Dunlays Ribs Special: It's Actually Special
By Caitlin Klein in Food on May 4, 2011 6:00PM
Every bar and grill in this town has specials, yes? We've been hitting them up recently, and have discovered that a lot of specials aren't... you know... special. Giving us $5 pints when pints are usually $5 is not a deal, friend. Hark - Logan Square's Dunlays on the Square recently started a special that we can enthusiastically get behind: Thursdays are ½ price ribs. Full and half racks! Like most of the dudes we know in Chicago, we prefer a full rack, but we'll take what we can get (heyoh!). We stopped in at Dunlays to give this new weekly special a try.
The Rib Special: On Thursdays, you can get half and full slabs of ribs for half their normal price (ordinarily $12 and $21, respectively). We trust you to do to the math, but that's a pretty sweet deal. The ribs are the fall-off-the-bone-if-you-look-at-them-wrong variety, and are brushed with Smoke Daddy's sauce - natch, as Dunlays is part of the Smoke Daddy family (D.O.C. Wine Bar, Dunlays on Clark, Frasca Pizzeria and Wine Bar, and The Smoke Daddy). We enjoyed them immensely. Throw that in with Thursday's $4 pints and some knockout sides, and you can bet that we'll be showing our faces at Dunlays more often on Thursday evenings.
The Other Stuff: Also not to be missed at Dunlays on any night is the iron skillet cornbread with maple butter. It actually comes out in an iron skillet - they have to bring it with a hot pad lest you burn your precious little fingers off. It's killer good - moist, buttery, and piping hot. When ordering your sides, skip the fries and try the grilled asparagus; it's also a winner. We can also appreciate a restaurant that gives you something to take home for your pup - Dunlays will sell you an organic smoked pig ear for $2.50. Your dog will love it. If you don't have a dog, just feed it to your roommate. That weirdo eats anything.
The Ambiance: Dunlays got us in the door with their new ribs special, but the good vibes in the place really impressed us. The crowd is not overly hipster, or cool, or old, or young. It's a good mix of couples on dates, buddies drinking at the bar, and local Logan Squares getting their Dunlays fix. Our only gripe is that the ribs special was so popular when we visited that they sold out of full slabs, which kind of frazzled the staff. Moral of the story is, like most things in Chicago, show up early and often.
Dunlays on the Square is located at 3137 W. Logan Boulevard. We'd recommend the Blue line.