When we were contemplating food stories to pair with this year’s Country Music Festival, sponsored by the fiber-supplement Fibersure, we considered country-style breakfasts, food to nurse a broken heart, even a list of our favorite fibrous meals. None seemed to strike the right chord. But then we thought of festival headliner Glen “Rhinestone Cowboy” Campbell, and that made us think of fancy hamburgers–rhinestone cowburgers, if you will. We’ve all seen them listed on menus for bullish prices. Most are made with Kobe beef (really Wagyu beef because it’s not raised in Kobe, but we’ll play along) topped with foie gras and accompanied by really special French fries. But are these classy cows and fancy frites worth the buckage?
Rockit Bar and Grill, 22 W. Hubbard St.; 312-645-6000. After the City Council’s recent foie gras freakout, Rockit ditched the bird liver from its generous “Kobe” burger and replaced it with a meaty ragout of wild mushrooms, applewood bacon and white Irish cheddar ($19). Served on a puffy toasted brioche (which we find too crumby for burgers) it comes together as a juicy, flavorful and perfectly pleasant ensemble. But next to a hot stack of crisp and seductively fragrant truffle fries, the burger is almost an afterthought. Our advice: Spend the money and calories on just the fries ($6).
The Lobby/The Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St.; 312-573-6760. Starting with 8 ounces of fat-marbled Kobe seared to an outer crustiness and inner pinkness, and topped with 8-year-old cheddar or English stilton and finished with a truffle aioli, this is one heavenly hamburger. And don’t be put off by the homeliness of the Okinawa sweet potato fries that arrive in a silver cup looking bruised and burnt. They’re actually greaseless treasures, crisp on the outside and sweet, creamy and dazzlingly violet on the inside. Still, 28 clamolas? You’re really paying for the handsome servers and gorgeous downtown view. Tip: We shared our rich burger and fries and it turned out to be plenty.
Sweets & Savories, 1534 W. Fullerton Ave.; 773-281-6778. For at least four more weeks, S&S will serve its chubby Kobe burger topped with a lump of foie gras pate. The pate felt decadent but didn’t add much flavor to this already juicy, flavorful and properly fatty patty. Again, they use a powdery brioche bun. The truffle mayo is a nice touch, and we loved the thin, crisp, chive-flecked duck fat fries topped with smoked sea salt. ($17.70 with tax as take out.)
Park Grill, 11 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-521-7275. We haven’t eaten the Kobe burger or Park Grill burger here but defer to dining critic Phil Vettel, who voted the less-fancy, lunchtime Park Grill burger ($10) the No. 3 burger in Chicago. Vettel called it a “half-pound vision of ground-beef Nirvana, this one wrapped in a soft multiseed bun and packed with Angus-beef flavor.” Vettel recommends pairing the burger with Herkimer cheese, “a white cheddar from upstate New York, whose sharp flavor is a perfect complement to the beef.” And at dinner “there’s a fancier (and much pricier) Kobe beef burger ($18) that, frankly, we like less than we do the lunch version.” There you go.