Adventures in Stunt Eating: Greenville Tavern's 'GT Club'

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 2, 2013 5:00PM

Photo credit: Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist

There are monster dishes and menu items that make you scream “Holy shitballs!” when they reach the table. This is the latter, damas y caballeros.

The former Darkroom space in Ukrainian Village has been spruced up and transformed into Greenville Tavern, complete with wide screen televisions so you don’t miss a minute of, say, Friday night’s Blackhawks game, new floors, a renovated stage and a variety of music acts every night.

But the most important change between Darkroom and Greenville Tavern is the kitchen. Rarely put to use when the space was Darkroom, it’s now turning out a litany of pub grub in the space’s current iteration. A good thing, for certain, but it would be better if many of the menu items were executed better. Many of the dishes are oversalted or — in the case of their pork chili — drowned in a tomato sauce base, overseasoned with cayenne pepper and sent along its merry way.

Then there’s this Mother Hubbard of a dish. The four-stack GT Club reaches for the sky with shaved pork loin, bacon, smoked prime rib, Gruyere and cheddar cheeses, avocado, a fried egg and some basic sandwich vegetables for a semblance of balance. Served with a side of herb fries (again, oversalted), we only managed to finish one-quarter of this beast &mdash another case of our eyes getting ahead of our appetite.

Oh, well. We should be able to finish this by lunchtime Tuesday.

Greenville Tavern is located at 2210 W. Chicago Avenue.