North Star - Albania by way of Kosovo [Pictures]

Don't judge a book by its cover

Having a pre Usmania Zabiha Chinese drink at Casey's on Devon I got into conversation with a surprisingly food centric crowd, next shift bartenderess happily munching on take-away RUB BBQ, bartender Johnathan conversant with all things Devon, when a pool player chimed in about cevapcici at North Star. "next to Dunkin Donuts, best cevap around" Not one to underestimate slightly inebriated brags about sausage off I went.

Serbian/Bosnian restaurants, bars and coffee shops often (always) seem mildly unwelcoming on first encounter, quietly conversing groups of tough looking fellows immediately size up everyone who passes the entrance as friend, foe or neutral. I was judged neutral and the room quickly got back to the serious business of expressionless conversation, espresso, beer, flat screen tv watching, pool and outdoor cig breaks.

No one in the room eating, sparse menu leaning toward bar food and Italian, peene [sic] pomodoro anyone. Starting to think I'd been led astray I placed an order for Qevapa (cevapcici), $5 for five sausages w/accompaniments. One overworked young man acting bartender, dishwasher, waiter and cook, evening waitress simply did not show up.

Apologetically he said my order would be a few minutes, he liked to keep things clean and had a stack of glasses to work through. Considering the majority were in front of me, and I am a fan of clean, I didn't mind a bit.

Alright already, enough exposition, how was the qevapa, pretty damn good that's how.

North Star Qevapa



Mildly spiced house-made beef qevapa, juicy clean flavor with slight springy resilience that seems a trait of the better cevapcici I've encountered. Bread made in-house, really good bread, hearty without being heavy, tight crumb and depth of flavor that speaks to slow rise.

Enthusiasm obvious from my clean plate Ismail seemed genuinely pleased and chatted as he multi-tasked, his father owns North Star and they take real pride in making as much as possible in-house. Soup and bread, which I gather is a popular weekday lunch special, sauces, sausage and pizza. Ismail became somewhat animated talking about pizza, in particular the dough, still feeling a wee bit peckish I ordered a small with sausage. Couple of slices in-house, lunch tomorrow plan forming as if by magic.

Soft silky dough patted out so lovingly it reminded me of one of Bill/SFNM's videos.

North Star Pizza



Lightly applied balanced sauce, house-made "pepperoni" light cheese and and a few scattered strands of onion.









Crisp thin crust, not Vito and Nick's thin, denser with deliberate crunch, somewhat akin to Barnaby's in Northbrook but, at least to my taste, with deeper flavor.

Lest one be misled, I should point out while this was a very good pizza its not Vito and Nick's or Spacca Napoli, but for $7 late night at a bar run by Albanians from Kosovo it was shockingly good.

Looking forward to North Star soup and bread for lunch, does Martha Bayne know about this, and exploring the menu further, though I don't know if I'm ready for peene pomodoro.

Appears the boastful pool player knew his sausage after all.

Enjoy,
Gary

North Star
6246 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60659

North Star sounds great, and I hope to check it out pronto. Not surprised to see the pizza cut into proper triangles instead of squares, as Albanians have largely taken over NYC's pizza-by-the-slice industry.