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Hi!
Does anyone have a recommendation on where in Chicagoland (in the city would be best, north or northwest side would be ideal) to get fried dill pickles?

I am interested in all recommendations, but would be thrilled to be able find thinly sliced, lightly battered dill "chips".

Thanks in advance!

They had them on special at the Handlebar last week. I heard that they will be changing the menu by the end of the month (thank god), so hopefully they will be back to stay.

Handlebar
2311 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 384-9546

UberBurger has them in Evanston

Uberburger
618 Church St.
Evanston IL


might be 616 or 616- 1/2" but it's in between The Celtic Knot and La Petit Amelia across the street from the Evanston Public Library.

Had some at the Violet Hour, though they were sliced thick rather than thin. They were delicious.

The Violet Hour
1520 North Damen Avenue
Chicago, IL
773-770-0184

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LTHForum Kansas City

Are the fried pickles at the Violet Hour dill? I heard they were sweet?

Thank you for the responses!

The fried pickles at Violet Hour are sweet "bread and butter" pickles. (And very good, too, I might add.)

The fried dill pickles at the Paramount Room are great, but they're spears rather than chips. They come with a nice garlicky dipping sauce.

The Paramount Room
415 N. Milwaukee Ave.
312-829-6300
www.paramountroom.com

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Anthony Bourdain on Barack Obama: "He's from Chicago, so he knows what good food is."

Aaron,

My thought exactly, Violet Hours fried pickles are tasty, but cut too thick. I also liked the sharp flavored deviled eggs with shards of candied bacon.

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

I haven't tried them yet, but did notice fried pickles on the menu at The Gage.
24 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 372-4243

Misuse of pickles = jail time.


http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14455571/detail.html

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

had them last night at violet hour. made me wish they were dill pickles and not bread and butter pickles.

note to bartenders around the world. no matter how many times they tell you they regularly drink absinthe, it is a very very small population of 50 year old women who drink absinthe in any quantity that doesn't result in immediate crazy drunkenness.

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is making all his reservations under the name Steve Plotnicki from now on.

It'll cost me my LTH membership but...

Hooters has them - and I like 'em.

Are we still talking pickles, Dave?

No LTH post (at least in my memory) has ever effectively addressed the dining options at Hooter's. Perhaps you should!

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

We had, and adored, deep fried dills at Memphis Championship Barbecue in Vegas. Beth especially.

I think I might be able to coax a Hooters visit out of her!

It's such a perfect bar snack, so easy to prepare, and so unbelievably delicious, I don't know why more places don't have it on the menu.

Petition your local tavern!

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Ed Fisher
my chicago food photos

RIP LTH.

Probably because nobody pays any attention to the food.

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What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?

Not Chicagoland proper, but "Chicago's northernmost suburb," Milwaukee's Palomino B&G.





Palomino
2491 S. Superior St., Milwaukee, 53207
414-747-7007

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Tweetyspacing @karlklockars.
Writing about craft beer at GuysDrinkingBeer.com
"You don't realize it, but we're at dinner right now." ~Ebert

I know places where that remark would get you a beating


And back to pickles, I had Uberburgers's version last night; they are crinkle cut dill pickle slices and pretty tasty as long as they are fresh and hot - this is a dish that does not suffer time or humidity gladly.

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I used to think the brain was the most important part of the body. Then I realized who was telling me that.

Paramount room has Beer Battered Pickle Spears with Buttermilk garlic dipping sauce. Haven't tried them yet. Have had the fried pickles at Hooters - they were quite good.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! They all sound great, but it seems that the quest for thinly sliced fried dill chips will continue. Maybe I should just invest in a Fry Daddy. In the meantime I will "get on board" with the fried spears.

Just wanted to summarize:
--Uberburger in Evanston: crinkle cut dills
--Paramount Room, 415 N. Milwaukee Ave--spears with garlic dipping sauce
--Violet Hour, 1520 N. Damen--sweet, thickly cut chips
--The Gage, 24 S. Michigan Ave--?? not sure of the cut
--Hooters--?? not sure of the cut (and I'm afraid to look up the menu for Hooters from my work computer!)
--Handlebar, 2311 W. North Ave--has them on special occasionally--not sure of the cut

Milwaukee: Palomino B&G
Vegas: Memphis Championship BBQ

Thanks again!

They were a 'special' when I had them, but I am sure they can make them anytime. The pickles were the same you would have on a sandwich.

They've got them at the Maple Tree Inn down in Blue Island, too. Spear-style, not chips.

Hooters pickles are dill chips. Lightly breaded and come with a dipping sauce that has a hint of spice to it. This was the first and only place I've ever had fried pickles so I don't have anything to compare. I like 'em.

Maybe I'll do the DaveG's guide to Hooters wings. My wife and I go there more often than I care to admit so we have it down. They aren't my favorite wings - but they work out.

I didn't know there was anything but food there.

Sometime I will try to boil my personal Hooters history into one little post. For now, suffice to say that I grew up in very close proximity to the "second" Hooters (really, the original in Clearwater was a shack; the empire launched from the big Tampa mothership), attended the same prestigious high school as the original "Hooter's Girl," Lynne Austin, and was recognized by members of the Hooter's start-up staff way back in about '93 when the downtown Chicago branch opened.

At one time, a homesick Floridian could step into most Hooters and get a decent fried grouper sandwich and cheap gulf oysters. That didn't last long. It's been years since I visited a Hooter's, but I always thought the wings were pretty good. If nothing else, Hooter's redefined or misdefined "Buffalo wings" for much of the US, since the breaded deep-fried version (more Harold's than Anchor Bar) has won out. Interestingly, Hooters was started, I believe, by some Chicago snowbirds. Of course, like Phoenix, Tampa is lousy with Chicagoans. I think there are many reasonable connections (Cubs-Spring Training/ Bears-Old NFC Central, eg). Another minor but favorable point, Hooters always breaded the deep fried stuff on the menu in small batches, to order. Not sure if that remains true, but it's a real plus considering most wing spots crack open the big bag of Sysco pre-breaded-and-cooked wings/cheese sticks/jalapeno poppers/whatever.

Disclaimer: this post is damnation by faint praise.

What? Breaded Buffalo wings? The horror! Even Denny's serves them without breading (as far as I remember--it has been ten years or so)! Tell me this isn't true, that breaded has become standard for "Buffalo wings."

It's really, really common. I, too, prefer unbreaded.

The breaded wings are basically KFC+Buffalo sauce.. which isn't bad, just not a buffalo wing.

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Ed Fisher
my chicago food photos

RIP LTH.

Wow. I really had no idea. That's one of my pet peeves, breaded Buffalo wings. I guess I've been very lucky, as most of the places I've been to that serve Buffalo wings as "Buffalo wings" have been good about not breading them. Honestly, I can't even think of the last place I've been to that served breaded wings as "Buffalo wings." Now baked Buffalo wings, another travesty, I've seen a lot of.

Not to take things too far off topic, but the New Yorker website is running from the archives Calvin Trillin's 1980 piece (which I believe has appeared in at least one of his books as well) An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing.

That's great stuff. The African-American breaded and fried wing angle is a nice twist. As I noted above, a Harold's wing doused with "hot" is more like a Hooter's wing than the unbreaded Anchor Bar version. (Could Hooter's Chicago founders have adopted the South Side wing to the sports bar?) The story of parallel development in Buffalo of wings between an Italian-American tavern and an African-American fried chicken place seems to reflect the kind of forment that has been well-documented here in any number of culinary milestones. Lot's of foods can be "invented" in a one-off sort of way, but it seems to take more of a cross-cultural acceptance and development toward the form or ideal of an accepted dish to create something that endures as "authentic."

Mistakenly used "qoute" rather than "edit." Sorry about the surplus reply.

Fried pickles...

Back to your reguarly scheduled off-topic conversation.

You can request your Hooters wings to be done with out breading. The secret is to order - Hot. Naked. Extra Crispy. If you get a new server she might look at you funny - but remind her naked is no breading. This is what we'll order and they are so much better.

I've heard yet never tried - they will do 'Daytona Style' which is no bread and grilled instead of deep fried.