Italian beef, Chicago-style hot dogs and deep-dish pizza are so omnipresent in Chicago’s cultural discourse, innumerably copied at restaurants here and beyond, it’s a wonder the city’s most iconic foods have yet to really invade the snack food aisle.
That changed Tuesday, when Local Style Potato Chips — sporting bang-on flavor replicas of deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches — hit shelves at 15 local markets and delis. The crew behind this self-funded, woman-owned kettle chip brand aims to get into all 77 Chicago neighborhoods, on a quest to become the Garrett Popcorn of chips, per founder Laura Gardner.
“Chicago is such a globally recognized city for food, but it’s also having a moment right now,” said Gardner, an Evanston resident who is a 20-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods industry. “I was watching ‘The Bear’ and reading about the James Beard award winners — it’s so cool [the awards] happen in Chicago — and I became fixated on this idea for a bigger platform for celebrating all of Chicago’s iconic foods on a chip.”
Like so many startups, Local Style sprang from an unanticipated career shake-up, when Gardner lost her job as senior vice president and head of marketing and merchandising at Foxtrot. She was one of hundreds statewide abruptly laid off last April by the beleaguered upscale grocery chain, but the idea has been brewing quietly for years, she said.
Gardner, who grew up in Michigan and went to college in Ohio, has wanted to be an entrepreneur for as long as she can remember. She moved to Chicago in 2008 and spent five years in consumer market insights at multinational retailer Procter & Gamble. That was followed by 12 years in product innovation at PepsiCo, where her work on the Gatorade portfolio took her all over the globe.
“Whenever I traveled to new countries, I noticed that locals enjoyed their city’s signature flavors on potato chips — Kobe beef chips in Japan, spicy grilled squid chips in Vietnam — and as a visitor, I loved tasting them,” said Gardner. “It made me wonder: Why don’t we have that experience back home?”
With two young kids at home (Lucy, now 3, and Elle, now 4) and a full plate at work, she didn’t have the free time or brain space to put a business plan to paper or even daydream about a venture of her own. Among her projects in nine short months at Foxtrot, Gardner helped bring an in-house chip flavor to market, eerily prescient of the news that Foxtrot and Dom’s were shuttering all stores. (Foxtrot has since reopened seven locations, with plans for up to a dozen in Chicago.)
“All of a sudden, I had a lot of time to figure out what was next,” Gardner said. She talked to her husband, David Gardner, with whom she owns branding design agency ColorJar. They self-funded the venture using a combination of personal savings and credit cards.
Over July Fourth weekend last year, the Gardners invited their family to a marathon tasting of 50 potato chips to determine the right chip consistency: crunchy, but not too thick. They’d make them vegetarian, with no artificial flavors or colors.
Gardner cold-called manufacturers and expert spice blenders. Local Style had a home field advantage on packaging design; ColorJar developed colorful, checkerboard-edged bags featuring Chicago flag nods and different cartoon characters for each flavor. These also lend themselves to companion merchandise items, such as totes and T-shirts.
Each flavor (except for Classic Salted) underwent roughly a dozen iterations. The hot dog flavor is mustardy and oniony, with gentle umami notes and relishy sweetness. Italian beef is deeply savory and spicy, with a vinegar kick and slow-burning heat. The pizza variety balances salty cheese and juicy, sweet, oven-cooked tomato flavors with a woodsy hint of oregano.
“Pizza was really interesting to formulate,” Gardner said. “We kept getting the balance off of tomato and mozzarella. One iteration almost tasted like a tomato sauce chip, then we overcorrected and got a cheesy chip. Ultimately, where we found balance was in the use of oregano and parmesan. We ended up in a place I feel really proud of.”
Alas, she had no time to bask as boxes filled up the garage at the Gardners’ Evanston home. She hit the pavement, offering samples of the chips everywhere from convenience stores and delis to local grocers, bakeries and a five-star hotel.
Snack-size bags, averaging $3.25 apiece, are stocked at such spots as Beatrix Market, J.P. Graziano Grocery, D’Amato’s, the Vienna Beef Factory Store, Go Grocer, North Buena Deli & Wine, The Goddess & Grocer and even the bar at the Four Seasons. This being Chicago, you can also get them at Mr. Beef. The latter’s owner, Chris Zucchero, shared some Local Style samples with the crew of “The Bear” while shooting Season 4 over the past month.
“It was a real pinch-me moment,” Gardner said.
She knows she’s moved uncommonly fast for a new product launch. Most big brand rollouts take at least two years. But Gardner also knew it would only be a matter of time before someone else had this idea, and she hasn’t so much as caught her breath since that chip tasting last July.
“I feel so much urgency; I’m looking over my shoulder constantly,” she said. “I don’t even know who would be running after me, but it’s making me move so fast.”
The next flavor, Hot Giardiniera, will arrive in the next couple of weeks. For now, Gardner keeps breathlessly sampling and knocking on local businesses’ doors. This summer, Local Style will appear at street festivals, including Do Division and West Fest.
“I feel grateful and proud, and also it’s scary,” she said. “Everything has been behind a curtain, and there’s some security in that. As soon as we open the doors, it moves from being ours to belonging to the city. Hopefully, everyone’s going to love them.”
Seven neighborhoods down, 70 to go.