Inside of Cracked: The Egg Came First, the current owners are trying something new: a recurring pop-up restaurant for dinner. The pop-up is called Dee-Dee’s Beef, and I went to last week’s pop-up and tried a few things from the new business.
Dee-Dee’s Beef has a menu of four different Italian beef sandwiches, a build-your-own beef sandwich, arancini, and some drinks. One sandwich has red sauce, another has mushrooms and dressed arugula, and there’s a beef sandwich with sausage and mozzarella. I ordered the Marone Italian beef, which had beef with formaggio spread, mozzarella, and hot giardiniera.
My sandwich ($11.99) was ready quickly, and the soft bread held a big portion of meat. Dee-Dee’s beef was more like pot roast with shredded, tender meat instead of thinly sliced beef, and while I wished the sandwich was either juicer or served au jus, the flavors were good. I enjoyed the heat from the giardiniera, the garlicky flavors of that herby cheese spread, and the melty mozz that helped hold all that beef inside the sandwich.
I ordered both the veggie arancini ($2.99) and the meat arancini ($2.99), each served in a white bag. The veggie arancini had chopped carrots in the center, and the meat had shredded beef filling. With flavorful Italian seasoning in the crust, Dee-Dee’s fried risotto balls were absolutely delicious. Each arancini was delicate and gently deflated after the first bite; they were gooey, cheesy, and I loved them — especially at that price.
Lastly, I ordered the Sicilian lemonata ($3). The drink was sweet with just the right amount of tart. The blood orange and lemon citrus were totally refreshing, and I thought having a signature drink was a cool touch for the pop-up.
The menu is quite different than the original Cracked menu, and it’s pretty cool to see the egg restaurant try something new. Keep an eye on Dee-Dee’s Beef’s Instagram account, and if the pop-up is open, definitely be sure order the arancini.
Dee-Dee’s Beef pop-up
inside Cracked
619 E Green St
Champaign
