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Jan. 3rd, 2012 05:24 pmAdventuring at MK Burger Bar. Had the place to myself tonight for dinner...
Jan. 3rd, 2012
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Jan. 3rd, 2012 06:07 pmThat was an exceptionally strange evening I just had.
The area around the North & Clybourne El stop isn't one I've been to a lot because I always thought it was sort of grungy; the few times I've been there I've gone east, to the theatre. Apparently if you go west, you enter an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.
It's not that anything about the area is particularly weird. It's just so...non-urban. In Austin, there's a lot of sprawl on the edges of town, and so you get a lot of open-air shopping centers that aren't exactly strip malls, but don't really have any other name. They're filled with Best Buys and Container Stores and such. There's nothing wrong with that, but I've never encountered anything like it in urban Chicago.
UNTIL NOW!
I was going that way in part because I've been wanting to try Burger Bar (which I swore used to be called MK Burger Bar, apparently not, that's some other place) for a while. It's supposed to be one of the best burger joints in Chicago, and I was going to explore a bit first because I knew there was a West Elm nearby. West Elm is one of those stores like Pottery Barn and Crate&Barrel where they sell really fancy, really uniquely-designed everyday domestic stuff for really a lot of money. I like West Elm in part because it's cheaper and in part because I have a credit account there.
I was not prepared to walk into suburban Austin. There was a West Elm, AND a Pottery Barn, AND a Crate&Barrel, a Container Store, a Best Buy, a World Market, a Whole Foods...it was like every time I go shopping with Mum in Austin, except way colder.
It was fun, just kind of surreal to find an area like that in Chicago.
Anyway, I ended up at Burger Bar, which didn't blow me away, but does make a really good burger. I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to eat there, but there's no doubt it's earned its reputation. The shoestring fries were outstanding, and it's one of the few restaurants I've eaten at where the burger is really and truly medium when you order it medium, with a lovely crispy outer crust and gorgeous red-pink interior. I enjoyed it, but I can imagine someone who is used to the American Chain Diner concept of medium considering it underdone.
Anyway, it was surreal, but I did get to window-shop an unusual amount and ended the trip with MEAT, so I declare it a success.
The area around the North & Clybourne El stop isn't one I've been to a lot because I always thought it was sort of grungy; the few times I've been there I've gone east, to the theatre. Apparently if you go west, you enter an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.
It's not that anything about the area is particularly weird. It's just so...non-urban. In Austin, there's a lot of sprawl on the edges of town, and so you get a lot of open-air shopping centers that aren't exactly strip malls, but don't really have any other name. They're filled with Best Buys and Container Stores and such. There's nothing wrong with that, but I've never encountered anything like it in urban Chicago.
UNTIL NOW!
I was going that way in part because I've been wanting to try Burger Bar (which I swore used to be called MK Burger Bar, apparently not, that's some other place) for a while. It's supposed to be one of the best burger joints in Chicago, and I was going to explore a bit first because I knew there was a West Elm nearby. West Elm is one of those stores like Pottery Barn and Crate&Barrel where they sell really fancy, really uniquely-designed everyday domestic stuff for really a lot of money. I like West Elm in part because it's cheaper and in part because I have a credit account there.
I was not prepared to walk into suburban Austin. There was a West Elm, AND a Pottery Barn, AND a Crate&Barrel, a Container Store, a Best Buy, a World Market, a Whole Foods...it was like every time I go shopping with Mum in Austin, except way colder.
It was fun, just kind of surreal to find an area like that in Chicago.
Anyway, I ended up at Burger Bar, which didn't blow me away, but does make a really good burger. I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to eat there, but there's no doubt it's earned its reputation. The shoestring fries were outstanding, and it's one of the few restaurants I've eaten at where the burger is really and truly medium when you order it medium, with a lovely crispy outer crust and gorgeous red-pink interior. I enjoyed it, but I can imagine someone who is used to the American Chain Diner concept of medium considering it underdone.
Anyway, it was surreal, but I did get to window-shop an unusual amount and ended the trip with MEAT, so I declare it a success.