Ferajna

Only been meaning to write about this for the last 8 months.

Back last winter we went with a friend (on a lark) to a place recommended to him by one of his clients. Ferajna. A Polish restaurant way west on Belmont. We thought, “How bad can it be?”

It was a Sunday, and we made a reservation for 6 PM.

I was surprised they were going to be open that late. My preconception of a neighborhood Polish restaurant on a Sunday was that the patrons would be old people and families, and the place would be closing down by 6. I also thought all the waitresses would be fat.

In fact, the feeling we got, when we got there, was that at Ferajna at 6 o’clock on a Sunday, the night is young. And so were the patrons. All in their twenties and thirties, mostly Polish speaking, and beautiful. The beautiful Bond Girl waitresses exemplied the Polish Paradox in an analog of the Czech Paradox discovered and written about here by Vital Information.

There was a flyer on the table talking about a jazz-fusion band that played there on other nights.

Ferajna was, in other words, genuinely hip. If that did not fit my preconception of a Chicago neighborhood Polish restaurant, blame it on my outdated preconceptions.

And—oh, right—the food. I remember two things. The kielbasa was the best I’ve ever had. Snappy, juicy, full of fresh flavor. The roast duckling (which seems, based on recent experience, very hard for restaurants to get right) was just right. Crispy skin, juicy and tender (yet completely done) meat inside.

We asked our waitress what "Ferajna" meant. She told us, but I forgot. So I just looked it up in an online Polish-English dictionary. It means "gang," or "bunch." It's one worth joining.

Ferajna
6714 W. Belmont
773 427 0727
http://www.ferajna.com

"Probably the best Polish food in town" according to their website. They have a pretty extensive menu. Looks pretty good. I'll put it on my list.

teatpuller wrote:"Probably the best Polish food in town" according to their website. They have a pretty extensive menu. Looks pretty good. I'll put it on my list.

Another place to put down for the Oak Park boyz club for sure.

We got the tip for this place from Maggie, the Polish Bond girl who pours our regular espresso. Of course, Maggie's word is a bit more convincing that "probably the best polish food in town", which also the motto on their business card. Now, given that our waitress today at lunch spoke pretty much no English, we were not really sure if they meant probably as in, maybe, or probably as in really, but I'm hedging my bets because ReneG has some place in Archer Heights he's holding out on us, probably.

Actually, before we got the card, I was wondering on the probably the best thing anyways. See, you would think that the best Polish place in town would be the one with the GNR and the Michelin recognition, and maybe Smak-Tak is the best, but I've never tried as we find plenty of good Polish food a lot closer to the Bungalow. I cannot say if this place is as good as Smak-Tak, I cannot even say it's as good as Barbakan, which delivered excellent food to us the other night. And to say that this was probably the best Polish food I've had since does not really do much justice to Ferajna. It was a very good place based on one meal.

Sampled: tomato soup, butter heavy reminded me of the old Ratners on the Lower East side; fine rendition of chicken noodle soup, oodles of thin noodles; pierogi, not the most delicate, but highly tasty filling; and cutlets fried to a T, sides of mashed Polish style potatoes, beets, and sauteed cabbage with plenty of bacon. If we had the littlest of tummy space possible left, the house brought us out komplimentary pastry.

Vital Information wrote:It was a very good place based on one meal.

VI, I'm really happy you visited Ferajna--even if it took you two and a half years after my original post! As you can see, I was unable to write that post without paying homage to you.

And I'm even happier that you validated my view of the place by liking it.

Maybe sometime in the next two and half years we can get a third LTHer to visit it.