Where To Eat Before And After A White Sox Game
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 30, 2013 6:00PM
The one consistent disparity among Our Town’s baseball teams is the ballpark each calls home. Wrigley Field, old as it is, is an amazing place to watch a baseball game and was even listed recently on TripAdvisor.com’s Top 10 Major League ballparks, despite all the chewing gum and bailing wire used to keep it from crumbling. The “Wrigley experience” extends past the Friendly Confines to its outlying nightlife, which these days often resembles a Fraternity Row with added train service on game days.
By contrast, the nightlife options around U.S. Cellular Field are like finding oases in a desert. The parking area surrounding the park serves as an asphalt moat and people attending a White Sox game looking for a bite to eat have to walk a few blocks to find something. It’s good exercise to work up an appetite but not as appealing as stepping out of Wrigley Field and being overwhelmed by the dining and drinking options.
Eight years ago (when I was still rocking Cubbie Blue on my head) I wrote about the best dining and drinking options in Bridgeport for people coming to 35th and Shields for a ballgame. The hat has long since been replaced and, in recent years, the dining and drinking options have changed drastically, although you still have to hike to get to them. So let’s offer a new list of places to hit for Opening Day and beyond.
I’ll admit: I miss Yum Yum Donuts outside Wrigley Field. They made a serviceable Chicago-style hot dog that was better than any offering you could find inside the Friendly Confines. But 35th Street Red Hots, located a block away from The Cell, should be on your immediate to-visit list. Their hot dogs, made with Vienna Beef franks, have that satisfying and pleasant snap on each bite, and the home cut fries are seasoned and salted so well ketchup isn’t required. Have a couple before fumbling for your tickets.
35th Street Red Hots is located at 500 W. 35th Street.
The yearslong drama surrounding the former Jimbo’s Tavern has become a fleeting memory now that Billy Guide showed what a real pub near a ballpark should look like with Cork & Kerry At The Park. Guide and his partners completely rehabbed the interior to give it the feel of his original Beverly pub, with some concessions to the local clientele. The food menu here is baseball-themed, divided into starters, home team (burgers), and “visitors” dishes inspired by the ballclub visiting the South Side at a given time. The burgers at Cork & Kerry are pretty damn good, but you can fill yourself up on appetizers like meatball sliders, fried Cajun pickles, and Irish egg rolls. The staff and regulars are much more hospitable to visitors than those who called Jimbo’s home for years, as well.
Cork & Kerry at the Park is located at 3259 S. Princeton.
If Cork & Kerry is packed, you can usually find a seat at Rocky’s a few blocks north. Their burgers are largely unchanged from when I first reviewed the place in 2009 but what you should be noshing on here are the pasta dishes and other entrees. Rocky’s does them right.
Rocky’s, 234 W. 31st Street.
Bridgeport is blessed to have two of the best coffeehouses in Chicago, neither of them a Starbucks. I’ve written enough over the years about the food and drink offerings at Bridgeport Coffee House and the newer Jackalope Coffee & Tea that you should just go. Same goes for Nana Organic.
Bridgeport Coffee House is located at 3101 S. Morgan. Jackalope Coffee & Tea House is located at 755 W. 32nd Street. Nana Organic is located at 3259 S. Halsted.
Photo credit: Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist
People from all over Chicago flock down to Bridgeport to eat at Pleasant House Bakery and with good reason. Art and Chelsea Jackson have one of the best restaurants in Chicago, hands down. The menu is small but expertly turned out and the vibe at Pleasant House is always laid back.
Pleasant House Bakery is located at 964 W. 31st Street.
If you don’t want to eat inside Pleasant House, order it to go and have it delivered to Maria’s Packaged Goods and Community Bar, which is the tavern equivalent to Pleasant House. The beer menu is so deep you’ll need a score of visits to even make a dent in it and the cocktails hold their own against other, deeper menus across town.
Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar is located at 960 W. 31st Street.
Zaytune Mediterranean Grill stands out like a shining beacon for fans of fast, simple Middle Eastern food in Bridgeport because it’s the only restaurant of its kind in the neighborhood and Daniel Sarkiss and his staff, like Pleasant House, focus on a small menu they expertly prepare on a daily basis. The meats for Zaytune’s shawarmas are beautifully marinated and grilled and the lavash here is homemade and the best in the city. For the vegetarians, the falafel is a standout.
Zaytune Mediterranean Grill is located at 3129 S. Morgan Street
Bernice’s Tavern has been able to maintain its secret bar, door buzzer vibe even as more people flock there from Maria’s, Mitchell’s Tap and other bars. The decorations at Bernice’s wouldn’t be out of place in your drunken uncle’s basement bar and neither would the bottled beer coolers, stocked with simple cheap swill, Lithuanian and Polish bombers and inspired nods to craft beer geeks. Ask for the jukebox listings as Bernice’s has one of the best in the city.
Bernice’s Tavern is located at 3238 S. Halsted Street.