Ben Johnson's Bears Are Bringing Chicago Hot Dogs and Hope

The Wieners Circle made sure the Windy City was well-fed Tuesday—can the NFC North leader keep the feast going?

Bears fans braved bitter cold for free hot dogs Tuesday afternoon. / Patrick Andres/Sports Illustrated

Tuesday was one of those days on the streets of Chicago. Hat, gloves, scarf and industrial winter coat required. Scrape your front windshield; scrape your rear windshield; pray to the higher power of your choosing your battery hasn't died.

The temperature at O'Hare International Airport, WGN-TV would report later, never crossed 26 degrees—an uncharacteristically low number for the first week of December. The conditions should've deterred reasonable people from waiting in line for anything. But Bears fans in 2025 are not reasonable people.

"I think this is the best energy (for a sports team in the city) since maybe the Jordan Bulls. This is my personal opinion." restaurant owner Ari Levy told SI Friday, "There's just something different about the NFL that gets the town really united."

Levy is the owner of the Wieners Circle, a hot dog stand in the city's Lincoln Park neighborhood renowned throughout the city for its delicious street food and its vulgar, irreverent staff. The restaurant spent the week in the headlines after it vowed to give out free hot dogs if Chicago coach Ben Johnson took off his shirt following a victory.

The Bears beat the Eagles 24–15 on Black Friday to move to 9-3 on the season, and Johnson gleefully obliged. Thus: a throng of people lined up at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and quite a few lined up several hours later, for a free lunch and some verbal abuse to accompany it.

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"I (had to) come," Elaine Perez, a Chicago fan of 60 years and lifelong resident of the city's Pilsen neighborhood, said in line Tuesday. "My (late) dad would say, 'Let's go! Let's go!' so I'm doing this for my dad."

Levy—the son of restauranteur-turned-hospitality magnate Larry Levy—purchased the three-decade-old Wieners Circle in 2015. Drawn to the restaurant's off-color nature and inspired by showy sports icons like the Stanford band and ex-White Sox owner Bill Veeck, Levy helped the already-famous restaurant grow its profile to new heights.

Now, no topic is out bounds for the restaurant's marquee and social-media feed—not President Donald Trump, not Chicago icon Pope Leo XIV, and certainly not ESPN analyst (and past critic of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams) Troy Aikman.

In September, Williams tossed four touchdowns in Chicago's 31–14 win over the Cowboys, putting the Wieners Circle on the hook for an initial free hot dog giveaway (Williams sent his dog Supa to represent him). It was then that X user @CSleeve16374 suggested a potential giveaway if Johnson took off his shirt.

"He took off his shirt, as you saw, and everything kind of went viral from there," Levy said. "We just had so much fun interacting with the city and helping rally the fans. It's been a really exciting season, and we're excited for Sunday against Green Bay."

It's part of a renewed wave of excitement around Johnson, Williams and the Bears, who have won just one of their nine NFL championships in the Super Bowl era. Stick around Chicago fans long enough and the number 1-9-8-5 will be thrown around—still the gold standard for Bears excellence four decades later.

"I haven't seen the Bears this happy since (1985)," John Crenna, a fan who attended Super Bowl XX in New Orleans, said in line. "This giddy, just euphoric happiness. I mean, they just believe in themselves—like the '85 Bears did. It's unbelievable. It's like they're never giving up at any point. It's great."

On Sunday, in football's oldest rivalry, Chicago will take the test administered to all Bears teams with championship aspirations—the first of two games in 14 days against the Packers. When asked about the Bears' chances Sunday, Levy switches out of business mode; suddenly, he could be one of his restaurant's effortlessly confident customers.

"We play them twice, and I think Green Bay is overrated and the Bears are underrated," Levy said. "So I think as fans, we gotta be confident that they're gonna do well."

The year '25 has been a tumultuous one in the Windy City, but constants remain: toppings (but no ketchup) adorn hot dogs on North Clark Street; insults fly into the wee hours of the morning; autumn hope springs eternal from Rogers Park to the East Side.

"It's a feeling that you get inside. It's nowhere that you can find it—it's just in your heart," Perez said, recalling watching games growing up with her dad. "That's what (the Bears) bring back, the heart—the heart of home, the heart of your life, the heart of Chicago."

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