A Burger on Every Corner

Chicago is not lacking for burger joints. Beforehand we had chosen a few recommended by Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, but soon realized that each burger joint we encountered had something special to offer. After all, burger joints aren't just about burgers. They're about the kind of meat used, the fixings, the French fries, and my personal favorite, the milkshakes.

Every other street we went down had a different burger place...the key word there is different! There wasn't one burger chain infecting the entire city. Instead every which way we turned we had a wide selection of enticing burger choices. If we hadn't planned our meals beforehand (remember, we are over planners here!) we wouldn't have suffered for lack of burgers or for lack of quality.

In fact, our first burger stop, The Butcher and the Burger ended up being a not planned lunch. The original lunch plan was Kuma's Corner (more on that in a minute). But after a late start, a morning spent shopping Armitage Avenue  and eating pastries we found ourselves not thinking of lunch until 1:30 pm. It would have taken us at least 30 minutes to get to Kuma's so we decided to try something right where we were.

Why hello, Butcher and the Burger!

First at all, how adorable is that name?

I'll tell you. Stinkin' adorable.

I went with a classic grass-fed beef burger, with the Chicago steakhouse spice rub, a split-top butter egg bun, and all the American style fixings. Hubby mixed it up a little by adding bacon and egg.

The burger had the perfect char to the outside, yet magically maintained the light pink center I love. While the burger was packed with flavor and culinary mastery, it was the bun that was the showstopper. The bun was soft, sweet, and what I want to eat burgers on for now and forever.

Most days, by the time we decided to eat lunch my hunger demon was already on the rise, causing me to only be able to respond to questions in grunts and making my vision a swirl of grays and reds. Thus was the case when we entered Big & Little's. Relieved is a poor choice of word to explain how I felt when I realized that Big & Little's wasn't a proper sit down restaurant, and that they had items ranging from $2.65 tacos to $5.95 burgers and burritos. For a little more they also had po boys for $6.95. With a menu of this sort, and the appetite building within me, I was ready to order one of everything.

This is the way to do food, I'm convinced. Small portions with bold flavors--it's the only way I want to eat anymore!

On our last day in Chicago, we wanted to squeeze in one more burger joint. We thought Kuma's Corner would be the perfect choice. A place with burgers named after rock and roll groups had to be legendary, right?

The second we walked through the doors, the answer glared in our faces. Head banger music was blasting, no, correction, it was screeching at a decimal level that would've prevented any discussion from occurring during our meal. The place smelled like burnt burgers, not charred--burnt. In my world, that isn't a good thing. Still we went up to the hostess and asked to be seated. When we were quoted a 45 minute wait, we paused to catch our surprise and then turned out the door.

Thank goodness we did. Because if we hadn't we never would have experienced the burger joint that is DMK Burger.

We wanted to go to DMK on our first day in Chicago but because of just getting our bearings of the lay of the land, we weren't able to enjoy their burgers on that particular day.

We started with drinks and I don’t think I landed from the high the food gave me until somewhere in the air between Chicago and Trenton. Joel ordered a Pineapple Basil Soda, Lance ordered a Vanilla Ginger Soda, and I ordered a Peanut Butter Shake which I forced Mallory to share with me.

I don’t ordinarily drink soda, but these are the kinds of sodas I can get behind. The flavors matched to their names perfectly and the blend of sweetness wasn't overpowering at all.

I was a little too excited about my milkshake to give the boys’ drinks anymore attention after my first sip. Ordinarily I don’t order peanut butter milkshakes because Hubby strongly dislikes peanut butter.

But today, I was so, so glad I went with my gut. DMK’s peanut butter milkshake is heaven. The flavor of peanut butter is there, but it isn't thrusting itself obnoxiously in your face. It blends beautifully with the ice creams used. I could have downed the entire thing before our burgers arrived, but I’m so glad Mallory and Joel helped.

Jealousy overcame me, and I ordered a burger topped with an egg…and I was so glad I did. But even better than my over easy burger were the French fries. We ordered Wisconsin Cheddar and Scallion fries and Parmesan and Truffle Cream fries. We go big, and then we go home here! My favorite was the Parmesan and Truffle Cream fries. The Truffle Cream was a fun dipping sauce alternative to the standard ketchup.

While the bakeries of Chicago were my hands down favorite part of the trip, the burger joints of Chicago are something I’m going to long for on nights when I’m craving a burger made to perfection. We don’t have non-chain burger joints on every corner in New Jersey, and that simply will not do.