culinary map is the Maxwell Street Polish, a circa-1943 creation conceived by Stefanovic. The famous item (it even has its own Wikipedia page) features a grilled or fried Polish sausage topped with grilled/caramelized onions, yellow mustard and optional pickled sport peppers.
Eater Chicago, writing about the famed frank in 2023, said that "the sweet-hot-garlicky-meaty mélange has earned generations of fans.” The Chicago Sun-Times, meanwhile, lauded it as one of "the classic foods synonymous with Chicago,"
Other menu items include a bone-in pork chop sandwich (recommend by the late Anthony Bourdain), cheeseburgers, Italian beef, a chicken sandwich, a fish sandwich and grape, orange, root beer and strawberry sodas.
Christopoulos chose Orange as the famed hot dog joint’s second location in order to remain closer to his Orange County home following the pandemic. "I thought, why don't I look for a place near me? Somewhere I can get to easier and something that's for myself?" he explained in a 2025 interview.
Find it:214 N. Tustin St., Orange
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 12:18 PM.