Old School Chicago Diners

-Grubbing in Chicago
Five of a Kind: Greasy Spoon Diners

I wouldn't say the greasy spoon dining genre is headed towards extinction but it's certainly been endangered with each and every closing across the country. There's really no bringing these places back to a healthy number either as you just cant recreate them in any form or fashion. It takes decades for a greasy spoon diner to fully spawn and in today's age they're just not suitable for most areas. There's no exact definition but there's plenty of traits that make a place a blue collar greasy spoon diner. They're usually small, they're always cheap, and they've rarely been remodeled. There's still a decent amount of these places left in Chicago but there's not nearly as many as before. 

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Uncle Bens Grill (West Town)

If one of those Chicago PD or Chicago Fire TV shows ever needs a low key greasy spoon diner to film at Ben's Grill on Damen is a good call. It used to go by Tommy's Grill but it switched names a while back. I must've driven past this place a hundred times before I finally stopped in last summer when I was getting a cracked windshield on my car fixed across the street. The inside looks exactly like you can imagine and so the menu is what you would imagine too. It's pretty standard with all the usual suspects when it comes to American style breakfast. The biscuits and gravy get some love in online reviews so I went with a small order and they weren't bad for being this far north of the Mason Dixon line. They were better than I thought they would be. The biscuits weren't anything special but the gravy was highly seasoned with lots of sausage and had a nice and creamy texture to it too. 

Biscuits and Gravy at Uncle Ben's Diner 
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Parkview Restaurant and Grill (Pilsen)

Our next stop serves up some of my favorite chilaquiles in town. Parkview Diner at the corner of 19th and Damen is a mother and son run spot that's been serving the people of Pilsen for more than 35 years and the more Pilsen changes, the more this place stays the same. The menu is a fun mix of American and Mexican breakfasts and also a few Chicago style items too. The Mexican food here is old fashioned and similar to what you would find elsewhere in Chicago back in the 90's. But it's a step above as they put care into their food such as making their aguas frescas and soups on site. They also grow their own peppers for their salsas. Whatever you get from here it's going to be a hefty plate of food for a more than fair price but I cant get past the chilaquiles loaded with tender hunks of steak. 

Chilaquiles at Parkview Diner 
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United Grill (Belmont Cragin)

You wont find much info about United Grill online and that's how it usually is for a blue collar establishment such as this. They have two locations and I've featured the one in Cicero before. They also have a spot on Armitage just west of Cicero. It recently under went a renovation inside but before that this place felt like something straight out of the 80's. That goes for its looks and feel as well as the menu and prices. When I visited more than a year ago I had a very satisfying patty melt that was something like $6 or $7 with a huge side of hash browns. The patty melt was just about perfect although it is a thinner patty than most but both sides of the bread were well toasted and they loaded up on the grilled onions and the cheese was well melted. I think it might be time to revisit them soon. 

Patty Melt at United Grill 
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Cinderella (Back of the Yards)

Any and every greasy spoon diner worth it's weight does burgers for breakfast. Back when I was a kid in my pre teen days we used to go to this long gone place on Fullerton Avenue in Lincoln Park called Glenn's - it was maybe a half black west of the Walgreens and they had the best greasy burgers we would get for breakfast. Well I was reminded of my trips to Glenn's when I recently returned to Cinderella on 47th street in Back of the Yards early one morning this past winter. At the time I had no idea this out of date diner was still open until I read a feature at Block Club Chicago. Cinderella’s is ran by a Polish grandma named Helen Borowicz who walks to work every day and when I say nothing here has changed I mean that in a literal sense as burgers are still $2.15 each and the dining room is filled with little relics from another era as well as random piles of junk that looks like it hasn’t been touched in 20+ years. Stepping into here is like going to your grandparents house circa 1993. 

a peek inside

There’s few if any places like Cinderella’s left, the burgers taste like they come from a time machine. I got one with mustard and onion and another with lettuce, tomato, mayo and they’re even better than I remembered them to be, just be ready for the smell to linger like a bag of sliders will do as they reek in a way only an old school burger does. I should note that they're the frozen hockey puck variety but there must be some really good flavor in that flattop as they had that classic old school taste to them. According to that Block Club article Helen started working here in 1974 when her future husband hired her to work the Easter shift and the rest is Chicago restaurant history as she’s been working at Cinderella’s ever since then. Her husband passed away in 1993 and she’s been running the show solo ever since. The menu is a short and simple mix of breakfast and sandwiches and includes a few clues into the neighborhoods old Eastern European past such as a liver sausage sandwich ($3.50). If you visit in summer the tomatoes in the BLT come from the garden in back and with that I have to ask how is this place not listed on the Chicago Historic Resources Survey identifying close to 10,000 properties in Chicago with historic or architectural significance? Cinderella is almost a time portal.

Cheeseburgers at Cinderella
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Golden Nugget (Avondale)

Our final stop is one of the more well known blue collar greasy spoon diners in town. Golden Nugget is a homegrown mini chain from another era. Actually I was curious about it's history so I did a little digging and came to find that it was started in Florida by a Chicago guy who named it after the famous Las Vegas casino where he had previously worked as a blackjack dealer. The Golden Nugget first popped up in Chicago in 1966 and they still have four locations left. If you've ever been to the Golden Apple in Lakeview or had been to the Golden Angel at Lincoln and Montrose those too were once Golden Nuggets. I'll be honest I've never been a big fan in part bc we always ate Mexican food late night when I was in that phase of life. I'm just not a big American breakfast person in the morning or the night so Golden Nugget was never my first choice for food after alcohol. But it was and still is for many as they remain open 24 hours at this Diversey location (the others close in the afternoon). The last time I visited any of them was actually right around the pandemic when it felt like the world was headed to the shitter and nothing mattered so I said f-ck it one night and decided to eat here. The menu at Golden Nugget is almost as long as a children's book. It reads like a Sysco catalog with just about any and every diner type dish you can imagine. I somehow ended up on the "Little Italy" section which reads like a menu in Omaha's Little Italy. Whatever I was on that night had me wanting some chicken parm after putting it into my head so that's what I got and it was about what you would expect. It's not the best chicken parm except when it is in those wee hours of the morning. 

Chicken Parm and Spaghetti at Golden Nugget
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Previously Featured Greasy Spoons:

Mr. A's
Don's Grill
Fred's Place
Pete's Place
Johnnie's Grill

The Choo Choo
Alexander's Restaurant

See ya next time @chibbqking