Vienna Beef Celebrates 125 years, opens free museum

This year marks 125 years since the Vienna Beef hot dog debuted at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair/Columbian Exposition. Today they hosted a big blowout at the company headquarters at 2501 N. Damen. There were visits from the mascots of the Chicago sports teams, speeches by company executives and Governor Bruce Rauner and free Chicago-style hot dogs for all.

The Vienna Beef History Museum opened about two months ago and it was open to visitors during the celebration. The free museum is open weekdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and offers bits of company history and memorabilia along with the Vienna Beef Hall of Fame, where 125 members have been inducted.

At the headquarters you'll also find a cafe where they serve all your favorite products - hot dogs, Polish sausage, burgers, corned beef and more. And there's also a store where you can purchase all you need for your next barbecue - the meats, buns and all the condiments. We picked up some Ditka's spicy sausage and I can't wait to grill some of those. It's a fun little spot to head to for a weekday lunch and to take in a little Chicago history. Oh, and one other little note - right next door is Mellos, with a factory store where you can get peanuts, popcorn and candy - so if you have something planned with a baseball theme, you can head to Vienna Beef for the dogs and then go next door to get big quantities of peanuts in the shell.

Here's a little peek at what's in the museum. It's a small space that you can get through pretty quickly, but it's packed with great bits of Chicago hot dog history.