From a tin of cheddar popcorn that’ll stain your fingers for a week to the bottle of liqueur locals use to torture their friends.
You can fly home from Chicago with the standard tourist haul. A magnet shaped like the Bean. A keychain. A snow globe. A T-shirt with the skyline printed on it.
You can do better.
We asked our 65,000 Chicago-loving followers what souvenirs they actually buy when they’re showing the city to out-of-town friends. The list that came back was specific, opinionated, and weirdly delicious. Some of these are food. One is wax. One is the most controversial liquor in the United States. One is a frozen pizza so heavy you’ll want to check it as a separate bag.
Here are the 9 Chicago souvenirs locals say are actually worth the suitcase space.
1. A Massive Tin of Garrett Popcorn
If you walk down Michigan Avenue and smell caramel and butter, you’re already in line.
Garrett Popcorn is non-negotiable.
While the “Garrett Mix” (a blend of caramel and cheese) is the classic move, true savory fans know the power of the CheeseCorn.
Grab a tin of just the cheddar cheese popcorn. It is dangerously orange, aggressively cheesy, and impossible to stop eating.
Your fingers will be stained for days, but it’s worth it.
Pro tip: If you’re flying, seal that tin tight—the cabin pressure will make the whole plane smell like delicious cheese.
2. A Mold-a-Rama Figurine
📍 Available at the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Brookfield Zoo
If you visit any of Chicago’s major museums or the Lincoln Park Zoo, keep your eyes open for a retro-looking machine that smells faintly of melted crayons. That’s a Mold-A-Rama.
Drop in $3 to $5, hit the button, and watch the machine inject hot molten plastic into a metal mold right in front of you. About 50 seconds later, the machine pops out a still-warm, hollow figurine. A gorilla at the zoo. A Tyrannosaurus at the Field Museum. The U-505 submarine at MSI. A polar bear at Brookfield. Each location has its own exclusive set of molds, and serious collectors travel between locations to complete the full set.
The machines themselves date back to the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Most of the original Mold-A-Rama machines in the country have disappeared, but Chicago has kept them running for over 60 years, maintained by a small family-run company called Mold-A-Rama Inc. that operates and services every working machine in the region. The smell, the warmth of the plastic in your hand, the slightly imperfect seams from the mold, all of it is the same as it would have been in 1965.
It’s the cheapest, most nostalgic, most distinctly Chicago souvenir you can take home, and the kid in your life (or the kid in you) will love it.
Local tip: Plan ahead if you want a specific figurine. Each museum has its own exclusive molds, and the machines occasionally rotate styles. The Field Museum’s SUE the T. Rex figurine and MSI’s U-505 submarine are the two most distinctive pieces.
3. A Jar of Giardiniera
📍 Available at any Chicago grocery store, Eataly, or specialty Italian markets
If you ordered an Italian beef sandwich while you were in Chicago, you noticed the spicy, oily, crunchy vegetable mix on top. That’s giardiniera, and life back home is going to feel a little flat without it.
It’s a mix of pickled peppers, celery, carrots, cauliflower, and sometimes olives, packed in oil and chili. Chicagoans put it on everything. Pizza. Eggs. Subs. Pasta. Roasted chicken. The hot version (with serrano or habanero) is the move. The mild version is for cowards. Bring a jar home and your home cooking will improve overnight.
The two most-recommended brands are Marconi and Ditka’s, both available at most Chicago grocery stores including Jewel-Osco and Mariano’s. If you want the upgraded version, Eataly Chicago carries small-batch giardinieras from Italian-American producers around the city. Don’t get the watery jarred stuff sold in airport souvenir shops. Get the real thing from a real grocery store.
Local tip: Pack the jar in a sealed plastic bag inside your checked luggage. Glass jars survive flights fine, but the oil seal can leak if the jar gets jostled too hard. One leaking jar of hot giardiniera will end a suitcase.
4. A Bottle of Jeppson’s Malört
📍 Available at any Chicago liquor store, Binny’s, or most Mariano’s
Do you love your friends? Do you secretly hate them? Honestly, sometimes it’s hard to tell. Jeppson’s Malört is the gift that lets you find out.
Malört is a Chicago-original wormwood spirit, a Swedish-style bäsk first produced in the city in the 1930s by Carl Jeppson. The taste has been described as “pencil shavings,” “gasoline and grapefruit peel,” “burnt rubber dipped in earwax,” and “what your couch tastes like after a house fire.” Locals describe drinking it as a Chicago rite of passage. Tourists describe drinking it as the worst decision they’ve ever made. Both descriptions are correct.
The “Malört Face” (the involuntary grimace that follows the first sip) is its own genre of internet content. Bars in Chicago hand out Malört shots specifically to film visitors making the face. You can do this to your loved ones at home. They will not forgive you. They also won’t be able to stop talking about it.
Local tip: Buy at any Binny’s or larger liquor store, around $25 a bottle. The flavor is more bearable on ice with a tiny splash of grapefruit juice. Or take it neat as the Chicago gods intended and accept your fate.
5. Frango Mints
📍 Macy’s State Street, 111 N State St, Chicago, IL 60602
Before it was Macy’s, the State Street store was Marshall Field’s, and Chicagoans will never let you forget it. The 1907 building is still extraordinary (it holds the largest Tiffany glass mosaic ceiling in the world) but the Marshall Field name was retired when Macy’s took over the chain in 2006. Locals are still bitter.
One thing that survived the Macy’s takeover (sort of) is the Frango Mint. The little chocolate-mint candies in the green box have been a Chicago holiday staple for nearly a century. They’re a fixture on grandmothers’ coffee tables across the city. The flavor is genuinely good. Smooth chocolate with a clean mint hit. The original Frango recipe was made in Marshall Field’s State Street basement until 1999. Production was eventually moved off-site, and locals will quietly tell you the current version isn’t quite the same as the one their parents grew up with. Still good. Just not the same.
The green box looks fancier than it costs (around $20 for a one-pound box) which makes Frangos the perfect “safe” gift for your boss, your house sitter, or anyone else who deserves a pleasant gift but doesn’t need a story.
Local tip: While you’re picking up Frangos at the State Street Macy’s, walk to the south atrium and look up. The Tiffany mosaic ceiling overhead is the largest unbroken piece of Tiffany glass anywhere in the world. We covered it in our Tiffany Glass guide. Free, no purchase necessary.
6. Anything With The Chicago Flag
📍 Available everywhere from souvenir shops to local boutiques
Chicagoans are obsessed with their flag, and that’s not an exaggeration. The flag (two horizontal blue stripes against a white background, with four red six-pointed stars in the center) is one of the most beloved municipal flags in the United States, regularly ranked among the best-designed in the world. You’ll see it tattooed on bartenders, painted on fire hydrants, hung on porches, stitched into hats, embroidered on jackets, and printed on basically every wearable item locals can find.
Each part of the flag means something specific. The two blue stripes represent the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The white bands stand for the North, West, and South sides of the city. The four stars commemorate four major events in Chicago history: Fort Dearborn (1803), the Great Chicago Fire (1871), the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), and the Century of Progress Exposition (1933).
Skip the generic “I LOVE CHICAGO” tourist gear. Grab a t-shirt, baseball cap, hoodie, or simple silver pendant featuring the flag. You’ll look cool wearing it even if you’ve only spent three days in the city. Locals will recognize it immediately and tend to be more friendly to anyone wearing it.
Local tip: The Cubs and Bears official team stores sell limited-run Chicago flag merchandise that combines the flag with team branding. Best of both worlds. Independent local shops in Wicker Park, Logan Square, and Lincoln Square also sell smaller-batch flag gear that’s higher quality than the standard tourist shop versions.
7. A Six-Pack Of Old Style
📍 Available at any Chicago liquor store, gas station, or grocery
Chicago’s craft beer scene is legitimately one of the best in the country. Revolution. Half Acre. Goose Island. Lagunitas. Forbidden Root. Plenty of better beer to choose from.
But none of those is Old Style.
Old Style is the ceremonial dive bar beer of Chicago. The shield logo has been hanging in neighborhood taverns for decades. For most of the 20th century, Old Style was THE Wrigley Field beer, served in the bleachers and poured into plastic cups by vendors yelling up and down the aisles. Anheuser-Busch officially took over Wrigley’s beer rights years ago, but the loyalty hasn’t moved. Walk into any old-school Chicago dive and Old Style is what regulars order without thinking about it.
It’s a no-frills lager. It tastes like beer. It’s specifically engineered to pair with a Chicago hot dog or an Italian beef sandwich on a hot summer afternoon. Buy a six-pack to stash in your checked luggage and hand them out to your friends back home with the explanation that this is what Chicago drinks when it isn’t trying to impress anyone.
Local tip: A six-pack of cans runs around $7 at most Chicago groceries, which makes it one of the cheapest authentic Chicago souvenirs you can pack. Skip the bottles. Cans pack better and don’t break.
8. Chicago Sports Merch
📍 Cubs Pro Shop (1060 W Addison St), official Bulls Team Store, vintage shops across Wicker Park, Logan Square, and Lincoln Park
Chicago is a sports town and you have to pick a side. Cubs or White Sox is the famous North-South Side divide that locals will judge you on. The Bears are the safe answer (everybody loves them, even when they’re losing). The Bulls had a global moment in the Jordan era and the merch from that period is iconic worldwide. The Blackhawks have a passionate but smaller following.
Skip the airport souvenir shop merchandise. Two specific moves will get you nods from locals:
The first is a vintage Bulls Starter jacket from the 1990s. They’re the most coveted Chicago sports souvenir and you can find them at vintage shops in Wicker Park, Logan Square, and along Milwaukee Avenue for $80 to $200 depending on condition. Modern reproductions exist but the genuine vintage versions are the move.
The second is a Cubs “W” flag. After every Cubs win at Wrigley Field, a giant white flag with a blue W is raised over the scoreboard. Fans hang the same flag outside their homes after wins. It’s the cheapest Chicago sports souvenir at around $20 and the most distinctly local. Anyone wearing a generic Cubs hat looks like a tourist. Anyone with a W flag in their luggage looks like they paid attention.
Local tip: If you visit Wrigley Field, the Cubs Pro Shop on the corner of Addison and Clark sells the highest-quality W flags. Vintage shops in Wicker Park (especially along Milwaukee Avenue near Damen) are where the genuine 1990s Bulls and Bears gear lives.
9. A Frozen Deep Dish Pizza
📍 Lou Malnati’s, Giordano’s, and Pequod’s all sell shippable frozen pies; available at airport stands and most Chicago locations
This is the ultimate move. You can’t bring a hot Lou Malnati’s home on the plane. You CAN bring it home frozen, packed on dry ice, ready to bake when you walk through your door.
Lou Malnati’s is the locals’ pick for frozen deep dish travel pies. The pizzas are par-baked, frozen, and packed in a special insulated travel container with dry ice that keeps them frozen for up to 24 hours. You walk through your front door 12 hours later, pop the pizza in your home oven for 35 minutes, and you have a Chicago deep dish in suburban Atlanta or Brooklyn or wherever you live. The household reaction when you walk in carrying it is genuinely one of the best gift moments you’ll ever orchestrate.
Giordano’s also sells travel pies with similar logistics. Pequod’s, the caramelized-crust deep dish that some locals quietly think is the best of the three, sells a slightly different frozen format but ships nationally if you can’t carry one yourself.
A few logistics. Travel pies need to be checked, not carried on. The dry ice and the weight are too much for a carry-on bag. Most of the travel pies are sold at the airport (both O’Hare and Midway have Lou Malnati’s stands near the gates) or at the company’s flagship locations. Order ahead and pick up on your way to the airport.
Local tip: Pre-order through Lou Malnati’s website 24 to 48 hours before your flight to guarantee availability of your preferred pizza varieties. The classic deep dish sausage is the locals’ pick. The Malnati Chicago Classic (with sausage and a butter crust) is the gateway version for first-timers.
The Bottom Line
Chicago souvenirs that locals actually approve of are the ones with stories. Garrett Popcorn smells like Michigan Avenue. Mold-A-Rama figurines are still warm in your hand. Giardiniera changes how you cook. Malört changes how your friends look at you. Frango Mints come in a green box that means something. The flag is the flag. Old Style is the unpretentious neighborhood version of Chicago. The vintage Bulls jacket is the global version. And the frozen deep dish is the gift that lets you bring the city home.
Skip the keychain. Skip the shot glass. Skip the airport souvenir shop entirely.
Buy what locals buy. Land at home. Make your friends taste Chicago.
