‘The Bear’ Season 2 Trailer Shows Off Publican Quality Meats and Dom’s Kitchen

Viewers only get a glimpse of an Italian beef sandwich at the very end of a new Season 2 trailer for The Bear, which dropped Monday afternoon.

The hype train for the FX-produced show, which will stream new episodes on Thursday, June 22, is cranking up as the network announced Season 2’s premiere date last week. The build-up will continue throughout the summer and expect cast members to attend the James Beard Awards on Monday, June 5 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago up until the air date. For a national perspective, hop over to Eater.

The two-minute trailer packs a lot in, but it also, as good trailers do, doesn’t give everything away. Fans will see plenty of Chicago, from Marina City’s corncob towers to more shots of the CTA El rumbling above ground. But there are few recognizable food set pieces. Publican Quality Meats, the Fulton Market butcher, is shown in one scene. Carmen “Carmy” Bezatto (Jeremy Allen White) appears to meet an old flame at a grocery store, Dom’s Kitchen and Market in Lincoln Park, in another.

While Season 1 put the Italian beef sandwich on a pedestal, igniting a sea of imitators across the country, the Season 2 trailer distances the show from Chicago’s beloved delicacy. That’s predictable as the Season 1 finale showed Carmy closing the Original Beef of Chicagoland to make room for a new upscale restaurant, the Bear, with a “chaos” menu. Much of the trailer shows the restaurant’s beloved cast of misfits gutting the beef stand.

The first season was full of Chicago Easter Eggs. For example, several staff members wore Chicago White Sox gear, and there was a tribute to Minnie Miñoso, the team’s first Cuban player. While no team logos are shown in the trailer, it opens with AC/DC’s If You Want Blood (You Got It). The Australian band’s music was a fixture for years at Sox Park. The song also matches the grind staff experiences when opening a restaurant.

Restaurant workers will likely empathize with the tribulations the Bear’s staff will face in opening a new restaurant. A collage of blueprints, renderings, and menu items flash by the screen. Then comes the realization that the targeted opening date is a fable. The footage also shows Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) interviewing potential employees with dialog seemingly ripped from a Chicago restaurant worker’s text thread. Another scene is ripped right out of reality when a white male interviewee asks Edebiri, a Black woman, “when can I talk to the chef?” Spoiler: She’s the chef, chum.