Huck Finn Restaurant – Oak Lawn

9 08 2008
  • 10501 S. Cicero Ave.
  • Oak Lawn, IL 60453
  • (708 ) 499-1112
  • Website
  • Menu

One of three Huck Finn Restaurants in the Chicagoland Area

I have got this strange fascination with 24 hour diners.  When we go to my girlfriend’s parents house, we leave Lansing when she gets off work around midnight.  That puts us in the Chicago area around 2:00 AM CST.  This night was no different.  We made it to town just after 2:00.  Like the lazy college kids we aren’t, we piled all of our dirty clothes into her car and took over her parents laundry room.  Because we had plans Saturday afternoon, J wanted to get a couple loads done before we went to bed.  We put in a load of whites and realized we were both hungry.  Even though Huck Finn has been there since she was in high school, she never ate there.  Since it’s only a few blocks away, we hoped back in the car and went for breakfast.

Huck Finn is a chain of three restaurants in the Chicago area.  They’re open 24/7 and they work on the unique model of being not only a restaurant, but a donut and ice cream shop too.  The parking lot was packed even though it was 2:30 in the AM.  We headed inside and a hostess showed us to a booth along the back wall.  We just seem to not have much luck with waiters in Chicago area 24/7 places.  We had an absolutely disasters meal at White Palace Grill (review HERE) in the south Loop and this one started out that way.  Fortunately, the waiter recovered and everything turned out ok.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : 24-Hour Diner, breakfast, Chicago, Oak Lawn, Restaurant, Reviews

Bell’s Beer Back in Chicago

4 08 2008

The Kalamazoo Gazette is reporting that Michgan brewer Bell’s Beer has shipped 750 kegs to the Windy City for the first time in two years.

“I love Chicago, and there’s no big city I spend more time in,” Larry Bell. “I’m thrilled that our beer will be available again in this market.

“The wholesalers we’ve been able to partner with haven’t been involved in craft beer very long, but all of them have hearts of gold. … I couldn’t be happier to find such good people to work with.”

Bell said Thursday afternoon in a telephone interview that he sent seven trucks carrying about 750 kegs to Chicago. Bell’s Oberon, Amber, Porter and Stout will be sold now, but Bell said he’s unsure when he’ll get other brands, such as Two-Hearted Ale, into Chicago.

Some Bell’s-loving taverns in Chicago, such as Sheffield’s and Hopleaf, are planning special events for the beers’ return, Bell said. He expects to spend much of next week in Chicago supporting the move and helping to get the numbers back to previous distribution levels.

“We can’t turn the tap on just like that. It’s going to be a process. It will take a little bit of time,” he said.

Now, all of you taking the Amtrak to Chicago can find a little piece of home.  One of my girlfriend’s co-workers always orders an Oberon when we go out for drinks.  I had never heard of that before moving here.


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Categories : Chicago, Food News, Kalamazoo

Portillo’s Hot Dogs – Crestwood, IL

20 07 2008
  • 13130 Cicero Ave.
  • Crestwood, IL 60445
  • (708 ) 385-6400
  • Website
  • Menu
Portillos Hot Dogs in Crestwood. Real Chicago-Style Food!

Portillo's Hot Dogs in Crestwood, IL. Real Chicago-Style Food!

I seem to be spending about every weekend back in Chicago and this past weekend was not exception.  This time, however, I was in town for a concert and not work.  We got tickets to see Sugarland (for the third time!) at the Cedar Point Sportsmen Club in Peru, IL.  Peru is a little over an hour from Chicago, so we decided to stop at my girlfriend’s parents before and after the show.  On our way to meet my parents, whom we were going to the show with, we started talking about food.  We had a pretty packed day trying to fit everything we wanted to do in and we neglected lunch up until that point.  Since she’s more familiar with the area, she started running down places on the way to the meeting point.  After a few suggestions, I finally said, “What about Portillo’s?” 

Let me start by saying.  I LOVE Portillo’s.  This is Chicago style food at it’s best.  When I was in college, I interned downtown at Fox Sports Net Chicago.  The downtown Portillo’s is located a few blocks away and I used to walk there all the time.  Since I started dating my girlfriend, I take any opportunity I can to stop at this location on Cicero. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chicago, Illinois, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

Chuck’s Southern Comforts Cafe – Burbank, IL

13 07 2008
  • 5557 W. 79th St.
  • Burbank, IL 60459
  • (708 ) 229-8700
  • Website
  • Menu
Chucks Southern Comforts Cafe on 79th and Central in Burbank, IL

Chuck's Southern Comforts Cafe on 79th and Central in Burbank, IL

I ended up back in Chicago again this weekend for work.  I picked up another job working at Toyota Park in Bridgeview.  Initially, I was supposed to get a hotel room by Midway which is a stone’s throw from Bridgeview, so I got on-line to start looking to see if there were any 24-hour restaurants nearby.  My search brought to a dining out in Chicago message board.  It didn’t really answer the question I was looking for, but this thread introduced me to Chuck’s Southern Comfrots.

I was worried about construction in Indiana so I left much ealier than I needed to.  I ended up geting to Bridgeview about three hours before my 1:30 CST call time.  I drove around the area for a while hitting up malls, Best Buy’s and Circuit City’s looking for Mario Kart.  Finally, I got hungry and remembered there was a BBQ joint on 79th and Central and I was pretty close to there. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : BBQ, Big Ten Tour, Chicago, Illinois, Restaurant, Reviews

Frankie’s Beef, Pasta & Catering – Oak Lawn, IL

23 06 2008
  • Frankie\'s Beef5721 W. 95th St.
  • Oak Lawn, IL 60435
  • (708 ) 423-4444
  • Website
  • Menu

I love Italian Beef and there’s really only one place in the world to get it.  Italian Beef is a Chicago specialty.  Other places will try it, but the only places that get it right have roots in the Windy City.  My girlfriend and I did some grocery shopping for a cook-out we were going to later that night and needed to find something quick for lunch.  Her family eats at Frankie’s quite often and she knew it would be something that would be right up my alley. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chicago, Chicken, Italian, Oak Lawn, Restaurant, Reviews

White Palace Grill – Chicago

23 06 2008
  • White Palace Grill1159 S. Canal St.
  • Chicago, IL 60607
  • (312) 939-7167
  • Website (not working)
  • Menu

Guy Fieri let me down.  That’s painful to say out loud.  My girlfriend and I first heard of the White Palace Grill in downtown Chicago on an episode of Diner’s Drive-In’s and Dives about 24 hour diners.  I was working in Chicago this past weekend and since my girlfriend’s parents live in a Chicago suburb, she decided to come with me and take a long weekend.  We left Lansing around midnight on a Thursday night and got to Chicago a little after two a.m.  We took a detour into the city instead of just heading to her parents.  We’ve been to a handful of places featured on Triple D including two others in Chicago and figured if Guy went there, it must be good.  We were wrong.  Really, really wrong.

White Palace Grill is located just south of the Loop on Roosevelt and Canal Streets.  According to a friend of my girlfriend’s, venturing into this neighborhood at this time of night five years ago would have been scary.  It wasn’t quite a walk in the park now, but it wasn’t really bad.  We parked about a half a block from the diner and walked back.  There’s a huge mall with a lot of high end stores right next door.  The scary thing was all the people just loitering in the street and around the restaurant.  We made our way to the front door and someone behind the counter acknowledged us and told us to sit where we want.  There are two dining rooms.  When you first walk in, there’s the traditional diner setting with a counter and a row of booths along the wall.  Keep going back and there’s more of a dining room with tables and booths.  We sat in the front dining room in a booth along the wall.  The menus were already on the table, so we grabbed a couple and started looking over them.  A bus boy came by with water and wiped the table down.  After that, it was quite a while before a waitress noticed us.  This was just the start of possibly the worst service we’ve ever gotten at a diner. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : 24-Hour Diner, Chicago, Restaurant, Reviews

Weekend Plans

19 06 2008

Posting is going to be light again this weekend.  I’m heading to Chicago Friday to shoot the Barclay’s Churchill Cup rugby at Toyota Park in Bridgeview on Saturday.  My girlfriend took the day off so we can make a long weekend out of it and get to spend some time with our parents.

We’re going to be hitting up a few places in Chicago we’ve been wanting to go.  On the way home, we’re planning on hitting the White Palace Grill on Chicago’s south side.  They were featured on Diner’s Drive-In’s and Dives a few months ago.  We’re also planning on hitting one of my favorite dive bars in a small unicorporated part of Iroquois County called L’Erbale.  They stop serving at nine and it’s an hour drive from Chicago, so who knows.  I know this has nothing to do with Mid-Michigan, but I’m going to lump them in the Big Ten Tour section of the blog because both of these places (and anywhere else we go) could be hit up on the way to Champaign (Univeristy of Illinois) or Evanston (Northwestern).  Plus, I just really like reviewing places 🙂

Don’t expect to see much activity here until Sunday night (doubtful) or Monday afternoon (more likely).  In the mean time, don’t forget to check out the REVIEW section of the site to see where I’ve been in Mid-Michigan already


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Categories : Food News

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