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

Eating BIG in Minneapolis (and beyond)

Eating like a local:
Regional food specialties
- Exploring the North Star State

I took an end of the summer road-trip up to the Minneapolis area at the end of August. The purpose of this trip was to soak up as much summer as possible and I chose this part of the Midwest due to two things. I would be able to do some outdoor stuff and also get some good food. Minnesota has lot to offer from an outdoor perspective and Minneapolis just might be the second best food city in all of the Midwest. I listed it third behind Chicago and Detroit but second place could go either way in that one. I hadn't visited the Twin Cities since 2016 so it had been awhile and it had been even longer since I had visited in the summer which is the best time to go for obvious reasons. Here's where we ate... 

Sights from Minnesota 
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Al's Breakfast 

Our first stop is one of the 2004 winners of the James Beard ‘Americas Classics’ award. Al’s Breakfast in the Dinkytown neighborhood is the type of spot I typically like to check out while traveling but I hadn’t made it here on my previous trips so I made sure to fix that up on this one. The 14 seat diner sits on the University of Minnesota campus and is probably the most iconic eatery in town so be prepared to wait in line. It took about 30 minutes for me to get in but it was student move-in week so lots of college kids and their parents were also planning to eat there. I got the José which is real deal hash browns topped with homemade salsa, cheddar and two perfectly poached eggs. Since 1950. 

The José at Al's Breakfast 

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Owamni by The Sioux Chef 

If Minneapolis wasn’t so far I would’ve tried Owamni much sooner. The 2022 James Beard winner of the “Best New Restaurant” award wasn’t the only reason I decided to roll into the Twin Cities but it was one of the main reasons I wanted to roll thru. It’s ran by Chef Sean Sherman, a Oglala Lakota chef who only cooks with ingredients used before the arrival of the Europeans. So no wheat, flour, dairy, cane sugar, black pepper etc. It sits in a slick space along the Mississippi River and it’s considered the most prominent indigenous kitchen in the country. First up was Tepary Bean with pickled walleye, green beans, red onions and tostadas. Think of it as a mix between refried beans and hummus. It was the perfect starter on a very warm day. Moving on I was told the corn chowder is one of the most popular menu items so I ignored the fact it was 90° out. It too was really good, especially the fried wild mushrooms on top. I tried two of the taco offerings including the bison asada with pesto and guajillo salsa which was good if a bit dry but the corn taco blew me away. It was a flavor bomb of maíz starting with heirloom blue corn tortillas spread with a sweet corn jam topped with fried corn, popcorn and micro-greens from the Mississippi. This was as unique of a taco as I’ve come across in a long time. All in all this meal will be considered when I round up the best bites of 2023 in December. 

Lunch at Owamni
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Union Hmong Kitchen

Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to the country’s largest Hmong community so I got some Hmong food while there (but I missed out on some Somali food this trip). I ended up doing that at the Union Hmong Kitchen which is part of a food hall near Target Field. The Hmong sausage platter hit the spot on a hot day. Hmong sausage is similar in flavor to other SE Asian sausages though it tends to be a bit drier than the others from my experience with it. But it worked well when wrapped up with the purple sticky rice, Khao Sen rice noodles, pickled veggies and the lettuce that comes with it. 

Hmong Sausage Platter at Union Hmong Kitchen 
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Oro by Nixta Tortilleria

I always search out the best Mexican food and Nixta looked like a worthy stop. It’s an heirloom tortilleria that has a dinner spot next door where they serve a menu revolving around masa. The Molotes are little torpedoes of fried masa that come stuffed with picadillo and dressed with lettuce, Mexican dry aged cheese, salsa tatemada, and crema. I don’t think it would be possible to elevate the classic crispy taco any further than this dish did. I also got a killer veggie taco made with bok choy, huitlacoche - black beans, salsa macha, and pickled veggie relish. It’s a shame that Chicago really doesn’t have a spot like this when it comes to the heirloom tortilleria portion of the business so I brought a couple packs of their corn tortillas back with me. They're thick with a nice corn perfume. 

Dinner at Oro by Nixta
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Pumphouse Creamery 

The Midwest might be the best region for Ice Cream. I’ll hear arguments from the Northeast but that’s about it. I found Pumphouse Creamery searching for the areas best ice cream and there was a Reddit thread with lots of mentions for the fruit flavors. I tend to prefer fruit when it comes to ice cream and gelato so I decided to check them out. All of the fruit flavors are made with local fruit from nearby farms including a blend of honeyberry and raspberry crisp of which ice cream dreams are made of.

Local Honeyberry and Raspberry Crisp at Pumphouse Creamery 
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Boomin Barbecue (Hudson, WI)

Our next spot is a bonus stop of sorts. According to Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor at Texas Monthly, you can find Minneapolis's best bbq in Hudson, Wisconsin (30 mins east). I guess the city made it a real bitch for Boomin Barbecue to operate its smoker thanks to stupid municipal laws and what not so they said f-ck it and moved their business to Hudson where they park said smoker in the lot and setup shop in the kitchen of Nova Bar. It's a great partnership and with the surrounding landscape it feels like you could be somewhere out west. I enjoyed a smoked beef and cheddar sandwich on special. 

Smoked Beef and Cheddar at Boomin Barbecue 
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Meister's Bar & Grill (Stillwater)

I was falling in love with all the river towns on this trip. Stillwater is a lovely little river town that reminded me alot of Galena. It sits on the St. Croix River about 30 mins northeast of Minneapolis so it’s basically a suburb. We stopped in at an iconic German bar that sits in a residential neighborhood. Meister’s is a typical Wisconsin tavern that happens to be across the river in Minnesota. The kitchen is the grill behind the bar and the ground beef is supplied by a local butcher as are the brats. The signature Burgermeister is a bacon cheeseburger with fried onions and high quality bacon bits. Thick chunks of extra smoky bacon are mixed into extremely well melted cheese acquired by placing the top of a pan over the burgers when the cheese goes on - a very good bar burger. The brat comes in patty form and is squeezed in-between locally baked marbled rye with Sauerkraut and Swiss. All of this is fresh cut fries on the side shows this place still does things the old school way. Since 1948.

Lunch at Meister's Bar & Grill
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Nelson's Ice Cream (Stillwater)

After lunch we went over to the historic Nelson’s for some ice cream. I’d heard they pack it on big here but was not prepared for what I was given after I ordered a small cup of rum cherry. I was convinced he had misheard me as this was easily enough ice cream for two and then some. I got a kick out of the kitchen sink they have outside so customers can wash up after eating as they give you so much ice cream there’s no way that some of it doesn’t melt and end up on your hands. Since 1923.

Cherry Rum (small) at Nelson's Ice Cream 
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Bev's Cafe (Red Wing)

We drove down to the shoe making town of Red Wing one day for breakfast and also to get stuff from the farmers market which was said to be a good one and it was but it was also pretty small with no more than ten vendors on a Saturday. My love for regional food led us to Bev’s Cafe where they make gritwurst or gritzelwurst as it was called in the German butcher shops of the upper Midwest way back when. It’s a mix of pork meat and oats and or barley and it’s very similar to Cincinnati’s goetta. Not bad but it could’ve been crisped up a tad bit more and some seasoning wouldn’t have hurt it either.

Gritwurst at Bev's Cafe
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Hanisch Bakery and Coffee Shop (Red Wing)

Bakeries are another one of the Midwest's food strengths. There seems to be a longtime bakery in pretty much every Midwest town. In Red Wing, Hanisch Bakery is that spot. It’s been around in one form or the other since 1961 when it started out as Pirius Bakery. They have a ton of stuff on offer so I went ahead and asked the lady behind the counter what the most popular donuts were and I ended up with a couple Long Johns stuffed with cream and also a couple or the cherry donuts. 

Donuts at Hanisch Bakery and Coffee Shop
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Kings Place Bar & Grill (Miesville)

I was able to add a few spots from Minnesota to my always growing Midwestern burger database. The second of them was King’s Place Bar & Grill in the tiny town of Miesville (Pop. 125). It’s a popular spot with bikers and often mentioned as the home to Minnesota's best burger. They offer more than 100 different options but me being a bit of a burger purist I went with the California Burger from the ‘King’s Originals’ which are the burgers that started it all back when it was just a small general store with a few burger options. It starts out with a 1/3 lb hunk of beef that’s lightly smashed on a small and always packed flattop, this place stays busy. It comes dressed with lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a lightly toasted bun. It was just about perfect which means it got a B+ on the burger grading scale. This means it was very good and gets honorable mention status among the country's best burgers. 

California Burger at Kings Place 
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House of Coates (Coates)

Final stop on the mini Minnesota burger tour took us to another tiny town called Coates (pop. 161) about 20 mins northwest of the previous stop. The House of Coates is the type of bar you tend to find in the upper Midwest in that its an outdated place that caters to the motorcyclers in the summer and to snowmobilers in the winter plus thirsty people passing by all year. It’s got a very Northwoods feel with a tended to pull tab booth inside and a fantastic neon sign outside. They’re known for half pound burgers including the Swanee which is a bacon cheeseburger with fried onions and a side of pickles plus a cup of blue cheese dressing. We weren’t asked how we wanted it cooked so I guess medium is standard which is better than well done but not as good as medium rare so that was my only complaint about an otherwise formidable bar burger. That's it for this trip. 

Swanee Burger at House of Coates
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See ya next time @chibbqking

Eating BIG in Rockford

Eating like a local:
Regional food specialties
- Eating and Exploring the Screw City

Other than the google search results you won’t find a bigger collection of Illinois restaurant reviews than you’ll find over here. I’ve covered countless spots from DeKalb to Carbondale and beyond. So you shouldn’t be too surprised with todays stop - Rockford. The Screw City aka Forest City aka Reaper City is the largest city in Illinois outside of the Chicagoland area and is the states fifth most populated overall. It’s not the first spot in the Land of Lincoln that you might think of visiting and it’s probably not the second or third spot either but it’s a compelling place with lots of history and some stuff worth seeing including the Anderson Japanese Gardens which many consider the best of its kind in the Midwest. Rockford's location on the Rock River along with over 4000 acres of public parks means there’s lots of outdoor activities on offer too. I’ve never actually spent the night in Rockford in part due to its proximity to Chicago (80 miles) but I’ve stopped thru there plenty of times on the way somewhere else and have also taken a few daytrips over the years. Todays post is a culmination of all of the times I’ve stopped in Rockford to explore the area through food and what not. The food scene reflects the city itself - it's nothing fancy and definitely not trendy but it is interesting.

Sights in Rockford 
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Stockholm Inn

Our first stop is perhaps Rockford's most popular breakfast spot. If not the most popular it's certainly one if the most well known. The history of the Stockholm Inn is traced back to the 1940's when a husband and wife team with Swedish ancestry opened it under a different name. The people they sold it to kept the homestyle Swedish recipes and renamed it after Sweden's capital city. Decades later it brings alot of cultural and historical value to the people of Rockford. Locals pack the place on a daily basis. Many come for Swedish specialties like kroppkakor (potato dumplings), kaldomar (cabbage rolls), Swedish meatballs, salt herring, fruit soup, rice pudding and nut cake. Their most popular menu item are the Swedish pancakes which are a cross between a pancake and a crepe. They're thinner and lighter than their American counterparts due to the use of less flour and more butter when making them. It's common to eat these with a lingonberry sauce but I enjoy them as is with butter. 

Swedish Pancakes at Stockholm Inn
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Behr Den

Rockford's oldest restaurant is tucked away in an industrial area near the river. Behr Den has been serving the people of Rockford since 1896. It's open to the public but its location directly across the street from Behr Iron & Metal makes it a regular stop for workers of the longtime manufacturing company. According to an article from a local Rockford station it started out as a pharmacy and candy shop before turning into a restaurant over 100 years ago. Not a ton seems to have changed in the last 50 years or so, even the radio sitting on top of the counter was from another era. The prices are too. I got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for just $3.50 while my friend got the Denver omelet plate for $6.25. I've visited countless blue collar type dining spots over the years and none of them felt as industrial as the Behr Den. That goes for the food and the people on top of the atmosphere there.

Breakfast at the Behr Den 
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The Norwegian 

At the time of it's opening The Norwegian was Rockford's most ambitious restaurant project. It's housed in a historic building that was bought by a local woman who grew up in the area and rehabbed it with the help of the local who donated more than $100,000 to a Kickstarter so that it could be cleared of asbestos and turned into a brunch pub and live music venue. They serve brunch with a Nordic twist with dishes like Æbleskiver. These delicious Danish pancake balls are made from a fried batter and basically a cross between a donut and a beignet. The Norwegian serves theirs with a fantastic made in-house raspberry jam and some maple syrup for dipping and I would highly recommend starting your meal with these or ending it with them. The Lyonnaise salad is a good option as far as starters go as is the gravlax Smørrebrød. They do a little Nordic twist on the smash burger called 'The Frikadeller' which is a smashed Danish meatball patty with Jarlsberg, sauerkraut, lingonberry bbq sauce and caramelized onion aioli on local baked rye. Definitely worth a stop. 

Brunch at The Norwegian
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Meads Meat Market 

One of my favorite things about the food culture in the Midwest is the abundance of local butchers that are still around. There's not as many as thee used to be but it seems like most towns in the region still have a locally owned shop for meats and more. Meads is that spot in Rockford. The family owned butcher shop has been serving the community for nearly 85 years. They didn't have a ton of meat on offer when I went in there but they do a daily sandwich special which is what really seems to bring the customers in. The hot roast beef sandwich was the special on my visit. House roasted beef is placed atop onions, cheddar, and hot peppers served on a locally made Italian roll. Not bad at all. 

Hot Roast Beef at Meads Meat Market 
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Lino's

I once stopped at Lino's back in my college days riding to and from Madison. So I went ahead and got reacquainted as I was recently in the area. Lino's is Rockfords most popular pizzeria dating back to 1972. They shred their own cheese blend and the sausage is made on-site. Pizzas are cooked in an old Faulds Oven which is a defunct Chicago company, lots of local pizzerias still use them. They call this “Rockford style” as it’s thicker than cracker thin but still much thinner than deep dish. Actually it’s similar in girth to most thin crust spots in and around Chicagoland. It’s also a place of celebration as they cater and do banquets so lots of people in the area have a connection to the pizza and their house special salad with sausage. You can get a pizza, a salad, and a 2 liter of pop for $20 (takeout). I was most impressed with the sheer amount of people visiting be it for dine in or for takeout where they run a Chick-Fil-A type of ship getting customers in and out in an impressive amount of time.

Salad and Pizza at Lino's 
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Olympic Tavern 

If you're riding through Rockford and looking for a sit-down type of spot for dinner you should check out the Olympic Tavern. It's a Rockford institution dating back to 1945. It's got a very Wisconsin tavern and supper club type of vibe as far as the food and the atmosphere goes. You don't see fried bluegill around too often so I like to get it when I have the chance to do so and Olympic Tavern has it available regularly so that was an easy decision for me on my visit. If you've never had bluegill it's similar to lake perch in flavor and texture so it's best served lightly breaded like those seen below. 

Blue Gill Filets at Olympic Tavern 

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Lao Kitchen 

If you're a Chicagoan passing through Rockford and thinking about stopping for some food you might want to consider Lao Kitchen considering there's no Lao restaurants in Chicago (there's one ghost kitchen). To my knowledge there's a small Lao community in the Rockford area which could be due to its proximity to Wisconsin where there's a fairly large Lao presence. Lao food has slowly become one of my favorites going back to my college days in Madison which is where I was first introduced to the flavors before falling even further in love with the food while in Northern Thailand with whom Laos shares a border as well as many different ingredients and recipes. Since then Lao food has become pretty popular across the country with more and more spots identifying as Lao and not Thai. Lao Kitchen has a relatively small menu with mostly standard offerings including Lao sausage which might be my favorite encased meat these days (it's top 5 for sure). I love how Lao sausage packs all the wonderful flavors and aromas of Southeast Asia both in the link itself and also from the spicy and sour jeow sauce that it's typically served with. Add in some sticky rice and you got a meal in of itself but I also rec the Lard Na which is typically found on Thai menus but is traced back to Laos where Chinese people would cook stir fried noodles covered in gravy. Lao Kitchen makes a very good version. 

Lunch at Lao Kitchen 
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Tortacos Soto

Rockford might not be Illinois' Second City when it comes to tacos, that's Aurora, but there's still lots of taco options. I came across Tortacos Soto while browsing the menus of local taquerias. They have a couple of guisada (stewed meats) offerings with chicken and I enjoyed both of them. 

Pollo en Rajas con Arroz at Tortacos Soto 
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Beef-A-Roo 

If you're passing through the area and looking for something quick well then I have to mention Beef-A-Roo bc this wouldn't be a proper Rockford food post without it. The regional fast food chain opened their first location in 1967 and now has seven locations in the Rockford area while currently being in the process of a rapid expansion to a handful of other states. Beef-A-Roo is known for roast beef sandwiches which are not to be confused with Italian beef. These are more like Arby's though it's fans will tell you it's so much better and they might be right but if we're being real they're pretty similar to me. Then again it was sold by the original founders a few years back so it's likely that things have changed. I'm not saying it's terrible but it's typical fast food as far as it's quality goes. 

Roast Beef and Fries at Beef -A-Roo 
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Zammuto's 

I've been making summertime stops at Zammuto's for more than 20 years now. But its history goes back way further than that. It was opened as a grocery store in 1925 by a local Italian who may or may not have had a connection to the head of the Rockford mob family ran by a man with the same surname. The grocery was transported into a granita / ice cream stand at some point in the 50's or 60's and was later sold but the granita recipe lives on with the current owner. Granita is a product of Sicily, a cousin to Italian ice in that it's a semi frozen dessert made from fruit, water, and sugar. Zammuto's serves both granita and soft serve and they combine the two of them for their signature menu item - the "Unusual". They're so well liked that other dairy stands around town also serve them. 

The Unusual at Zammuto's 
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More from Illinois

Click 'Illinois' under tags for more than 50 posts including...

Eating BIG in Peoria

Roadfood in Galesburg

Southern Illinois Roadtrip

Smashed Burgers of Central Illinois 

The Illinois Fried Chicken Trail

See ya next time @chibbqking