We had a quick dinner at Edzo's before a show at the Park West (man their acoustics are lousy). The Spicy Sconnie is awesome, and currently my #1 burger in Chicagoland: grilled onions, Merkt's cheddar with jalapenos and bacon, kechipotle. As a double, it was a "you're gonna need a bigger napkin" event. The bacon and chipotle smokiness complement each other perfectly.

We split a loaded fries and a salted caramel shake, adding rich upon rich. Not something my GP recommends doing every day, but a wonderful date night meal.

It's awesome to have them up the street. Luckily, I've managed to keep it at once every couple of months.

Walked by the Edzo's Lincoln Park and decided to try it out. I had not yet seen this thread before eating there so I went in with no expectations. I am a big fan of the crispy thin-patty diner burger – with the high bar being set by Working Man's Friend in Indianapolis – so I have pretty high standards for the style. I knew that I was in the right place when I saw the cook at Edzo's use a heavy steel plate to slam a ball of ground meat into the griddle; no mere spatula could long stand up to that kind of abuse. The patty came out with a crispy, salty brown crust and somehow even had a bit of pink in the middle. This was a truly excellent burger, but it was somehow overshadowed by the fries. A lot of places in Chicago do the fresh cut double fry, but Edzo's is surely the best of them all. Never have I had a crispier outside combined with a creamier inside on a French fry. The family next to me left their large order of fries half-eaten, which had me looking around furtively to see if anyone would notice some scavenging action on my part (I didn't do it)

By chance I had dinner at the Lincoln Park Five Guys on the same day; boy was that a mistake. I once enjoyed Five Guys as a decent middlebrow option, but compared to Edzo's the Five Guys burger tasted like a bland lump of grease wrapped in tin foil. Fries were gummy and soggy. Adding insult to injury, the Five Guys was actually more expensive!

I haven't been to Edzo's in quite some time and I figured it was time to rectify that.

Had a big birthday over the weekend so a friend told me he was treating. What an idiot. Time to go all out:



Peanut Butter Milkshake

Almost pulled the trigger on the Shamrock Shake, but St Paddy's Day has come and gone

Buffalo Fries


Burger with the necessary fried egg


Also tried friend's Taylor Street fries this time around. Going to have to pull the trigger on those next time.

Edzo's was perfect. No surprises there.

Edzo's offers an off-menu-flavored shake that I love! The flavor is "Speculoos". Speculoos is a spread from Belgium made of cinnamon-ginger cookies (think Nutella, but cinnamon-ginger-cookie flavored), and its popularity is spreading like wildfire. There's a small upcharge (a dollar, I think) for the special flavor shake. If you ask, they'll give you a little bit of Speculoos on a spoon as a free sample. Long live the Speculoos shake!

nsxtasy wrote:Edzo's offers an off-menu-flavored shake that I love! The flavor is "Speculoos". Speculoos is a spread from Belgium made of cinnamon-ginger cookies (think Nutella, but cinnamon-ginger-cookie flavored), and its popularity is spreading like wildfire. There's a small upcharge (a dollar, I think) for the special flavor shake. If you ask, they'll give you a little bit of Speculoos on a spoon as a free sample. Long live the Speculoos shake!

I am intrigued, but I am not sure that I understand. It is 60% caramelized ground up gingerbread cookies? How is that accomplished?

d4v3 wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:Edzo's offers an off-menu-flavored shake that I love! The flavor is "Speculoos". Speculoos is a spread from Belgium made of cinnamon-ginger cookies (think Nutella, but cinnamon-ginger-cookie flavored), and its popularity is spreading like wildfire. There's a small upcharge (a dollar, I think) for the special flavor shake. If you ask, they'll give you a little bit of Speculoos on a spoon as a free sample. Long live the Speculoos shake!

I am intrigued, but I am not sure that I understand. It is 60% caramelized ground up gingerbread cookies? How is that accomplished?

if you are super curious, i've seen speculoos cookies, and speculoos spread (great for dipping) at trader joe's.

Im pretty sure Edzo's uses that Speculoos spread in the shakes. Like they do with Nutella. Perhaps they crush in a few cookies too? It's been a while since I had one.

champs2005 wrote:Im pretty sure Edzo's uses that Speculoos spread in the shakes. Like they do with Nutella. Perhaps they crush in a few cookies too? It's been a while since I had one.

Speculoos is sold in jars, just like peanut butter is, with creamy and (new!) crunchy variations. You can see them on the Speculoos website. The creamy Speculoos spread is what Edzo's puts in their Speculoos-flavored shakes (and what they gave me a sample of). No added cookies.

I haven't tried the Trader Joe's version, and I don't know whether or not it's identical to the Speculoos-branded version (or whether the Speculoos name is trademarked in the U.S.)

champs2005 wrote:Im pretty sure Edzo's uses that Speculoos spread in the shakes. Like they do with Nutella. Perhaps they crush in a few cookies too? It's been a while since I had one.

What I was referring to is the Speculoos website says that the spread is 60% caramelized ground cookies. I was curious about how somebody caramelizes cookies. I thought caramelization is a process that involves sugar. Is it possible to caramelize other starches?

d4v3 wrote:What I was referring to is the Speculoos website says that the spread is 60% caramelized ground cookies. I was curious about how somebody caramelizes cookies. I thought caramelization is a process that involves sugar. Is it possible to caramelize other starches?

Cookies tend to be made with sugar so I would think that it would be pretty easily accomplished. The Speculoos shake is excellent but I am a purist and tend to stick with a vanilla malt.

Finally tried the Edzo's in Lincoln Park recently. I couldn't believe how small it was, especially after experiencing how crowded the Evanston location seems to get. But I can see it's more of a hurry and up and go type of customer in this area, which makes sense. I was also surprised to see they only have griddle burgers at Lincoln Park because they're much quicker to cook. Interesting that Eddie chose this location and cut out half his burger options instead of just opening in a different area. It's like Edzo's Express. I tend to prefer the griddled anyway (by a small margin), so I got a double and an order of Old Fries. Everything was awesome although I had to get a new order of fries because they had way too much salt on them (which is scary because I like salt). Burger was also a bit salty, but I didn't mind as much. Maybe, just maybe Eddie can have them dial it down a notch. My girlfriend and I shared a salted caramel shake which was excellent, not my first choice for a flavor (I'm not a big sweet/salty fan), but you can't go wrong with any of Edzo's shakes.

I've been to both locations, and neither location has ever provided me ever with a bad experience. Both have always been very enjoyable, every time I've visited.

More making this post, to note that at the Lincoln Park location, the hours were recently extended from 8pm to 12am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday(only heard about this, from catching up on the last few months of Edzo's Lincoln Park facebook posts last month). The 8pm closing time is still the same on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays.

Edzo's is now serving the food at Deuce's in Wrigleyville, 3505 N Clark. The menu is pretty much the same as the Lincoln Park location (no char burger) though they've added a couple specialty burgers like the das oktoberfest with bratwurst hash and cheddar-beer sauce and the lollapalooza love with cheddar-bacon spread and ketchipotle.

I had the griddle burger with merkt's and it was good though a little dry. I suspect their efforts to get crispy edges, while admirable, may require a little more attention to get right. I'm hoping this was a result of growing pains since the meat was still tasty and the burger well proportioned. The fries were freshly cut and crispy and the milk shake was great as always. They have a nice patio area and a solid tap list. I can see myself strolling down Clark Street on a nice summer day and popping in for a burger and a beer on their patio.

Lincoln Park location closes tomorrow (Sunday, 11/30/14) according to this FB post. Pretty shocking considering that they were advertising specials for yesterday with no word of closing. Not much info in the FB post. Wishing Eddie and crew well and hope it wasn't too big of a hit for them.

boudreaulicious wrote:Lincoln Park location closes tomorrow (Sunday, 11/30/14) according to this FB post. Pretty shocking considering that they were advertising specials for yesterday with no word of closing. Not much info in the FB post. Wishing Eddie and crew well and hope it wasn't too big of a hit for them.

The link didn't work for me but here's the text of their post:

Dear Friends,
We regret to inform you that due to circumstances beyond our control, Edzo’s Burger Shop in Lincoln Park will be permanently closed after Sunday, November 30th, 2014. Thank you for all of your patronage over the past two years; it was truly a pleasure to serve each and every one of you and we will be forever grateful that we had the opportunity to do so. We apologize for any inconvenience and we wish all of our friends and neighbors the best. Gift cards can be redeemed at our Evanston location (1571 Sherman Ave, Evanston, IL 60201).

- Thom, Lukas, and the Edzo’s Crew

=R=

Wonder if this closing has anything to do with the Rahm Emanuel-driven ever-increasing cost of doing business in the city of Chicago. From what I hear, Edzo's/LP was doing pretty well. Wassup?

jnm123 wrote:Wonder if this closing has anything to do with the Rahm Emanuel-driven ever-increasing cost of doing business in the city of Chicago.

Maybe it was due to all the earthquakes in the past few months. You know, other stuff that never happened, either.

nsxtasy wrote:

jnm123 wrote:Wonder if this closing has anything to do with the Rahm Emanuel-driven ever-increasing cost of doing business in the city of Chicago.

Maybe it was due to all the earthquakes in the past few months. You know, other stuff that never happened, either.

LOL . . . not to mention the fact that plenty of other businesses in the city seem to be doing ok. In any case, their cryptically worded message certainly leaves the door open to rampant speculation.

=R=

The cost of doing business in Chicago shouldn't be a factor if a business is doing reasonably well.
Maybe it's a lease issue. I've signed leases before with demolition clauses hoping that day never comes but sometimes when
you least expect it KABOOM.

I don't think Evanston is a cheap place to do business either.

Best wishes and hopes for Edzo's.

jnm123 wrote:Wonder if this closing has anything to do with the Rahm Emanuel-driven ever-increasing cost of doing business in the city of Chicago. From what I hear, Edzo's/LP was doing pretty well. Wassup?

I'm not sure where you heard Edzo's LP was doing well, I live about 3 blocks away and they were never many people in there once Children's Memorial hospital closed. There are a couple of nearby restaurants like John Barleycorn that closed once they lost hospital business, there doesn't seem to be much foot traffic there during the day. It looks like I'll be treking to Evanston for lunch with Incite when I want my Edzo's fix.

I agree with mbh--I don't think they ever had the business they expected for that location. I'm not surprised they're closing--only that it was such a last minute announcement. That, along with some of the FB responses which appear to be coming from the staff there, v. Eddie, makes me think that something came up quickly that couldn't be made public, even to the employees. But who knows.

Lack of revenue would be the logical explanation

jay2021 wrote:Lack of revenue would be the logical explanation

That certainly would be beyond their control. And the timing, at the end of the month, suggests that maybe a lease was expiring, as well.

=R=

That would make sense if they had a 2 year lease and 2 five year options. That being said it's unlikely that there wasn't atleast an initial five year lease considering the investment. A corporate lease independent of the original shop in Evanston would afford them the opportunity to bow out of the lease before term by dissolving or bankrupting the corporation without anyone getting hurt personally.

I think the major factors have probably been identified, but I also wonder whether the love for the burgers at Red Hot Ranch (not all that far away) cut into their business.

nsxtasy wrote:

jnm123 wrote:Wonder if this closing has anything to do with the Rahm Emanuel-driven ever-increasing cost of doing business in the city of Chicago.

Maybe it was due to all the earthquakes in the past few months. You know, other stuff that never happened, either.

You threw me off for a minute with this choice of analogy because, y'know, there have been some significant earthquakes in the last month---not in Chicago, of course, but in China, Japan, and Indonesia.

jay2021 wrote:That would make sense if they had a 2 year lease and 2 five year options. That being said it's unlikely that there wasn't atleast an initial five year lease considering the investment. A corporate lease independent of the original shop in Evanston would afford them the opportunity to bow out of the lease before term by dissolving or bankrupting the corporation without anyone getting hurt personally.

LOL, when you see their lease, let me know.

=R=

The owner of Edzo's Burger Shop, Eddie Lakin, cited a lack of traffic as the reason for closing.

"We just weren't making our rent basically," Lakin said. "I kind of held on for a while hoping it would turn around."

Edzo's original location in Evanston has been in the black since it opened, and had been helping keep the Lincoln Park shop afloat, according to Lakin.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141201 ... k-location