That was my lunch today.
We've been working through the menu, a few dishes at a time, for a couple days now, running through the process, putting things where they need to be, and trying to just learn how to best do what we're trying to do. Some things are going well, some are proving harder to nail (like the fries).
Polishes are easy. Score the ends with a plus sign and let'em curl up when you toss the sausage into the deep fryer for about a minute, before finishing it on the char grill. It's a Chicago classic. I tried a few different types of Polishes before settling on Vienna; some of the others were good, but had pork in them, which disqualifies it from being a Maxwell style Polish in my book.
We did a few milkshakes today, as well, after the cooking was over, including a chocolate malt, a vanilla-maple shake, and a banana shake with fresh banana. I'm experimenting to see how much pureeing the mixmaster can handle; it's not really made to do that. It came out ok, but I think a pre-smush while still in the skin would help next time. Details....
Lots of good media interest continues as well (probably in no small part due to this blog). Chuck Sudo from Chicagoist stopped by today and we chatted for a while. He was too late to get food, but we're doing trainings next week as well so maybe he'll be back.
Also some interest from Chicago Magazine and Time Out Chicago. It's great and I'm flattered and pleased with the interest, but it also makes me concerned that we're going to get completely slammed when we do our "soft opening". It's only soft if you're not drumming up business by blogging the whole thing, I guess. Duh.
Anyway, Polish and cheese fries were more or less a success. Merkt's spread is so good. Need to keep working with the brat, char burger, and, of course, the fries, which I think could've used another two minutes of blanching. Onward. Tomorrow's a slow day.
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Pass them over here!
Press articles are always a good starting point - and journalists love a start up story.
It's 10:40 a.m. and I'm salivating.
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