This is not your traditional Snackology review. The reviews in this newsletter are usually about a new food or a returning favorite that’s back on the market. For this edition of Snackology, we’re diving into several bags of Local Style Potato Chips.
The brand of kettle-cooked chips launched last April, founded by Laura Gardner as a “love letter to Chicago.” Local Style Potato Chips currently come in five flavors: Classic Salted, Deep Dish Pizza, Chicago Hot Dog, Italian Beef and Hot Giardiniera.
“Whenever I traveled to new countries, I noticed that locals enjoyed their city’s signature flavors on potato chips — Kobe beef chips in Japan, spicy grilled squid chips in Vietnam — and as a visitor, I loved tasting them,” Gardner told the Chicago Sun-Times when Local Style launched last year. “It made me wonder: Why don’t we have that experience back home?”
If you’re lucky enough to live in Chicagoland, you’ll probably have fantastic access to Local Style Potato Chips. If you’re me, you got lucky and discovered them at your local beer-and-wine shop that also happens to stock an excellent lineup of snacks. (Shoutout to The Department of Beer and Wine in Alexandria, Va.) That’s where I found these potato chips. The delightful anthropomorphic pizza and hot dog characters on the bags instantly caught my attention.
I picked up bags of the Deep Dish Pizza and Chicago Hot Dog varieties from DBW and wasted little time opening them up when I got home. I was instantly impressed with the flavors and got my hands on the entire lineup for Snackology.
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What they cost
If you’re a Snackology reader in Chicago, you can pick up a bag of Local Style Potato Chips for whatever your favorite deli or corner shop is charging. For the rest of us, there’s the Local Style website, where you have a variety of purchasing options. Options range from 10-packs (either two of each flavor or all of one flavor) for $33 or a 50-pack for $150.
Before you even open up a bag of Local Style Potato Chips, you’re greeted by a cheery character ... who I guess hopes you’re going to eat them? Every flavor gets its own fun character. (The company’s branding was done by ColorJar, a firm owned by Gardner and her husband, David.) They even have names: Mikey, Lucy Lou, Davey Dog, Juicy Jus and Giuliana Giardiniera.
Classic Salted
For my official taste test, I figured the Classic Salted flavor was the appropriate place to start. I love that all of Local Style’s flavors are kettle chips, giving them all a very satisfying crunch when you chomp down on a handful.
For Classic Salted, Local Style notes on the back of the bag that they’re “thin cut.” Compared to the other four flavors, they do seem a bit lighter. For a classic kettle chip, this flavor has just the right level of salt.
Deep Dish Pizza
When I first encountered Local Style at my go-to beer shop, Deep Dish Pizza was the flavor that I immediately knew I was bringing home. One, I’m absolutely a sucker for a cartoon pizza. And two, the idea of a potato chip that promised the flavor of pizza was right in my wheelhouse.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’ve had pizza-flavored chips before. Pringles has had a pizza flavor in its lineup for decades, and was very likely one of the first “fun” chip flavors you ever tried.
But Local Style’s Deep Dish Pizza flavor isn’t a gimmick. It’s not accomplished with a simple dusting of pizza flavoring. There’s a, well, deep flavor to Local Style’s Deep Dish Pizza. They’ve somehow infused the flavors of rich mozzarella and slightly sweet tomato sauce into these chips.
Chicago Hot Dog
Chicago Hot Dog was the second Local Style flavor that I bought when I first found them, and it wound up being my favorite over Deep Dish Pizza. Where the latter is deep, Chicago Hot Dog is bright and poppy. I’m not a Chicago guy. The last time I was there was my senior year of high school. I have zero experience with the traditional Chicago-style hot dog. (I’m from Rochester, New York, the home of the white hot and the garbage plate.)
But if the Chicago Hot Dog flavor of Local Style is an accurate representation of what it promises to deliver, I would love to eat one. The zing of a celery salt is a welcome addition to a bag of chips.
Italian Beef
It’s 2026. We’ve all watched The Bear. We all saw Ebon Moss-Bachrach slinging Italian beef sandwiches. I can definitely say that The Bear has put the iconic Chicago sandwich on my radar. When I was at Union Market in DC a few weekends ago, I was disappointed when I saw that the one shop selling Italian beef sandwiches was already out of them by the time we were there for lunch.
Local Style’s Italian Beef chips promise “the flavors you love: savory beef, sweet and spicy peppers, and the chef’s kiss ... aus jus.” Like with the Deep Dish Pizza and Chicago Hot Dog flavors, if you’re worried about Italian Beef chips being gimmicky, don’t worry. Pringles has mastered capturing the taste of a Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger in a chip, but Local Style landed on a much more subtle and nuanced take of a potato chip modeled after a cut of beef.
Hot Giardiniera
Hot Giardiniera. This flavor wound up being my favorite among a stellar lineup of potato chips. While the Italian Beef flavor has a bit of spiciness to it, Hot Giard is the real deal.
This flavor has a real heat to it, but it’s not overwhelming. If you’re worried that the chips are going to be spicy in “am I secretly on Hot Ones?!” way, don’t worry. Like all the flavors in the Local Style lineup, there’s an authenticity to the Hot Giardiniera flavor.
The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
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