G Wiv wrote:LTH,
Enjoy,
Gary (who has the feeling he just made c8w's day
)
Uncle John's BBQ
337 E 69th Street
Chicago, IL 60619
773-892-1233
Mon - Thurs 11am - 11pm
Fri - Sat 11am - 1am
Indeed you did
Made it down there over the weekend, with
great anticipation.
The menu, I think, is basically exactly what BA's used to be when Mack
was in charge. The prices look to be exactly the same too - I think
even the actual paper menu might be identical
And the Chicago
Tribune article about BA's (with Mack's picture) is posted up - with
the BA's references blacked out
Got my usual tip-link combo - almost exactly the same as BA's, I
think 50 cents more (BA's was always 9.52, I think this was
10.02 IIRC). Same stuff in the combo - tips, 2 links, fries, 2 pieces
of white bread, small container of slaw.
Stopped in Hyde Park to consume it. Bit into my first tip, and was
very disappointed - nicely smoky, but dried out, almost completely
dry (with sauce on the side, not used to that point). But there
was much better to come - as Cathy2 mentioned ni a different thread
in re a different BBQ joint, the tips seemed to have come from
2 different cuts. A couple of the pieces were dry and hard. But
the rest were just excellent - smoky, moist, perfectly cooked,
didnt even need dunking in the side-sauce as they were plenty
moist enough without it. Note, I went there at a bit after 5pm on
a Saturday - not exactly prime-time in terms of business, that
would probably be a few hours later, I was there between lunch
and dinner (and was one of only 2 customers there, the entire
time I was inside). Yet almost all the tips were beautifully cooked,
moist and flavourful. And frankly the amount of food for the price
is so reasonable, the couple of dried out pieces were almost
irrelevant - for 10 bucks in the tip-link combo you get about
twice as much meat as you get for the 10-buck tip-link combo
at Honey One, IMHO.
And the links were awesome - just like the old BA's links, and
excellently cooked (even at 5pm), not nearly like BA's have been
lately (the last time I went to BA's off-peak time, I saw links
sitting above the fries-fryer - just sitting in that thing, above
the oil, basically to keep warm I suppose. When I asked for
"well done pieces", they offered to dunk them in the fryer
for me - no other well-done pieces would be available for
a couple of hours, they said). Iam thrilled to have links of
old-time-BA-quality back in the city again - BA's were still good,
but nothing has approached the brilliance of the BA's links
of old in months. This one, even on first try at non-peak
time, already did!
Talked to Mack a bit (told him I used to come to BA's in the old
days, and their lnks werent the same anymore - and he said
he remembered me! That was very cool. Gods do not
Answer Leters, as Updike so astutely noted, but it was
flattering to know they sometimes remember faces
Anyway. Mack seemed to indicate that he'd be open next
Sunday I think - basically might be open slightly different
hours on Memorial Day weekend - so if anyone wants
to check it out, call before going in this upcoming weekend.
And anyone who likes 'cue *should* check it out, at the
earliest opportunity
Ive been a loyal BA's guy for
a couple of years or more now, but I think Ive found a
new BBQ home. The *only* advantage BA's has on
this place, after only 1 visit, is their little parking lot - you have
to park on the street for Uncle John's. That was easy at 5pm
on a Saturday, but may not be quite as easy at busier times,
I suspect. But thats really a pretty minor quibble given the
quality of the 'cue
I plan on making several more trips
to this place over the summer - and am mucho grateful
to Gary and Pigmon for finding out about it and letting us
know so promptly (Mack said he'd been open about a
couple of months - but without LTH I can guarantee Id
never have found out about it, ever, I cant remember when
I was last near the Calumet intersection of 69th).
c8w
P.S. Now that BAs old-timey links have made a comeback, only
one more thing remains for the Snail to be on the Wing and
the Lark on the Thorn (or rather the other way around).
I need a return of Tacos del Pacifico's fish and shrimp
and scallop tacos. If anyone can find out if or when
thats likely to happen... can one even dare to dream
of two strokes of luck of that magnitude in one summer?