Food & Drink
Affy Tapple Caramel Apples & Candy Niles
A Kraft salesman is often credited with creating the caramel apple, but Affy Tapple claims that it produced “the first caramel apple created in the United States” in 1948, about a decade before. The company says it just didn’t have the resources that Kraft did to promote it.
Anderson’s Candy Shop Richmond
Arthur Anderson left Kranz Candies in Chicago to open his own handcrafted chocolate and candy store in Richmond in 1919. A century later, third-generation owner Leif Anderson is still using many of his grandfather’s original recipes.
Ashley Bakes Chicago
Kendall College-trained Ashley Cooney uses 60 pounds of flour and 120 pounds of sugar a month crafting eye-catching hand-decorated baked goodies in her 1940s stove. A recent wedding cake she baked has a “Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones meets Enchanted Forest” theme.
Chicago Azteca Foods
Ten Mexican-American businessmen and members of the Azteca Lions Club founded Azteca Corn Products Corporation in 1969. Today, Azteca operates a 125,000-square-foot facility on the Southwest Side that employs 100 people.
Axium Foods South Beloit
Axium has been making snack products since 1960 and is the maker of Pajeda’s snacks, including corn chips, onion rings and puffed cheese.
Beer Nuts Bloomington
This bar favorite first came to life in 1937 when Arlo Shirk purchased a candy shop in Bloomington. He found that redskin peanuts sold especially well, and in 1957, convinced a potato chip manufacturer to help him sell the sweet and salty tasting peanuts as “Beer Nuts.”
Blommer Chocolate Company Chicago
The largest, fully integrated chocolate and cocoa manufacturer in North America makes wholesale chocolate coatings and bulk cocoa products in River West. When the wind is right, it casts a delectable cocoa aroma across downtown Chicago.
Bobak Sausages Chicago
Frank Bobak started making Polish-style sausages in a bathtub in an apartment basement on the North Side in 1967. The firm grew, eventually opening a flagship store and factory in the McKinley Park neighborhood. That store closed in 2015, but Bobak continues to sell sausages throughout the area.
Chutney Devis Chicago
Co-founder Uma Vaiyapuri’s inspiration to cook Indian food came from her father, who taught her in their kitchen in southern India when she was only 8 years old. The company’s curry powder comes from Vaiyapuri’s mother’s recipe, with a “little twist.”
Connie’s Chicago
Jim Stolfe traded in his prized 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire to open the first Connie’s in a small storefront on the South Side. The pizza company is still family owned and is celebrating 55 years in business.
Co-op Sauce Chicago
The first batches of Mike Bancroft’s handmade sauce were sold at the Humboldt Park farmer’s market in 2003 to keep his free youth-arts programs afloat. Now Co-op has its very own cafe and retail location in the Rogers Park neighborhood.
Crown Brew Coffee Carterville
Jared Gravatt, Joshua Benitone and Andy Reynolds, all with backgrounds in nonprofit work, started this company in 2016 as an online commerce site for coffees.
Dark Matter Coffee Chicago
This roaster, which debuted in 2007 in the West Town neighborhood, focuses on experimental coffees and unique processing techniques.
El Milagro Chicago
Founded by Raul Lopez Sr. in 1950, the family owned company makes corn and flour tortillas and tortilla chips for four taquerias in the Chicago area and for retail sales. It also has outposts in Texas and Georgia.
El Popo Chicago
The family-owned masa and tortilla makers at El Popocatepetl have been serving the Pilsen neighborhood for more than 40 years. Their factory, which employs 150 workers, supplies tortillas to eateries throughout Illinois.
Eli’s Chicago
Eli’s Original Plain Cheesecake was originally the signature treat at Eli’s The Place for Steak. That famed restaurant is closed, but the dessert lives on at a 62,000-square-foot bakery, cafe and corporate offices in the Dunning neighborhood, which distributes to customers all over the world.
Ferrara Park Forest
The Ferrara Candy Company makes about 20 different candies at three Illinois plants, including Lemonheads, Red Hots, Brach’s and Now + Later. It was purchased by the Ferrero Group in 2017, and now is part of the second-largest manufacturer of non-chocolate candy in the world.
Funks Grove Maple Sirup Funks Grove
Isaac Funk, a former Illinois senator and friend of Abraham Lincoln, settled in an area of Central Illinois that would eventually be called Funks Grove. Beginning in 1891, the Funk family began selling its “sirup,” tapped from the area’s maple trees.
Galena Garlic Co. Galena
This family-owned business, started in 2003 by Laszlo Marton, ages its balsamic vinegar in wooden barrels for up to 18 years in Modena, Italy.
Gindo’s Hot Sauce Batavia
The husband and wife team of Mary and Chris “Gindo” Ginder started making their craft pepper sauces in Los Angeles in 2011 before moving their retailing business to Batavia.
Garrett’s Popcorn Chicago
Garrett’s Popcorn has been churning out handcrafted batches since 1949. For legal reasons, they had to stop calling their sweet-and-salty signature treat — caramel and cheese popcorn blended together — the Chicago Mix. But the rebranded Garrett Mix remains the most popular flavor.
Gonnella Baking Company Schaumburg
A true family business, some 36 members of the Gonnella-Marcucci families continue operating the company’s bakeries, which can be traced back to 1886 when Alessandro Gonnella bought a small storefront bakery in Chicago.
GrownUp KidStuff Chicago
Connie Wastcoat and Don Strandell were inspired to sell their chocolate sauce by friends who loved their homemade concoction that used Ghanian cocoas. They sell their chocolate, caramel and butterscotch sauces online.
Haribo Rosemont
Founded by Hans Riegel in 1920 in Germany, HARIBO is headquartered in Rosemont and boasts 16 manufacturing locations that produce millions of Gold Bears gummies a day.
Heinkel’s Packing Co. Decatur
More than 100 years after German immigrant Albert Heinkel first started making sausages in the back of a grocery store, his business is now run by the fourth generation of the Heinkel family. They produce a range of meats, from Polish sausage to turkey drumsticks, found at county fairs as far away as Alaska.
Home Run Inn Woodridge
The family recipe for Home Run Inn’s pizza — cooked up since 1947 — comes from Nick Perrino and his mother-in-law, Mary Grittani. Now their pizzas are made from scratch daily in Woodridge—up to 65,000 pizzas a day, or 16 million pizzas a year.
Intelligentsia Chicago
Peet’s Coffee & Tea acquired a majority stake in Intelligentsia in 2015, but the third-wave coffee roasting company remains based in Chicago.
Jimmy Stick’s Pepper Products Athens
The 85 different varieties of peppers used in James Walsh’s DIY hot sauces are all grown, picked, packed and processed within a 20-mile radius of his Central Illinois operation.
Kraft Heinz Chicago
With $65, a rented wagon and a horse, J.L. Kraft started his cheese business in Chicago in 1903. These days Kraft, which merged with Heinz in 2015, is the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest in the world, with $26.1 billion in annual sales.
La Preferida Chicago
In 1949, this Mexican and Latin American food company — then based in the old South Water Market — introduced Chicago to packaged chorizo. It offers more than 250 Mexican food products, including beans, rice, salsa and more. The company’s first TV pitchman? Harry Caray in the 1980s.
Libby’s Morton
Libby’s is now owned by Nestle, but the canned pumpkin manufacturer still has a factory in Morton, Illinois, the “pumpkin capital of the world.” That facility produces more than 85 percent of the world’s canned pumpkin.
LFK Chicago
Co-founders Sean and Chelsi Lemaster, a husband and wife duo, began making their seasonings in their kitchen about five years ago. Their Lemaster Family Kitchen sells four different products online and at retailers.
Linda’s Salsa Monmouth
This company started in 2013 when founder Linda Putnam used the leftover tomatoes from her hydroponic farm to make salsa. Her salsa is now sold in more than 100 stores.
Mars Wrigley Chicago
The candy company, a unit of privately held Mars, has more than 2,400 employees and five factories in Illinois, as well as five Chicago offices. Mars Wrigley’s global headquarters remains in the Windy City.
Mel-O-Cream Donuts Springfield
Family-owned Mel-O-Cream started as a small retail shop in Springfield in 1932. The company produces more than 70 frozen-dough products and 40 pre-fried products.
Metropolis Coffee Chicago
Since opening on the North Side 15 years ago, Metropolis has expanded and now supplies coffee to hundreds of cafes and restaurants throughout the U.S., Canada and South Korea.
Mondelēz International, Inc. Deerfield
When the snack and food brands of the former Kraft Foods Inc. were spun off in 2012, they became Mondelēz International. The company, which makes products including Oreos, Chips Ahoy! and Tang, has annual revenues of about $26 billion and operates in 160 countries.
Moderne Beverages Chicago
Matt Wolf started Moderne Beverage in 2017 with the idea of using organic teas, filtered Lake Michigan water and organic cane sugar to make kombucha.
Marcoot Jersey Creamery Greenville
Known for producing a rich, hormone-free, high-quality milk, this seventh-generation family-owned Jersey dairy farm specializes in artisan and farmstead cheeses.
Mrs. Fisher’s Chips Rockford
Ethel and Eugene Fisher began making chips in 1932 in their Rockford home, and their business was originally called “Mr. Fisher’s Potato Chips.” But when he left her during the Great Depression, she changed the name. The company now cooks up about 50,000 pounds of potatoes weekly.
Nauvoo Bread and Bakery Nauvoo
Started in 1955 by Harold Smith, Paul and Carol Brown bought this bakery in 1984. Today, the bread and pastries are still made from scratch, with stone-ground flour, farm eggs and natural honey.
Pease’s Candy Springfield
The state capital’s locally owned candy store has been making the same homemade candies, nuts and treats since it opened in 1917.
Pepperidge Farm Downers Grove
In 1953, commercial bakery Pepperidge Farm opened a factory in Downers Grove because of its proximity to Chicago and Midwest distribution routes. The company bakes more than 36,100 tons of bread, rolls, English muffins and stuffing each year.
Premier Sauce Morris
Owner Stan Krasnodebski grows peppers for his specialty hot sauce at a farm just outside Morris, hence his mantra that he takes his product from “seed to sauce.”
Oberweis Dairy North Aurora
This dairy company founded by Peter J. Oberweis in 1927 now owns 42 sites in the Midwest. They’ve been delivering milk the old-fashioned way — in glass bottles — for over 90 years.
Plochman Mustard Manteno
Famous for its barrel-shaped container, Plochman is one of the oldest Illinois food companies— founded in 1852. It was bought by Swiss food manufacturer Haco in 2010 but still employs 75 people at its Manteno factory.
Quaker Oats Chicago
Quaker holds the first trademark for a breakfast cereal, described by the U.S. Patent Office as “a figure of a man in Quaker garb.” The food conglomerate, based in Chicago, has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001.