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Chicago-style burger . . .

yellow truffle

By yellow truffle
in The Heartland: Dining

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yellow truffle

yellow truffle

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Posted

We have the Chicago-style hot dog and pizza, but no hamburger. Why is this? Shouldn't Chicago have its own style of burgers? Being once the slaughter-house capital of the midwest, you would think that we should have created our own standard. Yeah sure, everybody has there Favorite Burger in Chicagoland, but they all vary in ingredients/condiments and cooking styles. Is there a commonality in the burgers from from the south side to the north side?

"Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! No fries, chips. No Coke. Pepsi."

Does every tourist that come to Chicago that end up at the Billy Goat think that this is what Chicago burgers are all about? Maybe Chicago just doesn't care for burgers like it does some of its other foods. Perhaps we should just let others define what the Chicago burger should be. The Chicago Hamburger Company, a Phoenix restaurant, servers up sliders the come with mustard, ketchup, pickles, and onions. Was there a slider phenomenon in Chicago that I was unaware of?

FWIW: GreaseFreak has done a photographic survey of burgers in Chicagoland.

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted

Does any city have a signature burger?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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nsxtasy

nsxtasy

Posted
Posted (edited)
Does any city have a signature burger?

Well, don't forget, the hamburger is one of the few foods (along with the frankfurter, and Brussels sprouts) whose name actually comes from a city (Hamburg, Germany), so in a way, every hamburger is an homage to that city. Also, several famous hamburger chains can trace their lineage to specific cities; the first McDonald's was right here in Des Plaines, and Wichita can claim the first White Castle, way back in 1921. But I've never heard anyone refer to "New York style burgers" or "Chicago style burgers" the way they do for other foods.

The history of the hamburger (and its name) are described in Wikipedia, here.

Edited by nsxtasy (log)
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terapinchef

terapinchef

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Posted

Not being from Chicago, I'm not sure that I can comment with any kind of accuracy on this subject, but I'm pretty sure that I know the reason that there is no signature hamburger in Chicago despite being the home of the slaughterhouses of old. The reason is that they were too busy perfecting a bovine sandwich of a different kind, the legendary ITALIAN BEEF! *cue the ray of sunshine falling from the heavens on a dripping delicious pile of god-sent goodness*

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ronnie_suburban

ronnie_suburban

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Posted
Does any city have a signature burger?

Good point :biggrin:

Not being from Chicago, I'm not sure that I can comment with any kind of accuracy on this subject, but I'm pretty sure that I know the reason that there is no signature hamburger in Chicago despite being the home of the slaughterhouses of old. The reason is that they were too busy perfecting a bovine sandwich of a different kind, the legendary ITALIAN BEEF! *cue the ray of sunshine falling from the heavens on a dripping delicious pile of god-sent goodness*

An even better point! So, can we make it official that the Italian Beef sandwich is Chicago's 'signature' burger? :rolleyes:

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

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Andrew Fenton

Andrew Fenton

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Posted
Does any city have a signature burger?

Yes: Connecticut has steamed cheeseburgers. (I don't remember the town in which they originated, and as I recall, there's some dispute there.)

Anyway, I agree with the comments about Italian beef being Chicago's signature sandwich. Now that's a fine sandwich.

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Louisa Chu

Louisa Chu

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Posted

yellow truffle, you have got to get out of the North Side every once in a while. There are other restaurants besides Alinea. :wink:

Check out the dense threads on LTH for Chicago's Southwest Side Big Baby - as well as Northwest Indiana's crispy-edged griddle-fried burgers - plus Milwaukee's butter burgers.

Movable Feast
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ronnie_suburban

ronnie_suburban

Posted
Posted
yellow truffle, you have got to get out of the North Side every once in a while. There are other restaurants besides Alinea.  :wink:

Check out the dense threads on LTH for Chicago's Southwest Side Big Baby - as well as Northwest Indiana's crispy-edged griddle-fried burgers - plus Milwaukee's butter burgers.

I love the Big Baby and Rene G's stellar missive (at LTH) about them but, as Louisa said, they're pretty much a southwest-side thing.

And yes y t, there are other places to eat in Chicago besides Alinea :wink::biggrin:

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

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germuska

germuska

Posted
Posted (edited)
Does any city have a signature burger?

Over on LTH, Rene G posits a style characteristic of Northwest Indiana Some nice photos too!

The burger typifies what I think of as NWI-style: large, thin, griddle-cooked, with crispy edges.

Steamed Cheeseburgers seem pretty local to Connecticut. Here's a Roadfood discussion thread on it.

Green Chile cheeseburgers are characteristic of New Mexico. Fritas are characteristic of heavily Cuban parts of Florida.

See George Motz's Hamburger America film and John Edge's Hamburgers and Fries book for more.

Took to long to write this -- lots of people covered this turf. But anyway, hopefully the links are good for something.

Edited by germuska (log)
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yellow truffle

yellow truffle

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
Does any city have a signature burger?

Carl's Jr. has announced the Philly Cheesesteak Burger

Carl's Jr. has announced the Philly Cheesesteak Burger, which features thinly sliced steak on top of a charbroiled burger patty, finished off with peppers, onions, Swiss and American cheeses, and mayonnaise on a seeded bun.

Now I find this interesting. Big company, with a big advertising budget, markets a new product and brands it to a city (or region) that closely shares its fare. Another model is to take a simple (usually) ethnic dish, deconstruct it, and reconstruct it using local ingredients, then brand it. Sushi restaurants and the California Pizza Kitchen come to mind.

Check out the dense threads on LTH for Chicago's Southwest Side Big Baby - as well as Northwest Indiana's crispy-edged griddle-fried burgers - plus Milwaukee's butter burgers.

Ohh smack. Someone decided to do some research and found a gem. Yeah I know about Solly's Grille and Mazos, but not the big baby. Thanx for the heads up.

The thing that I like about those two restaurants is that their burgers deviate from the recipe of a normal burger, that it actually stands out. Whereas the concept of the big baby burger, IMHO, is just a size increase. If we use the model above, then there is nothing Chicago about the burger, unless Chicago is still known as the "Monsters of the Midway." Go Bears!

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yellow truffle

yellow truffle

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yellow truffle, you have got to get out of the North Side every once in a while. There are other restaurants besides Alinea.
And yes y t, there are other places to eat in Chicago besides Alinea :wink::biggrin:

Come on now. :angry:

Let's keep not get off topic here. :biggrin:

Which brings up an interesting question. If Chicago-land chef _____, in restaurant _____ were to create a hamburger, what would it be? Discuss...

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nsxtasy

nsxtasy

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Posted
Carl's Jr. has announced the Philly Cheesesteak Burger

.

.

.

Now I find this interesting. Big company, with a big advertising budget, markets a new product and brands it to a city (or region) that closely shares its fare.

Well, in all fairness, I interpret this not as a "Philly burger" but rather, a "burger that mimics a Philly cheesesteak". IOW, it's the cheesesteak that's associated with Philadelphia, not the burger. And yes, Philadelphia is already associated with that sandwich.

Which brings up an interesting question. If Chicago-land chef _____, in restaurant _____ were to create a hamburger, what would it be? Discuss...

You mean, like...

Shawn McClain, in Green Zebra, offers the "UNcheeseburger", consisting of a patty of ground portobello mushroom with bleu cheese, sprouts, parsnips, mango ketchup and baby frisee, on a bun of Coconut Inside Out Roll.

Gibson's Steakhouse offers the "big porterhouse burger", consisting of a 72-ounce burger of chopped porterhouse steak on an entire loaf of bread.

Grant Achatz, of Alinea, offers the "Alineaburger" on his tasting menu, consisting of a white truffle burger so small it fits on a teaspoon, for a $75 surcharge on top of the $195 regular price of the tasting menu.

You mean, like that? :biggrin:

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Andrew Fenton

Andrew Fenton

Posted
Posted (edited)
Carl's Jr. has announced the Philly Cheesesteak Burger

Well, in all fairness, I interpret this not as a "Philly burger" but rather, a "burger that mimics a Philly cheesesteak". IOW, it's the cheesesteak that's associated with Philadelphia, not the burger. And yes, Philadelphia is already associated with that sandwich.

Yes, and I note that there isn't a Carl's Jr. located within a thousand miles or so of Philadelphia. I'd like to think that if there were, a "Philly Cheesesteak Burger" would be laughed out of town. (Though I'm afraid that I'd probably be wrong.)

Edited by Andrew Fenton (log)
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