The reason bar food is finger food is because the other hand is typically occupied with a bottle, a martini glass or a hot date. And almost always, the food plays a secondary role to the booze. These four establishments, however, are breaking the chicken fingers/nachos cliche with some creative bar food that’s not so ordinary.
Fried peanut butter, banana and bacon on brioche with wildflower honey
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The Violet Hour
1520 N. Damen Ave.
773-252-1500
$8
A perfectly crisp triangular package with a honey and peanut-crunch exterior gives way to a soft and gooey amalgam of smoky bacon bits, warm bananas and peanut butter. This might even be too much for Elvis.
Deep-fried Snickers Bar
Rocks Lincoln Park
1301 W. Schubert Ave.
773-472-7738
$5
It may just be one candy bar, two scoops of ice cream and chocolate syrup, but attempting to scale this dessert solo will have adverse effects on your health and soul. A battered shell, tasting like deep-fried county fair, cocoons the remains of a Snickers, all melted caramel, chocolate and peanut. Share it with 10 friends, please.
PB&J Maki
Lakeview Broadcasting Co.
3542 N. Halsted St.
773-857-2444
$5
Let the memories of childhood (or poor college days) flood back with this remixed potato chip-in-sandwich concept. Flattened white bread and peanut butter are rolled up like a yoga mat, balanced atop a Pringles chip and given a few artistic crisscrosses of raspberry syrup. It’s altogether sweet and salty, creamy and crispy, looking like a mini-sombrero.
Irma’s Tempura Fried
Spanish Olives
Plan B
1635 N. Milwaukee Ave.
773-252-2680
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$6
Deep-fried sodium. There’s a time and place for that, too, and that time is late at night with cerveza lubricating your gullet. Chorizo sausage is stuffed in green olives, battered and fried like fritters. An orangy aioli sauce mellows the saltiness slightly. Also comes stuffed with Manchego cheese, though either way, it’s hasta la vista, well-being.
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