u/Natural_Ad_954

I was visiting a friend in Denver last month and he asked me to grab a hot dog at a place near his apartment. They served it on a pretzel bun with ketchup and called it a "Chicago dog." I almost called the police.

But it got me thinking about all the stuff that's so normal here that you don't notice it until you leave. Things like:

* Saying "the" before every highway. The Kennedy, the Edens, the Eisenhower. Nobody else does this.

* How seriously we take which side of town someone is from

* The fact that "Italian beef" needs three sub-decisions before it's ordered (dipped, sweet or hot, cheese yes or no) and we all know the protocol

* Sweetened iced tea being treated like an insult

What's the thing you only realized was a Chicago thing after you left, or after someone from out of town pointed it out?