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Omnivorous

Hold the Ketchup

The greater midwest on a bun

Smoked brats from Ream's Elburn Market in Elburn, Illinois

Ron Kaplan

October 4, 2007

By Mike Sula

Eight different sausages were served for lunch at the inaugural symposium of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance last month. There were Chicago Polishes, Wisconsin brats, Illinois smoked bratwurst, Toledo-bred Hungarian sausages, and Springfield-style corn dogs. A Michigan hot dog got the Coney Island treatment (which originated in southeast Michigan), and a Vienna Beef wiener got the classic Chicago fixings. And then there was the south-side specialty known as the mother-in-law, where the so-called sausage is a meat-stuffed tamale covered with chili and served on a bun.

Attendees lined up before buffet tables in a demonstration classroom at Kendall College and piled the meats on their plates, dressing them with the appropriate condiments-mustard, kraut, sport peppers, onions, or in the case of the Michigan dogs, Flint-style Coney sauce, a ground beef chililike mixture that Macedonian peddlers cook up with a bit of heart and kidney in the pot. There was no ketchup in sight.

After presentations on the science of sausage by Iowa State professor Robert Rust and small-scale sausage production by meat-market owner Randy Ream, Vienna Beef VP Bob Schwartz must have sensed the audience slipping into a collective postprandial coma. “I want everybody to stand up,” he said. “Put your hands in the air, count to three, and shout hot dog. One, two, three!” Academics, chefs, journalists, and regular food enthusiasts complied without argument.

The alliance’s half-dozen-member founding board-which includes Roosevelt University food historian Bruce Kraig and Kendall culinary arts dean Chris Koetke-would have been pleased if 50 people had showed up for their first event. About twice that number paid $30 to $35 to get into “Stuffed: A Journey of Midwestern Sausage Traditions.”

The idea of creating an organization “dedicated to celebrating, exploring, and preserving unique food traditions and their cultural contexts in the American Midwest,” as the Foodways Web site puts it, has been around for a while. Back in 2000, scholars at Michigan State hit up the National Endowment for the Humanities for the funding to get one started, inspired by the Southern Foodways Alliance, which sponsors everything from oral histories to documentaries to conferences.

They didn’t get it, but Kraig, founder of the Culinary Historians of Chicago, kept looking for ways to move forward. In 2004 he became the traveling scholar for a Smithsonian-sponsored exhibit called “Key Ingredients: America by Food,” which visited museums and historical societies in 11 small Illinois towns. He gave talks about midwestern food traditions, occasionally enlisting Cathy Lambrecht, a moderator on LTHForum, to lecture on the history of pie. Along the way they quizzed the locals on regional restaurants and specialties.

Kraig was fascinated by the way immigration patterns had influenced regional foodways. He became particularly interested in Illinois River towns like Chillicothe, north of Peoria, an English-German enclave whose economy was once largely based on harvesting oysters and clams from the river. Locals ate them only in hard times-they prized them for their shells, used in button manufacturing-but they did hunt ducks and fish for carp, which was shipped to Chicago to produce gefilte fish. Thanks to overfishing and pollution, not many shellfish come from the Illinois River anymore, but there are still restaurants in the area that serve a seasonal local specialty: fried turtle.

Kraig and the others were convinced that the food cultures of the Great Plains and upper midwest were diverse and significant enough to warrant an organization dedicated to preserving them. But they didn’t know if anybody else would be interested. They decided to try to find out when Oxford University Press gave them $500 to hold an event promoting The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink.

To plan the symposium, Kraig and Lambrecht huddled with Southern Foodways Alliance director John T. Edge for advice. A discussion of the iconic Chicago hot dog gave rise to the idea of focusing on sausage specialties across the region. As word spread, culinary historians came forward to donate time and money. Corporations stepped up too: by August the group had secured donations from the farm co-op Organic Valley, Eli’s Cheesecake, and Treasure Island. Board member Kantha Shelke, a CHC member and food scientist with lots of industry contacts, hooked up with the Almond Board of California, which has pledged $7,000 to help fund future programs, starting in January with another symposium titled “A Journey of Midwestern Nut and Dessert Traditions.”

At last month’s sausage symposium food historian Andy Smith put forth the controversial idea that a hamburger is a type of sausage. During researcher Peter Engler’s presentation on the mother-in-law, he ventured that “a lot of Greeks were involved in the early tamale trade.” Bob Schwartz offered that Vienna Beef hot dogs are made from 75 percent bull meat because it has good color and binds well. Trudy Paradis, the grandmotherly author of Milwaukee Germans: Their History, Their Food, brought along a giant plush brat, explaining that such items were popular at tailgate parties outside Miller Park. “Do you do that?” she asked the audience.

When the meeting adjourned at four o’clock, about 20 people signed up to work with the alliance. Its next steps are to apply for not-for-profit status and solicit more contributions. Lambrecht and Kraig want to be sure the group isn’t Chicago-centric, so they want out-of-towners to get involved and hold their own regional meetings. They’re holding off on drawing up bylaws and recruiting general memberships until people like that get on board. “We’ve got one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake,” says Lambrecht.

For more on restaurants, see our blog the Food Chain.

A World of Sausage

From Issan Thai to Thuringers

Food (F), Service (S), and ambience (A) are rated on a scale of 1-10, with 10 representing best.

The dinner-menu price of a typical entree is indicated by dollar signs on the following scale: $ = less than $10, $$ = $10-15, $$$ = $15-20, $$$$ = $20-$30, $$$$$ = more than $30.

Raters also grade the overall dining experience; these scores are averaged and Rs are awarded as follows: RRR = top 10 percent, RR = top 20 percent, R = top 30 percent of all rated restaurants in database.

17 West at the Berghoff
17 W. Adams | 312-427-3170
F 7.0 | S 6.6 | A 8.0 | $$$ (8 reports)
GERMAN/AUSTRIAN, AMERICAN, BAR/LOUNGE | LUNCH, DINNER: MONDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED SUNDAY

Any restaurant existing in the shadow of the beloved, much mourned Berghoff has got its work cut out for it. And yet if you dined at its successor, the awkwardly named 17 West at the Berghoff, without any sort of emotional baggage, you might wonder what the fuss was about. At least the charming atmosphere and historic interiors have been largely preserved, with a bit of remodeling that’s made the Berghoff Bar more easily accessible from the dining room. Several signature dishes have been retained as well, notably the Wiener schnitzel, knockwurst, and the famous creamed spinach. Among the appetizers, the old-fashioned chicken-spaetzle soup was straightforward but satisfying and the warm potato salad as homey as ever. Unfortunately the new additions to the menu are more lackluster in execution. An exception on my last visit was the herb-roasted chicken accompanied by smoked Gouda polenta fries and pleasantly crisp green beans: outstanding, its rich Madeira au jus complementing the rustic dish without overpowering it. Pumpkin ravioli, on the other hand, were somewhat gluey and just plain too sweet—they might have been more satisfying smothered in whipped cream. But the actual desserts, including holdovers like Black Forest cake and, in season, a Yule log, are still wonderful. And though the dining room’s prices remain on the steep end of things, sitting at the bar makes you privy to some exceptionally good happy hour specials on nibbles and drinks. —Rob Christopher

Along with Lem’s and the Rib Joint, Barbara Ann’s forms one corner of an inverted triangle of south-side barbecue that the rest of the city would do well to study. Ribs and tips are quite good, maybe second only to Lem’s or Honey 1, but Barbara Ann’s turns out particularly excellent hot links. Fat and complexly spiced with hints of sage and hot pepper, they have a coarse grind that proves an unmistakably direct relationship to pork, something not actually all that common in your garden-variety sausage. The business model of a rib joint and an affiliated neighboring motel (Motel Two) is oddly perfect. —Mike Sula

Bobak’s Sausage Company
5275 S. Archer | 773-735-5334
$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

Sausage maker to the nation since 1967, this southwest-side establishment also serves up a full homemade buffet seven days a week, including salads, sides, desserts, and lots of meat: stews, sausages, shish kebabs, ham, chicken. It’s $9-$13 to eat in, depending on the meal and the day, or you can take out buffet items for $5 a pound ($5.95 on Sundays). —Holly Greenhagen

Located in the heart of “German village,” Chicago Brauhaus serves arguably the best German food in town. Massive wooden tables and chairs and folksy decorations create a Bavarian atmosphere, enhanced nightly by a live band in Tyrolean costume. Motherly waitresses promptly accommodate parties of any size, and big family gatherings are common here. Appetizers are hearty: there’s Bismarck herring, a thin, flavorful marinated fillet in fresh sour cream with a boiled potato on the side, and steak tartare with all the trimmings-anchovies, raw onions, capers. Liver dumpling soup is a must. If you can squeeze in a main course after all this, try a beef roll or the pork shank with sauerkraut. Beers come both micro- and macrobrewed; there’s also a full bar. An enjoyable and satisfying experience, especially on a cold winter night. Street parking is tough but feasible. —Emma Krasov, Rater

Express Grill
1260 S. Union | 312-738-2112
$
AMERICAN | 24 HOURS EVERY DAY

Squaring off against feuding family members at neighboring Jim’s Original, Express Grill (with the word original prominently plastered all over their new, similarly very yellow building) serves up a somewhat smaller lineup of items starring the smoked Polish sausage ($3.10, same as Jim’s) and its almost indistinguishable though slightly less garlicky twin, the beef sausage. Vienna dogs are 75 percent bull meat, and ground-up is really the only way this tough though flavorful flesh can be consumed; here, relish is added to the standard condiment combo of mustard and onions, making for one sweet wiener. Any sandwich order gets you a “free” bag of fries, leaving you enough spare coin to purchase some bootleg CDs or tube socks from the sidewalk entrepreneurs set up by the serving windows. A word of advice: this food doesn’t travel well. Better to eat it on-site while enjoying the view of the Ryan. —David Hammond

Gene’s and Jude’s
2720 River Rd., River Grove | 708-452-7634
$
AMERICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 2, SUNDAY-THURSDAY TILL 1 | CASH ONLY

A Gene’s and Jude’s hot dog, like a Cezanne painting, represents the perfection of a form, inessentials stripped away, almost the Platonic ideal of the hot dog. No tomato, and you don’t dare ask for ketchup. What you get at this middle-American icon is a perfectly warmed wiener with world-class snap, nestled in a steamed bun and layered with mustard, relish, onion, sport peppers (if you want ’em), and fries. That’s right: the fries, fresh cut with a hand-operated mechanism straight out of the Eisenhower administration, are gently laid on top of the dog, creating a steamy union of dog and fry that miraculously benefits both. There’s always a long line of hungry hot-dog freaks, and it’s always standing room only in this bright yellow-lit room, lined with a white wooden shelf bearing industrial-strength salt shakers (made of glass jars with holes hand-punched in the top). The locals consider this stand a national treasure, and when you bite into one of Gene’s and Jude’s franks ($2.07, fries included), you’ll see why. Don’t be shy about ordering more than one: I’ve seen big guys order a six-pack to go (which usually means no further than the truck). —David Hammond

This fairly high-end German-Austrian restaurant is anchored by alcohol, with 12 beers available on tap, 20 more by the bottle, and a selection of wine drinks including May wine produced by the Glunz family (owners of the Old Town wine store House of Glunz since 1888). The bar’s ambience spills over into the dining section—complete with Hofbrauhaus chairs and silly, gilt-framed paintings of castles and flower arrangements—and the patio alike. The menu is small but classic: soups, sausages (Thuringer, bratwurst, weisswurst, the last mild and delicious), and entrees of Wiener schnitzel, duck, pork, and roast chicken, all with the proper German accompaniments. Weekly specials offer some non-German choices; one week they included lamb, veal cordon bleu, and a buttery sea bass over a delicious, chewy white-wine risotto with crisp fresh broccoli. The food is a step above other local German restaurants, and on our visit, at least, there was an authentic air to Glunz, and not in a planned-to-the-micrometer Lettuce way; maybe it was the cheroot fumes, the pile of hard-drinking men at the front, the occasional blast of oompah music, or the gemutlichkeit of owner Jim Glunz, who came by to see how our meal was. —Elizabeth M. Tamny

Halina’s Polish Delights Restaurant
5914 W. Lawrence | 773-205-0256
$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | CASH ONLY

I love the breaded fried pork and veal cutlets at Halina’s. The cutlets, each the size of an elephant ear, include Swedish style (stuffed with mushroom puree), cubao (with white cheese filling), and Wiener schnitzel (the Berghoff’s version was no match). They’re cooked to order and served hot enough to burn your tongue. Polish standbys like pork shank, stuffed cabbage rolls, and pierogi are good too. The indecisive should consider the Polish Plate, a greatest-hits platter with a breaded pork chop, three pierogi, a stuffed cabbage roll, and Polish sausage on sauerkraut. All dinners (except the pierogi) include buttery mashed potatoes and a trio of cold salads: sauerkraut, coleslaw, and beet. The homemade fruit drink, kompot, pale red sugar water made with the juice from leftover fruit (usually strawberry, watermelon, peach, and cantaloupe), tastes a lot like Kool-Aid. If you’re taking a date, be warned: the harsh lighting reflecting off wall-to-wall mirrors reveals every blemish. —Peter Tyksinski

Most afternoons people line out the door of Doug Sohn’s wildly successful emporium, willing to wait for the Crown Prince of Tube Steak’s Polishes, brats, Thuringers, andouille, and Chicago-style dogs, dressed and cooked to customer preference—whether char-grilled, deep-fried, steamed, or fried then grilled. There are daily gourmet specials with silly names and a “game of the week” sausage—gator, boar, rattlesnake, rabbit, duck, kangaroo, or (used to be) duck sausage with foie gras. Fridays and Saturdays fresh-cut fries are cooked in duck fat, and the only request Sohn will refuse is to smother them in cheese sauce. Sohn has duplicated the goofy decor of his previous place, the victim of a fire; the newer spot is chockablock with Elvibilia and hot-dog-related kitsch, and there’s outdoor seating and plenty of street parking. —Mike Sula

Jim’s Original
1250 S. Union | 312-733-7820
$
AMERICAN | OPEN LATE: 24 HOURS EVERY DAY

Jim Stefanovic—whose family fled the Russian Revolution and wound up working at a Maxwell Street hot dog stand in the late 30s—is said by some to have invented the Maxwell Street Polish. Located blocks from the now painfully gentrified old market location, Jim’s Original serves a Slotkowski sausage with its size factory modified to better fit the steamed bun. Though Jim’s flavorings include liquid smoke (anathema to some purists), what makes this sandwich pop are the griddled onions and a splash of standard dog-stand yellow mustard, condiments added to all the sandwiches here, including a respectable fish sammie made of actual pollack fillet rather than pulp. Jim’s pork chop sandwich is an excellent rendition of the workingman’s classic; to eat, grip the bone through the bun and nibble gingerly all around. You’ll be entertained by the street-smart efficiency of the crew, cracking wise about their “secret seasonings” and the failings of nearby Express Grill (owned by a Stefanovic relative). There’s an allure in the gritty vibe of this place after dark, when it’s washed in sweaty yellow light, serving people who pull up in their cars for a quick snack a la trunka. —David Hammond

Jolly Inn
6501 W. Irving Park | 773-736-7606
$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

This Polish buffet is similar to the Red Apple but homier. For $7.95 ($9.95 on weekends) you get a choice of meats—baked or broasted chicken, roast pork, Polish sausage, meatballs—various kinds of pierogi, stuffed cabbage, blintzes, sauerkraut, and then maybe you want some dessert? There are cakes, cookies, ice cream, the works. My wife was braver than I when it came to the lard—whipped and white with dark specks of meat, set in a bowl. Customers at two other tables had to explain what it was and how to eat it: spread on bread like butter. “It tastes like Crisco with bacon bits,” she said. —Jeffrey Felshman

Kurowski’s Sausage Shop and Rich’s Bakery
2976 N. Milwaukee | 773-645-1692
$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | 6 AM-10 PM EVERY DAY

This Polish market is like a trip back in time: the variety of products offered puts many upscale grocers and specialty stores to shame. Over a dozen kinds of eastern European sausage hang behind the meat counter, and the shelves are filled with intriguing cans and jars. Rich’s Bakery supplies only the bread—two-pound loaves of rye and short white baguettes—but there are racks full of goods from the nearby Laramie Bakery, which doesn’t have its own retail outlet. Jablecznik is apple cake with a latticed pastry top; pychotka is layers of sponge cake separated by a fruit-and-custard filling. To make ptasie leczko, layers of marshmallow, vanilla pudding, and strawberry or orange Jell-O are formed into a loaf shape and cut into slices; I may not think it sounds good, but it must evoke fond memories for some. —Laura Levy Shatkin

Laschet’s Inn
2119 W. Irving Park | 773-478-7915

F 8.4 | S 7.4 | A 7.4 | $$ (7 reports)
GERMAN/AUSTRIAN, BAR/LOUNGE | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: SATURDAY TILL 3, MONDAY-FRIDAY TILL 2

When Ursula Kokott and her husband, Franz, took over this old tavern in 1990 she began frying up frikadellen—ground beef and pork patties with herbs and bread crumbs—and brewing goulash for Sunday football games. In 2000, customer demand spurred her to open a full kitchen in the back, and she dishes out a range of robust provender to accompany the wide selection of German beer on draft. Big steaming plates of roast veal or sauerbraten, cooked long and laden with rich gravy, are the most dependably hearty dishes, but the relatively lighter, crispy schnitzels wouldn’t starve anyone either. In the middle of that scale, konigsberger klopse, soft meatballs in lemony sauce with capers or sausage duets of glistening bratwurst, Thuringer, or veal wieners are fine fuel for long winter hibernations. Most plates are flanked by spaetzle or roast potatoes and a pile of sweet stewed red cabbage, and rounded out with a soup du jour or a distinctly German interpretation of vegetables, e.g., a three-beaner with pineapple. These dishes are icons of meat-and-potatoes eating, which isn’t to say there aren’t opportunities for decadence: you can’t get any more fancypants than the hackepeter appetizer—coarse rye bread topped with raw minced beef garnished with chopped onions and capers. —Mike Sula

A civic treasure among the city’s honest smoke shacks, Lem’s has long upheld the standard against which all Chicago barbecue should be measured. The rib tips, with a higher ratio of meat to gristle than you’ll find at most joints, and the center-cut and small-end slabs are finished relatively fast over a relatively hot fire, bucking slow-smoke convention. They’re deliciously tender and caramelized, lined with the telltale pink smoke ring. When they run out, long lines form. Excellence is extended to the incomparable, complex sauce and coarsely textured hot links, which are too frequently served as mealy sacks of sawdust elsewhere. While disciples were saddened by the mysterious shuttering of the Lem’s on State Street in 2003, the mother ship, with its unmistakable neon beacon, endures. —Mike Sula

Lutnia
5532 W. Belmont | 773-282-5335
$$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: SATURDAY TILL 11

If you thought there was no such thing as Polish fine dining, then you haven’t been to Lutnia. They serve many upscale non-Polish dishes (their Caesar salad and duck flambé with orange sauce get raves), but traditional dishes also have an elegant flair. The soups are rich—like the hot-and-sweet beet soup with sauerkraut dumplings or the hunter’s stew, a concoction of cabbage, beef, veal, sausage, mushrooms, and wine—and the potato dumplings are full of delicious homemade lumps. Although you might want to clean your plate, try to save room for the luscious desserts on the cart. And treat yourself to the Polish coffee, prepared tableside with honey liqueur. —Ben Dooley

Mirabell
3454 W. Addison | 773-463-1962
$$
GERMAN/AUSTRIAN | LUNCH, DINNER: MONDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED SUNDAY | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

“If you want cold-weather comfort food, very authentically German, this is the place for you,” says one Rater. The two main dining rooms (there’s also a party room) are set up like an old-style German house, one decorated with murals, the other filled with Hummels. The food is traditional: appetizers include herring in wine sauce, hackepeter (the German steak tartare) on rye, bratwurst, and a Thuringer that can also be ordered with cheese sticks in a starter combo for two or four. It’s also heavy (in a good way), especially the Pork Steak Mirabell (pork on fresh spinach with ham and Swiss cheese, topped with a creamy mushroom sauce), sauerbraten, tasty spaetzle, and some of the city’s best goulash. Naturally, a large selection of German beers and liqueurs is available. —Ben Dooley

Podhalanka Polksa Restauracja
1549 W. Division | 773-486-6655
F 7.6 | S 8.3 | A 5.7 | $$ (6 reports)
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | BYO

It isn’t just the knickknacks and portraits of the pope in this former tavern, a remnant of Division Street’s days as the great “Polish Broadway,” that remind me of my grandmother; I’ll be damned if I don’t sense her presence in the pungent whiff of cabbage that floats from the kitchen or the gentle tang of fermented rye flour in the zurek. That’s white borscht, a smooth, creamy dill-specked soup with chunks of garlic and slices of kielbasa that has been fortifying Hunky peasants and steelworkers for generations. At Podhalanka you’ll still see old-timers at the bar, warming their bones with cabbage or barley soup or fat pierogi stuffed with piquant ground pork, cabbage, or potato and cheese, but also younger folks who may or may not speak Polish working down bowls of caraway-flecked sauerkraut and heaps of smashed potatoes in gravy, accompanied by something big and meaty: a pork roll, perhaps, stuffed with mushrooms, green peppers, onions, bacon, paprika, and a few allspice berries, or uncured spareribs cooked in sauerkraut until tender. These meals are almost entirely drained of color, but they’re big, inexpensive, and preceded by baskets of fresh bread and butter. —Mike Sula

Przybylo’s White Eagle
6839 N. Milwaukee, Niles | 847-647-0660
$$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | LUNCH: MONDAY-SATURDAY; DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | RESERVATIONS NOT ACCEPTED

It’s a banquet hall without any atmosphere, but if you’re seeking a traditional Polish dinner you’ll find it here. Large bowls are served family style, with six different types of pierogi among the options. Meat selections range from Polish sausage with sauerkraut to golabki (hearty stuffed cabbage rolls) to a flavorful goulash that would make a Polish grandmother swell with pride. Perfect for groups, the White Eagle doesn’t refill bowls once they’re empty, but that’s hardly necessary: more likely you’ll be taking home leftovers. —Ben Dooley

Red Apple
3121 N. Milwaukee | 773-588-5781
F 6.5 | S 6.4 | A 5.6 | $ (5 reports)
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

For Polish home cooking, the Red Apple—or Czerwone Jabluszko—is a real find. Raters rave about the all-you-can-eat buffet, a bargain at $8.99 ($9.99 on weekends). The impressive spread includes homemade kielbasa, pierogi, golabki (stuffed cabbage), blintzes and apple pancakes, roast chicken and duck, pork with plum filling, turkey legs, carve-it-yourself roast beef and ham, and in case that’s not enough for you, soup, salad, and dessert are included. —Laura Levy Shatkin

Regulars like this German beer parlor for the filling traditional fare—classics like schnitzel, sausages with sauerkraut, goulash, and potato pancakes. But the real draw is the beer. In the 70s manager Richard Stober’s father, Herbert, was the first bar owner in town to serve weiss beer, and while the selection has expanded and contracted since then, there are currently 13 beers on tap and more than 60 bottled. In warm weather the charming tree-lined outdoor patio is lantern lit, with picnic tables for seating, and the atmosphere is generally mellow and cheerful. The kitchen stays open till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. —Laura Levy Shatkin

Sak’s Ukrainian Village Restaurant
2301 W. Chicago | 773-278-4445
$
POLISH/RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN, BAR/LOUNGE, AMERICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: SATURDAY TILL 3, OTHER NIGHTS TILL 2

It’s TVs and draft beer up front, food in the back at this 90-something-year-old neighborhood place where the crowd, according to one Rater, ranges from Girl Scouts to old men. The inexpensive menu features sausage and kraut, chicken Kiev, and Ukrainian burgers, made with spiced ground meat and served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. “The hamburgers and the potato pancakes are as good as any I have had, bar none,” says one Rater. “The tap beer is wonderful—they keep their taps clean and it tastes as fresh as anyone would want. The only weakness can be the bar staff, who tend to give you an idea of what service in the Soviet Union must have been like.” The kitchen closes at 10 nightly. —Holly Greenhagen

Spoon
4608 N. Western | 773-769-1173
F 8.1 | S 7.8 | A 6.3 | $ (18 reports)
ASIAN, THAI | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | BYO

It’s not like there’s been a revolution against boring Thai food in Chicago, but there’s certainly a healthy resistance, and it was born in Chai and Vanna Gumtrontip’s little Lincoln Square restaurant. It began in the summer of ’03 with the discovery of the Thai-language “secret menu” by a handful of obsessive chowhounds, who had it translated and began plumbing the depths of its aggressive, brilliantly seasoned dishes. Word spread about the availability of authentic Thai cuisine, and though waitstaff sometimes had a hard time believing that non-Thais had the stomach for the real stuff (some servers still do), eventually they stopped blinking and began relinquishing funky Issan sausage, rich boat noodles, banana blossom salad, one-bite salad, incendiary papaya salad sprinkled with dried shrimp or pickled crab, and the miraculous Thai-style fried chicken (kai thawt), deeply penetrated with lemongrassy, peppery flavors and served with a tamarind dipping sauce. I’m a long way from navigating the depths of this vast repertoire, but so far some of my favorite items are naem khao thawt, a tangy, crispy fried-rice salad with peanuts, cilantro, and pressed ham; phat phrik sa-taw muu sap, minced pork and bitter beans; and Issan-style minced duck salad. —Mike Sula

Superdawg

6363 N. Milwaukee | 773-763-0660
$
AMERICAN | LUNCH, DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 2, OTHER NIGHTS TILL 1 | CASH ONLY

From the time you spot Tarzan-clad Superdawg and his coy wienie sweetie towering over Milwaukee Avenue to the moment you beckon a carhop with the flip of a switch, you know you’re at a tailfin-era original the likes of which Ed Debevic’s or Chevy’s can only dream of being. The Superdawg itself is one of Chicago’s outstanding hot dogs, an oversize garlicky natural-casing wienie as plump as a 50s starlet. The Superburger—a thin patty fried to a crispy crust and dotted with tiny diced onions—might be even better. Both “lounge contentedly,” as the charmingly corny restaurant copy has it, in crinkle-cut fries; accompaniments include pickles and pickled green tomatoes (though not, on the dogs, ketchup). Spoon-thick shakes round out the four food groups. Superdawg has a walk-up window and a few outdoor tables, but there’s no substitute for eating in your car, just because this is America and you can. The memories will haunt your upholstery for weeks. —Mike Gebert

When after a six-month absence Mack Sevier, former pit man at Barbara Ann’s BBQ, opened his own BBQ joint this spring, lovers of his unique style of Chicago hot links let out a collective smoky sigh. There’s only one place to get these heavenly hot links—lightly charred smoky pork sausage aggressively spiced with sage and perfect topped with a drizzle of hot sauce—and that’s from Uncle John’s wood-fired smoker. Meaty spareribs are smoked directly over wood, resulting in a crisp, fat-in-the-fire outer layer that yields to a moist and toothsome interior. Rib tips, luscious with juicy pork fat and crisp bits of char, are the perfect complement to hot links. Chicken comes smoked, fried, or in a tasty house special of fried boneless dark meat served with pickled jalapenos. Nondescript coleslaw, white bread, and a terrific house-made barbecue sauce round out each order. There’s no seating at Uncle John’s, and I suggest dining auto alfresco, as the tantalizing aroma will otherwise have you reaching for a rib before you’ve driven a few blocks. —Gary Wiviott

Vienna Beef Factory Store & Deli
2501 N. Damen | 773-235-6652
$
AMERICAN | BREAKFAST, LUNCH: MONDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED SUNDAY | CASH ONLY

Although diners can’t actually watch hot dogs being made—which may be a good thing—just sitting so close to the action sets this no-frills cafeteria apart from other Vienna Beef vendors. Grab a tray and follow the endless silver-tube track past vats of homemade soups, every kind of deli sandwich, jumbo cookies, and yummy cake slices. Eat inside to check out the company posters or to people-watch, or head outside to the handful of logo-umbrellaed tables overlooking the parking lot. Don’t leave without stocking up at the company store, where corn dogs go by the dozen, beef brisket comes prepackaged, and dented cakes are discounted. Open at 7:45 AM Monday through Friday. —Jenny B. Davis

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Mick at 12:32 PM on 10/7/2007

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