One Great Dish: Duckfat Popcorn at Lush Wine & Spirits

By Caitlin Klein in Food on Jun 15, 2011 6:40PM

All around Chicago, simple pleasures are waiting to be discovered. But bar popcorn? How plebian, you may think. Fine, maybe bar popcorn isn't the pinnacle of culinary achievement. This drinking staple snack comes in all varieties, both good and bad. Sometimes it's stale, sometimes it's too salty, and sometimes it's self-serve and you see someone fail to wash their hands in the bathroom so you just avoid it altogether. But sometimes it's great, and hot, and it adds to your bar-going experience. We recently decided to try the popcorn at West Town's Lush Wine & Spirits, and it falls into the “spectacular bar snack” camp.

Lush pops their popcorn in duckfat. Quack. Not only that, they pop it for you. Yes, you! Each bowl is popped individually right in front of you. Even though bar popcorn is traditionally free, Lush charges $3. We thought it was worth the price for three reasons. One, popping in duckfat adds to the flavor of the popcorn and is much more appetizing than that amber liquid stuff you sometimes see bars pouring into their popcorn makers. We have no idea what that stuff is. Two, Lush’s duckfat popcorn comes in a large, overflowing bowl, enough for 3 or 4 people to share. Three, the individual nature of each bowl means you don’t have to worry about the potentially disgusting germs from a communal popcorn popper. During a wine tasting or over beers with buddies, you would be wise to sample this small and simple Chicago pleasure.