After a long move, a wonderful burger @DMKburgerbar

DMK Burger Bar – 2954 N Sheffield Avenue, Chicago, IL

So my fiancee Sara finally moved in last weekend!   An exciting but exhausting day left us in the evening wanting to take a much needed break – from moving, from wedding planning, from kitchen planning, and what better way to take a break than to hit up one of our favorite spots – DMK burger bar.  We got there around 6pm on a Saturday night and luckily was able to snag a table within 15 or 20 minutes.

DMK Burger Bar was the first of many joint projects from restauranteur David Morton and chef Michael Kornick, and while it seems like it was just recently that it opened up, DMK has been a fixture in Lakeview for almost 5 years now.

Fried Pickles and Okra

To start, we got an order of the fried pickles and okra, the pickles extremely sweet and flavorful, Sara took most of the okra, but I snagged a piece – cut in longitundinal slices as opposed to the usual crosswise gives it a different texture.  And who doesn’t love ranch with anything fried?

#4 – Fried Egg, hatched green chile, sonoma jack, Smoked Bacon

For a go-to burger, this is one of my favorites.  While I’m beginning to think that a burger with a fried egg doesn’t really need any cheese on it, the sonoma jack here gets a bit lost.  Not that it’s a bad thing.  The flavorful, well cooked burger mixes perfectly with the fried egg, and the fresh buns soften up as it soaks up the egg yolk.   The green chile adds just the right amount of spice to the stack.  And I think one of the best parts about DMK is that they don’t overpile the ingredients, and they don’t try to do too much (again, a la Kuma’s)  And as tempting as it to upgrade to a double, I held some restraint.

Shrimp burger, ginger, cilantro, sesame ginger slaw

Sara went with the shrimp burger – the special #15.  She loved it so much, I didn’t get much of a taste, but with one bite, I could tell this was a keeper.  Very original, very tasty – her words.

Fries! Sweet potato fries and Amish Blue & Smoked Bacon

For sides, we went with fries over mac and cheese – got an order of sweet potato fries with a subtle lemon tabasco aioli and the fries with amish blue topped with smoked bacon.  Neither was as good as their cheddar and scallion fries or their parmesan truffle, but both were solid.  The sweet potato fries were well cooked, but not as crisp as I would have liked, and the lemon mayo was pretty subtle and didn’t add much.  The blue cheese and bacon fries were heavily topped and the blue cheese doesn’t spread well and makes it a bit difficult to scoop up the ingredients, but it’s a solid dish.

Based on the quality of the DMK Burger Bar, you can see why the DMK empire is rapidly expanding.  Good choices, solid ingredients, good atmosphere.  The beer list is formidable, and the have a decent selections of bourbon for a burger joint.   It’s not the place for massive appetites, if you’re looking for pure size, go somewhere else, but if you want a good, solid, well-sized burger, DMK is a great option.

 

 

 

 

 

A quick word about @Marcburger

Marc Burger – 111 N State Street, 7th Floor  – Chicago, IL

Shopping for wedding bands down in the jewelry district, Sara and I needed a quick bite – I suggested Chick-Fil-A, but given she works down in that area, she turned me down, so we went to one of our go-to loop spots on the 7th floor at Macy’s – a food court with spots by Rick Bayless, Takashi, and the burger joint by Marcus Samuelsson.

Mozzarella Pesto Burger

Mozzarella Pesto Burger

I got the pesto burger – a 6oz patty topped with lettuce, tomato, a salty pesto sauce, and a thick slice of chewy mozzarella.  The burger was cooked to a solid medium, suprisingly juicy, but had underwhelming flavor, the pesto sauce balanced that out and the mozzarella was a perfect fit.  The bun itself was a bit dry and the weak point of the burger.

The fries here are medium to thick cut, well cooked but lacked crisp on the outside.   I went with the rosemary parmesan blend, the rosemary a bit burnt and sparse, but the parmesan was heaped on. Samuelsson’s spicy house ketchup was not spicy at all, just mixed with a bit of mustard.

If you’re up at Macy’s on State or in the Loop looking for a lunch spot (btw, it’s closed on Sundays), Marc Burger isn’t a bad choice, but by no means is it a destination for burgers, and the options at Frontera and Takashi are a bit better, but it all depends on what you’re in the mood for.

 

 

 

Fantastic ground beef + Pretzel roll = Delish @ButcherBurger

The Butcher and the Burger – 1021 W Armitage Ave, Chicago, IL

You can find a burger anywhere – lots of places – fast food joints, bars, gastropubs, chain restaurants, fine dining establishments, and at indie establishments like the Butcher and the Burger.  The variety at where you can get a burger makes it difficult to put them against each other, but despite where you get it from, there’s a few common qualities to a great burger.

Pretzel Roll, House patty with Cajun blend, Swiss, Lettuce, Tomato, and Benton’s Smoked Bacon

 

The first and the most important is the quality of the beef, and that’s where the Butcher and the Burger shines.  Al Sternweiler’s house blend of angus beef has an awesome earthy flavor that doesn’t need much else.  As far as spices go, you have a variety of choices – from a simple salt and pepper blend, to more flavorful blends like curry-coconut honey, to the extreme ghost-pepper blend.   I went with the Cajun blend that added perfect amounts of cayenne to the very flavorful beef.

The second factor in a good burger is the roll, and there’s no better roll that adds to a burger than a pretzel roll (a brioche may come close, but pretzel still wins out IMO).   The pretzel roll here is of perfect thickness with hints of butter.

The third component of a good burger is the supporting cast – the cheese, veggie toppings, and sauce.  Some places (Longman & Eagle comes to mind) keep it bare bones and simple, others (Kuma’s the obvious one) stack on as the ingredients as high as possible.  Many places let you choose your own. I chose here to keep it moderate, adding lettuce, tomato (fairly average), a slice of Swiss (smooth, not too sharp), and Benton’s bacon (thick cut, nice and meaty, you can see sneaking in at the bottom).

And lastly, how all of that comes together can be a bit of an art.  Here, the stack was quite high, which made it tough to take the first bite or two, but the roll squashed down a bit, so it became fairly manageable.  The combo of the swiss and the thick-cut bacon was the perfect complement to the patty.

Shrimp burger

Sara went with the special shrimp burger on the buttered roll.  First time having a shrimp burger, and this worked pretty well.  Topped with avocado, tomato and mixed with the house umami glaze, which had a soy flavor with some black sesame seeds mixed in for some texture.

Fries, truffle mayo

The fries here aren’t quite up my alley.  Hand cut, skin on, in the same vain as Five Guys, and cooked in lard, so there’s a decent amount of oil, but it definitely adds a pretty strong flavor.  The issue was they’re a bit thick and in the end somewhat undercooked.  The truffle in the mayo wasn’t overpowering and worked well.

Beignets!

We ended the meal with beignets and some of their house made frozen custard.  The beignets were good, but not on the level of Cafe DuMonde in NOLA which they model them after.  The custard – raspberry swirl, had more of an ice cream consistency and not overly impressive.

As the name might suggest, the burgers are the highlights here.   I recommend keeping it simple – the quality of the patties and the buns shine, and some of the add-ons can cause the price to sneak up if you’re not careful.  Definitely interested in trying the grass-fed patty next time, and some of the other patties I’m sure are solid too – the turkey, salmon, and bison burgers all sound interesting.

Till next time!