New to the 'Scene'
I'd gotten recent word over at LTHforum that an old favorite of the board was back at it. Larry Tucker who owned previous BBQ spots in Chicago before disappearing for a while recently got back into the food game. He's jumping into the fried chicken craze with his newest venture located South on California on the city's West Side.
The newly opened Crazy Bird
I stopped in here for lunch this past weekend and was greeted by Larry and his lovely wife who helps run the show. While the inside is pretty minimum they've given it a little bit of life with a nice yellow paint job and a table with a few stools to sit down and eat in front looking out the windows. Despite the bullet-proof glass both husband and wife popped out from behind to have a chat and then hand me my food. Before my chicken was ready Larry asked me to try what's going to be his newest menu item. The Crazy Bird fries are fresh cut spuds that get topped with a white cheddar and chicken gravy as well as bits of real bacon, green onions and truffle oil. House BBQ sauce comes on the side. This is truly an excellent order of fries.
a peak inside + Crazy Bird Fries
As you may have peeped in the picture of the outside they have a unique to Chicago aquarium style smoker and on the weekends they're serving rib tips and jerk chicken. As mentioned the star of the show is the fried chicken which get this, wont set you back an hours worth of wages like so many of the recent trendier spots to open shop. How is it? Pretty good. The pieces are smaller but I actually prefer this, I hate bigger than norm pieces that get too rubbery upon cooking. Its fried to order and comes out with a crisp coating that sticks to the meat upon first bite. Overall this was a nice style of fried. The sides are all homemade in small batches and I could taste that in the sweet potatoes and also the white rice with white gravy which is the same stuff used on the fries. Since I visited on a weekend day I got to try a combo with 1/4 chicken and an 8 oz rib tips that came with bread and fresh cut fries ($8.95). The tips were pretty darn good though some pieces much better than others. It takes a little bit of time to get used to a new rig so I don't have a problem with that happening. Overall I was impressed. Nice to see Larry back at it.
Combo Chicken and Rib Tips
Crazy Bird
1138 S. California
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 801-0451
No comments:
Post a Comment