Big news! Yesterday my new POS system was installed and today we went live.

It went really well. The first day with a new or updated POS system can often be a complete disaster, because everybody is re-learning how to basically do anything having to do with how we communicate in the restaurant.

But our menu is simple and the tech from the company that did the programming and I worked very closely to try and set up the screens and order tickets in a way that is very similar to what we were already doing, which was working ok, but this will speed things up significantly, I believe.

The system we had in place was effective, but somewhat slow and cumbersome. I would take the order on an order sheet that I made up in MS Excel, using a pen. I'd circle all the desired condiments, write in special requests, then write the person's name at the top and indicate whether the order was "for here" or "to go". THEN, I would ring all that into my cash register, tell the customer the total, collect the money and make change or process the credit card.

THEN I would take the register receipt, write the name plus "for here" or "to go" at the top of that, and pass the two pieces of paper into the kitchen, where one would go to the sandwich side and one would remain on the fries side. If they ordered shakes, I'd write a separate little slip for my shake guy, again writing the name and "for here" or "to go". Whew!

The new system will require much less time and effort. I am taking the orders directly from the customer and entering them into the computer via the touch screen. No writing anything. The order-taking process still takes a bit of time, but that's really the nature of burgers and dogs, since everyone likes them topped their own way.

But now, when I'm done entering the info, and I'm either collecting cash or processing the credit card, the printers in the kitchen start spitting out tickets, so the guys get that info quicker. Plus, they don't have to read my horrible handwriting.

It was somewhat difficult today, and, to be honest, my brain hurts from thinking so much and studying all the various touch screen menus, desperately searching for the right key combination to enter "easy salt" or "no bun", but I can already see that this is going to make things considerably easier and faster in the not-so-distant future.

Part of me is intimidated and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of computing power that this system offers me. Really the only reason I opted to buy a POS system was to make the ordering/ticket process faster and more efficient, but this thing can do everything; labor, time clock, reports of every conceivable combination, payroll, managing deliveries, invoices, food cost, etc.... I'm one of those people who always reads the manual, so I just printed all 27 pages off and am planning on geeking out to that tonight.

So? Growth. Progress. Good stuff. Please be patient with us for a week or so while we move through the learning curve process, folks. It might get a bit hairy at times, but soon enough, I believe, you will see shorter lines at peak lunch hours and the amount of time that it takes from when you enter my front door to when you have food in your hand will be reduced quite a bit.

Finally!

Ever since I started getting our Dietzler Farms beef and offering it as an upgrade option for the burgers, folks have been mistakenly referring to it as "grass-fed".

Of course, when someone tries to order it and says "I'd like to upgrade to the grass-fed beef", I feel compelled to point out the fact that the Dietzler Farms stuff isn't a grass-fed product.

There's a lot of confusion about what's out there and how to best refer to it.

The Dietzler beef, for instance, is local (they're about an hour and a half away), sustainable, humane, and natural (meaning they don't use antibiotics or growth hormones on the animals), but it's not grass-fed, and it's not organic.

In fact, the term "grass fed" is itself a misnomer. We should actually be referring to this type of beef as "grass finished". The difference is important.

All beef is grass-fed for most of its life, meaning that the cows either graze on grass or are given hay or straw as feed. Conventionally-raised cows, though, are "finished" on grain (usually corn and/or soybeans) for the last few months of their lives. This fattens them up quickly, allowing them to be brought to market faster, and results in the type of flavor and fat content that Americans generally associate with beef.

The downside of this grain-finishing, though, is that it makes the meat far less healthy for us to eat. The fat from beef that's grain-finished is saturated. Look at it at room temp and you can see this clearly--it's white, thick, hard, and dense. Eating too much of this type of fat regularly, habitually isn't healthy.

If you've seen Food, Inc. you know the scoop. Grass fed (finished) beef is not finished with grain. The fat in grass-finished beef is considerably softer, more yellow than white, and it's nearly liquid at room temperature. Clear visible evidence of the fact that beef from grass-finished cattle is unsaturated.

Even better, it's jammed full of beneficial Omega 3 and Omega 6 acids. These are the "good fats" that people seek out, often taking fish oil capsules to get them into their systems. They are thought to lower cholesterol and decrease cancer rates. They're the same amino acids that are often associated with wild salmon, except that grass-finished beef has TEN TIMES the amount of them per ounce.

Now, don't get me wrong, the Dietzler Farms beef, even though it's grain finished, is a fantastic product. It's locally raised and only fed with food that's grown right there on the farm, so it's got a low impact on the environment. They raise the cows humanely and do not treat them with antibiotics or utilize growth hormones like rGBH, and the Dietzler beef is also dry aged, so the finished product is just jam-packed with big, beefy, minerally flavor. Grain-finished beef also carries the flavors that Americans have come to expect from beef.

But I wanted to also offer a grass-fed (finished) option, for those who want to eat it for health reasons.

It's not been easy. I tried to set up something with a number of small farms here in Illinois or Indiana, but most of them couldn't commit to getting me what I needed on a consistent basis, and quite a few of them only deal with beef that's been frozen, which rules them out for me.

I tried a number of products, whatever I could get my hands on, but my standards made it difficult--I wanted only beef that had never been frozen, I wanted only whole muscle, not already-ground beef, and I wanted great flavor, which is sometimes not associated with grass-fed.

After exploring the limited options (the stuff I bought at the Whole Foods butcher counter was terrific, but at $7.99/lb., not economically viable) I went with the big player in the grass-finished market; Tallgrass Beef. It took me a while to set up the distribution channel, but we did eventually manage to get it done, and now I believe I've got a steady enough supply to be able to commit to carrying the grass-finished beef as an everyday upgrade option.

Today was the first day we used it. Butchered and ground it early this morning, and then we got to work cooking and tasting. It cooks a bit more slowly, due to the difference in the fat, and the color isn't quite that ruby red you expect in a medium or mid-rare burger, but I've got no complaints; the meat is very flavorful, quite juicy, and not at all a noticeable drop-off from the ultra-premium Dietzler stuff. I tried both a griddled and a char burger and was very pleased with both.

It's not cheap, though. I'm charging $3 extra per four ounces for the upgrade to the grass-finished beef, and that's kind of a stretch, even. I should really be charging closer to four. So that means that if you buy an 8oz. char burger for $5.19, the upgrade will cost you six bucks--more than the price of the burger in the first place.

So it's not for everybody. But for those that want to eat burgers and feel like they're not totally indulging and clogging their arteries, it's probably worth it, especially considering that the quality and flavor of this beef is so good.

Get in here and check it out!

Yes, it's been like forever since I made a blog post. So what? I'm running a restaurant here, as well as trying to also have a life.

Anyway, it's July 3rd and I am unapologetically coasting into a long (2 days) holiday weekend. Seems like a good moment to bring this blog up into the present.

We are nearly nine months into the life of this restaurant and things are going pretty darn well, I must say. I've been slogging out the six-day weeks of 10+ hours a day and have more or less gotten used to that routine, carving out bits of personal and/or downtime as is possible. My employees have proven to be extremely reliable and we've been blessed with nearly no turnover, and despite just having had to shell out nearly a thousand bucks for an air conditioner fix, I've been remarkably free of pricey maintenance expenditures as well.

So? Partly lucky, partly by design, we're churning right along. The burgers continue to wow the customers and I've added some fun twists, trying out beef from different local farmers and offering it as an upgrade option over the standard burger. We've been getting Dietzler Farms' fantastic dry aged beef for months now, and even won an award for it.

The other big thing I've been doing recently is canvassing the Evanston Farmer's Market every Saturday and then high-tailing it back to the restaurant to put together a market burger special and farmer's market shake with whatever produce seems at its peak. It's resulted in some fun and interesting combinations like a burger topped with a deep fried fromage blanc-stuffed squash blossom and a Michigan black raspberry milkshake. Fun stuff!

For those reading who might want to get updates about these kind of specials, you can follow me on Twitter @edlakin, or "like" us on Facebook to receive all the info about specials as well as loads of other blather from yours truly. Those two outlets for my musings are a big part of why this blog has been so quiet as of late.

We won another "best of" thing recently as well, this one from the Chicago Reader, whose critics honored us with their award for "best new burger", so my wife and I will be forced to attend yet another of these swanky cocktail receptions and pick that up in the coming week. Oh, the glamour!

Well, actually this is only the second swanky cocktail and passed hors d'oeuvres thing that we've been invited to, but we'll take it whenever we can get it. We are blessed to have an incredibly active and vibrant food and food writing culture in Chicago, and I thank my lucky stars every single day that folks like the burgers and make the decision to pay attention to us in any way, shape, or form, whether it's in print, on blogs, Twitter, whatever.

Looking back to a year ago, when I was sitting, waiting to see if the deal to purchase and lease this space wouldn't fall apart like our first deal did, I entertained zero notions that things would work out the way they have thus far. None. I hoped for far less, and would've considered myself extremely fortunate to be breaking even and paying myself on the day before the fourth of July, 2010.

So I'll be toasting my good fortune and all the wonderful people in my life that have helped me and continue to help me make this happen every day--our customers, my employees, my family, and my wife, who runs pretty much every other aspect of our family's life while my attention and energy is near-exclusively focused on running this restaurant. Thanks so much, I could not do this without you!

That said, happy fourth!