Today I was back on track hunting down places along the El line and decided that as it was a sunny day I would head out and see what was out there. I caught the 78 bus from Montrose Brown CTA station which connected me to the Red line at Wilson, and then up the Red to Howard and then onto the Purple line into Evanston, not a short trip by any means but I was heading up to Dempster Purple line stop to find “Wiener and Still Champion“. This was based purely on a chance conversation where I was told that they had deep fried bacon and other items on a ‘secret menu’ – intriguing.
At Howard the last grips of winter hung over the roof, ice like claws clung on and toppled as the el rolled on by.
Fifteen minutes later the Purple El rolled into Dempster and I strolled along Dempster St passed the aging grafitti beneath the rail line until I spyed ‘Wiener and Still Champion’ across the road.
Once inside it was a bit more run down than I expected and I was struggling to find a menu, so I just approached the counter and said that “I had heard something about deep fried bacon and someone had also mentioned fried gravy?” It was true, the bacon was on the standard menu, but the gravy was apparently on some kind of underground secret menu. But I was in deep now and It was coming on some sort of burger.
The country fried bacon arrived first and my first response to the grinning cook was “Oh my god that’s a bit bigger than I expected” in my head other phrases were spinning around. One of which was “Run! Run Now!”
Now this was apparently bacon that had been breaded and fried in their ‘ever popular deep fryer’ called “The PIT”. It came with two dipping sauces, a hot sauce, and an Argentine Garlic and Herb sauce”. Sadly this sounded and looked so much better than it really was. Drunk I would have loved it, but I got no taste of bacon at all, it was all just batter to dip into the sauces. So I had a couple of bits and waited for the burger.
OK it arrived and all I can say is “No, Please No“, Question why are there a lot of really fat people around? I could not even see the inside due to the scaffold of fries propping it up. Once I had bitten inside I got the gravy from a Deep Fried Gravy Patty which was apparently ‘Chicken Gravy that we bread in our special seasoned flour and fry.” plus cheese wiz of some sort, burger and bread that could not hold it together.
Several bites later I had to give up (OK once I had eaten all the meat and gravy bits), it tasted interesting ‘slash’ great, but this was one burger I just could not reconcile into my English mindset.
Eat here at your own risk, I cannot vouch for the stability of your heart or the expanse of your belly, so please take heed
Located at 802 Dempster St in Evanston, 5 mins away from the Dempster Purple Line stop
http://www.wienerandstillchampion.com/
