Zapi · The classic
Original $11
The one every Polish street stand is judged by — mushrooms, onions, melted Swiss, green onions, ketchup. Vegetarian.
SPOKO
Uliczne jedzenie — street food
The zapiekanka is Poland's original fast food.
Born in the 1970s at little private street stands — one of the few businesses allowed in communist Poland — the zapiekanka fed a whole country from windows and kiosks: half a baguette, mushrooms, cheese, run under the broiler until molten, finished with a stripe of ketchup and eaten standing up. After 1989 it became legend, from Kraków's Plac Nowy to every late-night corner in Warsaw. Spoko brings that tradition to a Lincoln Park corner — toasted to order, from the classic to versions the old kiosks never dreamed of.
Spoko is the third act from husband-and-wife restaurateurs Chef Artur Wnorowski and Gosia Pieniążek — after Pierogi Kitchen in Wicker Park (Chicago Reader's Best Polish Restaurant 2024, First Runner-Up) and Wurst Behavior in Irving Park. The idea came home with them from a summer trip to Warsaw, where kebab stands and zapiekanka windows have taken over the streets — and every zapi and maczanka here is built on bread from Chicago's own D'Amato's Bakery. Pierogi, sausage, and now the street food: the whole Polish table, spread across three neighborhoods.
1970s
Zapiekanka born
3
Polish restaurants
Daily
Fresh to order
