Media of any kind helps, so my mindset from the get-go was to make time to talk to anyone who showed any interest in writing about Edzo's.

I was hoping to get some coverage, and expected to get mentioned in maybe the Reader or Time Out, but it seems to have steamrolled and I've been lucky enough to get a ton of favorable reviews and features. You can check the Edzo's website's media page for a pretty long list, if you're interested.

No one piece gave us a huge bump, although the weekend following Steve Dolinsky's Hungry Hound piece on the channel 7 news was insane. Mostly, it's been a slow steady build where all the media coverage has kind of had a longer-term cumulative effect.

This week, though, was a little different. We were on the channel 7 show 190 North on Sunday night, and then in Thursday's Tribune. Tangible uptick in the number of people walking in the door this week.

It's interesting, with all the buzz that surrounds social media, to think about. I'm active in social media as a way to promote the restaurant (duh!), and put in probably 5-6 hours a week total doing Twitter posts, updating Facebook status, and blogging, and have been since the summer, before the restaurant was open.

It's been effective, I think. Not sure how much of the media coverage we'd have gotten if I hadn't done this stuff. But with all the talk about how important social media is, I'm quite surprised at how much more discernible and immediate an increase comes from an appearance in one of the more conventional forms of media, like TV or newspaper. The old, established media are still way bigger and more powerful.

It's easy to forget how many people watch TV and/or read the daily newspaper every day. For me, at least, because I almost never look at either.

Anyway, I thought it was high time that I wrote something about all the media coverage, which has been mostly very positive, and really...as long as they get the name and address correct.....

Another thing that's been very weird is when someone does an anonymous review and eats here a few times, once I read the review I can usually remember the reviewer based on what they describe ordering or whatever interaction I had with them, and it causes this whole "ah, so he's THAT guy!" moment. And then usually a second or two after, I'm thankful that I didn't come off as rude to them or we didn't screw up their order.

So, thanks, to all the fine media institutions who have talked about Edzo's, and also, anyone who watches or reads them. Keep it coming, every little bit helps!

Back when I was fresh out of culinary school, and was running the kitchen at a successful little cafe in Wrigleyville, my first wife called me at work, all upset because my life "as a chef" was so much more glamorous--yes, that was the word she used--than hers.

At the moment she called I was cleaning the convection oven and was actually wearing thick rubber gloves while holding the phone to talk to her, so I had to laugh at that one.

There have been some moments that have followed, of course, that have felt glamorous, but that certainly wasn't one of them.

I met with reps from Dietzler Farms and Niman Ranch this week, with both bringing me samples. I'm going to do a side-by-side tasting of the Niman, Dietzler, and our normal beef, which is standard issue IBP USDA choice stuff.

What I'd like to do is have a rotating menu of featured local, natural, organic, humane, grass-fed, whatever, beef producers and offer this meat as an upgrade option for the burgers.

So that felt kind of glamorous. They brought their glossy brochures and nicely explained all the benefits of their products (which I'll comment on at length at some point in the future), and I felt kind of cool. For a little while.

And then this afternoon, I met with a group of students from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business Management, who have decided to use me for their class project, and so they're offering to do a whole marketing/demographic plan for me for for just the price of a few hours of my time. I'd be a fool to pass that up!

After my hifalutin marketing meeting with my team of very professional grad students, I'm thinking that, yeah, maybe my glamorous moment has finally arrived. But then I got started on my working-late list tonight and crawled up into the ceiling to clean compressors and change furnace filters, and then snaked out the p-trap with a wire hanger in hopes I can get the hand sink back to draining properly.

And I did, so now it does! And I actually got it back together without creating any leaks!

I prefer the small victories to the glamor, anyway, I think.

Me: "You want that with everything--ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions?"

10-15 customers a day: "You guys got *grilled* onions?"


And, yes,of course, as any self-respecting burger and dog place should, I do have grilled onions.

They're usually referred to as "grilled", but they're technically sauteed. Most places do theirs on the flattop, which perhaps explains the moniker. (I've never understood why people would call cooking on a flattop "grilling", but that's a different post).

The thing about doing grilled onions, though, is that they should be allowed to cook relatively slowly, so that they can fully soften and then caramelize. I've been places and ordered grilled onions only to see them start cooking the raw onion after I've ordered. Not good. One time I even saw a guy try and cook onions in one of those conveyor toasters the sub places use. Blech. Those aren't grilled onions!

The slow cook allows you to coax all the sweetness out of the onions as they slowly stew in their own juices on the griddle and eliminates all the hot, crunchy rawness that onions can have. They're great.

We use our grilled onions in the patty melts, of course, on the portobello mushroom sandwich, on whatever upon request, and on the classic Maxwell Polish, which is scored and charred on the grill, then slathered with yellow mustard and grilled onions. It's a true Chicago original.

"Maxwell" refers to Maxwell Street, where the old market used to be, and two places down there are still churning them out as they have been for years; Jim's Original and Maxwell Street Express Grill, which are right across the street from each other.

Both do a great Polish as well as the somewhat-less-famous pork chop sandwich. My dad loves to talk glowingly about how good the Polishes used to be at one or the other of these places, and he swears up and down that one day, when he asked the guy working the griddle what made the grilled onions so good, the guy showed him; he pulled out the trough under the griddle where all the scrapings and excess oil ended up, and carefully poured it over the pile of onions that was sizzling on the back of the grill.

...and they're hungry, apparently.

Between the NU students being on break and closing up for a week, it's been a while since we've seen some of our regulars around here. Many returned today, with a vengeance.

In a truly bizarre turn of events, the first six burgers we sold today were triples or bigger. Normally, we sell maybe one triple a day. Today, all told, six triples, a quad, and the pictured ridiculous stack of six patties.

The orderer and consumer of the sixer was a guy named Taylor, who's done this before. He's an ROTC guy and works out a lot and can seriously eat. Last time I saw him, prior to Christmas break, he got a quad plus an order of loaded fries, ate everything, and then came back up and ordered a bratwurst. For dessert, I guess.

The crazy thing about Taylor is that he actually eats everything. Today he destroyed his six-stack quickly, and also an order of garlic fries. His friend was timing him as well. Ah....youth!

Now, don't get me wrong--I'm not encouraging this kind of crazy gluttony. But I'm happy to sell people what they want. I did also clue a few of these guys in to another hot dog and hamburger place not very far from here, that's kind of got the market cornered on these sort of belly-busting displays, so we'll see what happens if Taylor decides to walk a few extra blocks and trys to tackle the "triple undisputed".

Be gentle with him, Gus.