Hot Doug's

Hot Doug's is a restaurant in Chicago that has been featured on every local and national food show (and in fact when Nick was picking up the food the National Geographic Channel was filming a show). They are known for hot dogs and gourmet sausages. We have been to this restaurant a couple times before but Hot Doug's will be closing on October 4, 2014 so we wanted to go one last time before that time.

We love the fancy and interesting combinations at Hot Doug's and would have gone more often but they are located a bit far from us and they are only open from 10:30am to 4pm Monday through Saturday.  And to further complicate things they are cash only and always have a long line wrapped around the building.  Nick went on a weekday because a Saturday would have been crazy - and he still waited in line 1 1/2 hours.

Long line to get in

We ordered five sausages knowing that we would split them and we wanted to savor as many as possible this last time. Four of them were from the specials menu and one was from the regular menu.

From the weekly specials menu:
Baked ham sausage with prickly pear mustard, pineapple salsa and smoked Gouda cheese. This had a little more heat than we thought with the salsa. It was very complex, with a lot of tropical flavors but then the Gouda kind of throws it in a completely different direction.

Baked Ham Sausage with Pineapple

Bacon Cheeseburger Sausage with Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce, maple smoked cheddar cheese and smoked onion marmalade - this had a good smoky (from the onions) and sweet flavor (from the bbq sauce). It had more of a bacon flavor than cheeseburger flavor but we still enjoyed it.

BBQ Cheeseburger Sausage

Bison sausage

Game sausage of the week - Smoked bison Sausage with wild rice, Asiago cheese, bacon-garlic mayonnaise and corn relish. This was Nick's favorite of the bunch. He felt the smokiness and snap of the sausage were excellent and with the corn and Asiago it made him feel like he was eating at a five star restaurant.

Celebrity sausage - Basque-style smoked pork sausage with virtue cider mustard and Iberico cheese. This sausage didn't have as much going on with it just the sauce and the cheese but it had some interesting (Spanish) flavors.

Basque style smoked pork sausage

From the regular menu:
The George Mitterwald - Chicken sausage, zesty Santa Fe style - this was probably our least favorite, but it is really hard to compare to the fancier weekly specials which tend to have a bit more pizzazz to them. If we hadn't been eating this sausage in combination with everything else it would have been great.

Cheese fries plus sausages

Cheese Fries - Nick overheard people in line raving about the cheese fries so he ordered them.  They were okay but it is hard for any fries to impress Nick.  Hot Doug's does offer duck fat fries on Fridays and Saturdays and we were sad that we never went there on one of those days to try them because they are supposed to be great.

Final thoughts on Hot Doug's:
Food - we love the intricate and gourmet combinations that they come up with.  Natalie isn't a huge sausage person to begin with but she feels these are amazing. We are sad to see them close but there is another fancy sausage place in Lincoln Park (Frank N Dawgs) that will have to fill the void.

Chicken sausage 

Service - Once Nick got to the front of the line, Doug himself was at the counter like always.  He spends a lot of time with each person making sure they order what is best on each sausage.  Nick felt Doug may have been a little distracted on this day due to Nat Geo film crews filming.  After placing the order it only took a couple of minutes for the sausages to come out.

Doug himself

Atmosphere - it is a casual atmosphere inside with lots of sausage memorabilia and the bright colors of a classic hot dog cart.  It was a little chilly outside but good thing it was not too cold due to the long wait.  It may have been a slightly longer wait than normal for a weekday due to the film crew. But Nick was able to talk with the other patrons in line with him.

Burt's Place Pizza

So we finally made it to Burt's Place Pizza in Morton Grove.  This restaurant has been featured on everything (Check Please, Chicago's Best, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain).  Lots of people really love this pizza so we wanted to for check it out. 

Super Salad

There are some rules that have to be followed (think soup nazi but nicer).  Burt buys all of the ingredients fresh every day so you have to make a phone reservation (where you state the size and toppings on the pizza) at least one day before. The time you pick as your reservation time is the time the pizza will be ready and out at your table.  So don't get there late. Also order your appetizers ahead on the phone as well. They do carry out pizzas as well but you have to abide by the call ahead policy also.  So we did see a few parties try and walk in to be told they couldn't be accomodated.  The funny thing is when you look inside the restaurant it may look like there are tables available.  However, a few of the tables are used as staging areas where the pizzas sit to be served to you. And one last thing is that they are cash only.

Garlic Bread

So they are very picky but every mention of this place on the internet plus the tv spots have mentioned these "rules" so it really shouldn't come as a surprise to someone who has done their research. Burt's Place doesn't have its own website but we were able to find reviews on yelp plus a photograph of their menu - to give us an idea of the appetizer and pizza toppings options plus how much it would cost since we needed to bring cash.

We phoned in on a Wednesday for Saturday dinner. We ordered a salad, garlic bread and a large pizza with extra cheese, sausage and mushrooms. 

Super Salad - nice salad of romaine greens plus a few toppings.  Nothing spectacular but it is a way to say you are eating healthy at a pizza place.

Garlic Bread - this was really good and fresh.  We knew the pizza would be good once we ate this.

Pizza!

Large Pizza with extra cheese, sausage and mushrooms.  All of the reviews said to get extra cheese so we went with that.  This is literally the best pizza.  NICK SAYS THIS IS THE BEST PIZZA HE HAS EVER EATEN. The crust was perfect - it wasn't too soft or gooey or too crunchy.  It is a pan style pizza. The toppings were fresh and flavorful and the freshness of the ingredients pushed the flavor profile over the top. The extra cheese made for the perfect ratio of cheese, sauce and toppings. You can definitely tell Burt cares about his craft.  At this time in his life he doesn't have to have a restaurant; he does he because he loves it.

Final thoughts on Burt's Place Pizza:
Food - We loved the pizza.  We haven't eaten pizza since and it will be hard once we do. We would skip the salad next time, but do the garlic bread.  We love this place and would like to go very often - if it were just a healthier meal :).
Service - We got there about 1/2 hour ahead of our pizza being done time so there was plenty of time to eat the salad and the garlic bread. Burt cooks all of the food and his wife and another person serve all of the food.  All of the food came out as expected and they were very nice. We did see Burt when we were there.  We wonder what they do if he got sick?
Atmosphere - the restaurant is located in a residential portion of the suburb of Morton Grove - it almost looks like it doesn't belong. The building is very old and there are lots of knick knacks on the walls and shelves.  One critique is that the place doesn't look super clean, but just ignore that and enjoy the pizza.

Silver Palm

We finally made it to a place we had seen on the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations Chicago Episode, Silver Palm.  We went for 2 reasons - because Anthony Bourdain loved the food (especially one of the sandwiches) and because you can eat in an old train car.

Complimentary cornbread

Inside the dining train car

We each ordered a sandwich and they were so huge that it was definitely enough food.
The Three Litte Piggy - this is the sandwich that Anthony Bourdain dubbed "The Best Sandwich in America".  Not sure about that title but it was very good - but (and this is a shocker) you have to like pork products to like this sandwich.  There is ham (lots of it), bacon and breaded pork tenderloin. The sandwich also comes with an onion ring, gruyere cheese and a fried egg on top. Now Nick doesn't like runny fried eggs so he ate his half without the egg.  But he missed out because it really served as another "sauce" for all of the pork.  The sandwich is huge so you have to smash it down a bit to get it into your mouth. There wasn't a lot of bacon but almost too much ham.  Natalie took a few slices of the ham off the sandwhich to eat it because the saltiness of the ham was overpowering everything else and she couldn't taste the pork tenderloin. But aside from that it was a great sandwich.

Three Little Piggies Sandwich with Roasted Vegetables

The other sandwich we ordered was the Shrimp Po Boy - now even though this wasn't the sandwich that supposedly this place is known for we saw one of these sandwiches go to every table that was served. In addition to the lightly fried shrimp there was tartar sauce, romaine lettuce and pickled greeen tomato all on top of a tasty bun.  This was a great sandwich and probably something we would order again in the future.
The sandwiches come with either french fries or roasted vegetables so we ordered one of each.  It was kind of different to have such indulgent sandwiches served with the relatively healthy veggies, but they were very good.

Po Boy with Fries

Final thoughts on Silver Palm:

Food - good, we were joking that we sure drove a decent way for just sandwiches but it was worth it.  (This is not saying too much because once we took a trip to Philadelphia for the weekend just to try authentic Philly Cheese Steaks).
Service - nice and casual, very polite.
Atmosphere - it was neat to eat inside of a train car, quite unique.  The food preparation actually is done at the end of the train car. The restaurant is more of a bar than anything. They don't open until 6pm and stay open until 2 or 3 in the morning.  But the food is definitely worth it.

Publican

Inside Publican - communal dining tables

We went with some friends to a restaurant called Publican.  It is located at 837 W Fulton Market in Chicago's West Loop. We've heard about this restaurant from many sources - word of mouth from friends, from Check Please, the Food Network show The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and from the Travel Channel Show No Reservations.

Pork rinds

Pickle plate

We didn't realize this before going, but the waiter mentioned that they liked to serve the items family style so that everyone could try all the dishes.  We tried to do this on most of the dishes but not all.  There are no defined appetizers or entrees, but the menu does have smaller size items and larger size items. As some of the smaller dishes we had pork rinds (mentioned on the Best Thing I Ever Ate program), a pickle plate, albacore tuna fritters, Serrano ham, and raclette.  The pork rinds were the best pork rinds we have ever eaten - they were served warm and nicely seasoned with a spicy vinegar.  We didn't get to taste too much of the pickle plate or raclette, but our dinner companions thoroughly enjoyed them.  The tuna fritters themselves were average, but they came with a remoulade sauce which elevated the dish. The Serrano ham was sourced from Salamanca Spain and was the best item we ate that night. Like prosciutto, Serrano ham is served raw in thin slices. We only ordered a half order of the ham and it was a generous portion, enough for 4 of us to share.

Serrano ham

Raclette

Tuna fritters

For larger dishes we ordered 2 orders of suckling pig, country ribs and potee. The suckling pig came with collard greens and persimmons. The pig itself was rather salty, but the greens and the persimmons rounded out the dish and cut the salt.  We all agreed that there could have been more persimmons. The country ribs were served with broccoli and chestnuts.  The term ribs is a bit misleading because it seemed more like a pork chop. Whatever the term, it was rubbed with a chili spice and grilled.  It tasted good - but by that point we had eaten an awful lot of pork products (which this restaurant is known for).  We did not get to try the potee - which included pork tenderloin, sausage and pork confit.  However, our guests gave it rave reviews!

Potee - tenderloin, sausage & confit

Suckling pig with collard greens & persimmons

Country ribs with broccoli & chestnuts

Final thoughts on Publican:
Food - excellent, there are some more ambitious pork dishes and there is also an extensive oyster menu that we did not try
Service - the wait staff was very attentive in refilling water and bringing out fresh plates for the family style service. The waiter was knowledgeable and willing to give recommendations but did not seem overly friendly, almost confusing at times.
Atmosphere - in keeping with the Renaissance definition of a publican as a tavernkeeper, this restaurant has a very loud and pub type casual feel to it.  Most of the tables are set up as communal dining - meaning the person sitting next to you may not be part of your dinner party.  We were fortunate to sit at one of the few booths to have a little more private experience. However the booths are little odd as well because there are doors you have to open to step into them.

Booths with "doors"