Leavitt Street Tavern

Similar to starting a new thread for The Stopalong last summer, I was surprised today to not find an existing thread for Leavitt Street Inn and Tavern in north Bucktown. While I can't speak for the Inn part above, the Tavern is another excellent addition to the best burgers in Chicago conversation. Also similar to a Stopalong option, the burger's roots can be found in the Au Cheval single (two smashed patties).

Monday's special is $13 for burger and fries, or $20 for burger, beer, and whiskey. Good selection on tap.

I hear the fried chicken sandwich is also very good, but have not yet tried that.

We are now within a 5-10 min walk of 3 excellent smash burger options (with RHR being the 3rd).

2345 N Leavitt St
Chicago, IL 60647

Recently had the burger at Leavitt st inn, and thought it was fantastic! Other places try and fail to execute tavern style, but thought this was a perfect rendition. And the staff was incredibly friendly, which always helps

my first visit (but not my last), to leavitt street tavern was a smash hit. we went looking for a good smashburger and i was a little skeptical since here they serve a burger weighing a little over a 1/3# (according to the cook), rather than 2 singles. but it really blew me away. the edges were lacy, and stuck way, way outside the bun. so crisp i just broke them off and munched on them. the 3 of us also shared an appetizer of toasted sourdough bread served with ricotta/honey/fennel pollen that was so good i can see eating an entire order for my meal....except then i wouldnt get to enjoy a smashburger....what a dilemma! my friends' fries were good also.
leavitt street dead ends here just below the expressway. there's a large outdoor patio under a huge tent. we ate inside so i can't speak to the noise level outside, but i'd put up with it for this great food. my only minor complaint is they had only 1 hard cider, so no choice there. but i was given a pint glass filled to the brim with the one cider they had and i enjoyed it, and couldnt finish it. a very happy meal was had by us all....

justjoan wrote:my only minor complaint is they had only 1 hard cider, so no choice there. but i was given a pint glass filled to the brim with the one cider they had and i enjoyed it, and couldnt finish it. a very happy meal was had by us all....

Every time that situation comes up the one cider is Angry Fanta *cough* Orchard. Can't stand that stuff.

JoelF wrote:

justjoan wrote:my only minor complaint is they had only 1 hard cider, so no choice there. but i was given a pint glass filled to the brim with the one cider they had and i enjoyed it, and couldnt finish it. a very happy meal was had by us all....

Every time that situation comes up the one cider is Angry Fanta *cough* Orchard. Can't stand that stuff.

hey joel- i can't remember what the cider was, but i'm 90% sure it wasnt angry orchard... the LST website shows virtue cider and eris cider as the rotating sources of cider. hard cider lovers do have to make do with many fewer options than beer drinkers. i'd love to see that change.

Due to regular hankerings for Red Hot Ranch, I hadn’t been to LST in about a year before this evening. There were about 10 people waiting outside when I arrived, but pleased to see they were waiting for tables and I was able to get a bar spot immediately. I forgot how good that burger is. Need to make sure I make it back there more frequently.

A visit last night was a bit of a mess. It seemed they were disorganized and in the weeds and I'm not sure how representative an experience this was (presumably not based on other reports in this thread?)

We were quoted a 30-45 minute wait and told we could sit on some chairs a bit away from the entrance. We did so and saw a little QR doohicky sitting on a table. After scanning it, it had someone's bar tab on it. The QR thing said "Pay My Bill" so I presumed it was tab specific. I headed inside to try to order drinks at the bar only to be told that someone would come and take our order. Apparently if I clicked beyond the open tab, I would have found a menu. Presumably I could have ordered via my phone, but someone did come to take our order. So that felt more confusing than it needed to be.

The hostess came to let us know that bar seats had opened up. We agreed to take them and then I asked about whether our tab would transfer (mentioning the open tab that came up on the app). The hostess said they would take care of it. When we sat down, the bartender asked if we had gotten drinks outside. We said we had and he asked if we had a tab (so apparently I could have ordered at the bar after all?). I said the hostess said she would transfer our tab and he asked us where we were sitting outside. I was puzzled by this and tried to indicate the area. Apparently they refer to that seating area as "the field". Eventually, he was able to find our drinks by what we ordered and transferred it over. Not the smoothest process.

We put in an order for a couple of appetizers and were then told a table opened up outside if we wanted it. We said yes. I made sure to mention about all the tab transferring and that we had ordered some food and was told that wouldn't be a problem.

Outside, most of the tables were pretty full. It seemed that folks were just drinking. We had been waiting a while for our appetizers when my dining companion overhead a conversation with a nearby table and the server asking if their order had been forgotten (apparently they had ordered over an hour previously). I then realized that all the foodless people outside were waiting for food and the kitchen must be seriously swamped.

Shortly after this, our appetizers came out and we were ready to order a couple of sandwiches only to be told it would be another hour for us to get food. It almost 8:30 at this point so we elected to close out and head over to Chef's Special for some more food.

Before leaving, I did ask the server what was going on. At first she seemed to indicate that that night seemed out of the ordinary and things were really slammed. I asked if they weren't used to that volume of food orders (like if people usually just come to drink) and then she said, confusingly, no that they are just really busy and they have been really busy lately. We sat out there for a long stretch of time where it seemed like almost no table had food. Just not sure what to make of the whole thing.

The food we did have - ricotta with toast points and fries with dipping sauces - was really good. The smash burgers looked really good. But it was clear they weren't operating well and based on my observations and the answers I got, it's hard to get the sense that they will be fixing it anytime soon.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps others will report this really was an outlier experience. Seems like a cozy spot and the food was tasty. I just don't know how motivated I am to roll the dice here again.

There was an article in Chicago magazine recently where they profiled a photographer who's been eating a bunch of burgers. And he listed Leavitt St as his favorite in a top 10 list. I'm assuming that's led to the influx of business.

https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-maga ... ger-quest/

Interesting. Was unaware of the article. I'll be interested to hear if others try to go and service goes better. I'll probably try to let things die down a bit, though, before I return.

I headed back with the same friend from last year to see if we could have a better experience this time. Happy to say that we did.

First off, the kitchen issues are pretty much unchanged, but they were much better at communicating to people upfront about it. Both the host and our server made it very clear that no food would be coming out for at least an hour before we placed our order. Luckily, we already kind of knew what we were in for so we were prepared. But this level of informing customers (which I think is pretty basic) wasn't happening last year. Glad they're on it now.

We were told that appetizers would also take a bit (I can't remember if they said 30 or 45 minutes). I think it was probably the latter. The wait was noticeable, though and we were worried that they might deliver all the food at once. That didn't happen (thankfully). We got a Wisconsin wedge salad with ranch and bacon which was tasty along with the burrata, toast points, and fennel pollen that was also very good.

I'd say the wait for our mains was over what was quotes (so more than an hour), but by that time we'd gotten the apps which were pretty substantial, so I wasn't complaining. We both got smashburgers and I got fries and the optional aioli. The burgers were pretty glorious. A great rendition. Fries were also very good and I enjoyed the aioli.

As we were leaving, I just asked a simple question about what time the kitchen closed (since it seemed like they were thinning out). The server said that it kind of changed every night, but more often than not they stopped taking orders around 8:30 since orders take so long. They stop seating people accordingly if they want food.

She went on to say that when they got buy-in from the neighborhood to open the tavern back up, the focus was supposed to be cocktails. They never intended to serving food at the volume they do. But someone did a TikTok on the burger and they got very popular for it. It's interesting to me that they haven't really attempted to address the issue with more space, more staff, or both. But maybe there are reasons that wouldn't work.

Anyway, this follow-up post is to remind you that this place is very good, but don't expect a speedy visit. Luckily, the restaurant seems to actually recognize that the average customer might not know how they operate so they do a much better job trying to let you know.

I do plan to return. The food is worth it. But now you know what you can expect when you arrive.