Results tagged “diners”

          

— Automatic Burger blog

      

A wave of nostalgia takes over us whenever we find ourselves on the Northwest side of the city. Thirty years ago, the Belmont-Central retail area in the Cragin neighborhood was a bustling, thriving commercial area. Although it's a shadow of what it once was, to this day folks driving to shop in the area can park for free in the parking garage located just south of Belmont on Central Avenue.

            

If you're looking for a good Philly cheese steak, you only go to Philly's Best. With four locations — three in the city, including our new favorite in Greektown — it isn't hard to find one. In Bridgeport, Ramova Grill is the little diner that can, not to mention home to the best chili in the city (we will broker no arguments to the contrary).

Following up this morning's Diner Grill post, this LTHForum thread confirms that it was indeed a fire that shut the place down for now.

A Chicagoist reader sent us a tip that Diner Grill (1635 W. Irving Park Rd., 773-248-2030) appeared closed for business. We've placed at least three phone calls to the venerable matchbox-shaped diner and was welcomed with a constantly ring tone.

As sandwiches go, the hot open face variety is a bastard. Sure, you'll find two slices of bread and some meat on the plate. You'll also find some gravy, mashed potatoes and maybe some cranberry or applesauce as a side. Is it a sandwich? Is it a meal? It's like culottes: are they shorts, or is it a skirt?

Sometimes it pays to look up and have a camera on you. We ate breakfast yesterday at this greasy spoons called MiLady Soul Food on 55th and Halsted (short review: do avoid unless you're just looking for some grease to fight back the hair of the dog). On the way out we noticed the marquee. Even today, MiLady is still known to many locals as Le Meck's. Le Meck's, back in the day, was a steakhouse that one person said had "lots of Edwardianesque () atmosphere, high prices and crummy food." Reminds us of some of the steakhouses that used to populate the Loop around Gallery 37.

The tuna melt is to a menu like a sweater vest is to a wardrobe. One of the most versatile fashion staples, a vest can be dressed up, or dressed down. The tuna melt comes in as many varieties as there are restaurants that serve it up. We’ve found some restaurants add spices for zing, while some keep it simple. Others serve it open-faced for more formal fork-and-knife consumption, while others piece it together for casual, two-fisted power chowing.

Stella's on Broadway in Lakeview is packed to the gills for brunch every weekend. If you ask us, however, the most interesting times to eat here are Monday through Friday nights just after 5 o'clock. You'll encounter the early dinner crowd: people who just don't have the patience or inclination to wait until 7. One of the things they like to eat the most is the egg salad sandwich.

The Reader's Guide to Late Night Dining is now online, and there's the expected eclectic mix of diners, hot dog stands, taco joints, upscale pub grub, and places where only the fearless dare enter. Even better is that the range of offerings encompasses a wide stretch of the city and connecting suburbs (big love for Gene & Jude's Red Hots in River Grove!). If you're at the stage in life where "I'll sleep when...