Suburban Roundup

Two places I never understood, I now get. Maybe I'm ready to move to 630.

White Fence Farm Carryout
5005 N Fairview
Downers Grove

630-964-5505

Best damn chicken in the state, as Aretha said. Better on this past given Sunday than the original. Corn fritters were good too. The fried fish was also excellent. I have to hand it to the kid manning the fryers. He deftly reached two very different, very good results with basically the same ingredients and techniques applied to chicken, on the one hand, and fish, on the other. The bird is well-coated with a simple breading and fried to a dark golden brown, the meat cooked to the bone. The fish is lightly breaded and just cooked through, like the Japanese do it. Between WFF and Del Rhea's, there's some serious fried chicken off the Stevenson.


Carm's
1801 S. Wolf Road, Hillside
Tel: (708) 449-0125

I've been here a number of times now, as a client is in Westchester. The first time, I was unimpressed. The last several however make me think this is top 5 beef, easy. Like all of the good ones, Carm's has quirks. Mainly, in Carm's case, the super-fresh, salad-like giardiniera, mostly celery and barely marinated. Nice change of pace. It's a big beef, too, for about 4 bucks. Soft (but not debris) flavorful beef, good bread, and other attractive choices. I liked the wedding soup.
Tough parking setup.

(PS, I know these places are old news and well documented. But I don't recall a review specific to this takeout location of WFF, which I assumed would pale next to the original but has actually been better, IMO. As for Carm's, I had written it off, thinking it was all hype and nostalgia, but I wanted to correct that misunderstanding. It's really good.)

Carm's has an "extra hot" giardinara as well, but apparently you have to ask for it.

Mom's 68th birthday tonight. I took the 50 min round trip to the Plainfield location of White Fence Farm. She used to love WFF, so I thought we'd try this place.

http://www.whitefencefarm.com/chicago/restaurant.htm

I was thoroughly impressed. I called first, and asked what the process was.

"We only accept phone orders of 60pc or more, but with a 4 minute pick up window." I didnt understand this at first, but soon did.

Its about 20min south on Rte 59 from me, at 123rd or so.

My review

We ordered the Harvester. 20pc, 3 dozen fritters, 2 large mashed taters and gravy and 2 large cole slaw. I added 5 orders fries. Just under $40.

It was 20 min. to get there, and I was out the door in 7 minutes, back home in under an hour. No phone orders, cuz they don't have the time. No need for phone orders

Everything hot.

Threw everything in bowls (fries, fritters, chicken) and served.

Mom had a little of everything, loved the fritters and chicken.

My review, the Rte 59 Plainfield White Fence Farm is a class act. I talked to the manager, and the operation seemed efficient from what I saw.

Then I noticed the timing.

I walked in at 3:10pm today. Ordered. I called my wife from the car at 3:18pm (with 20pc, 2 mashed, 5 fries, and 2 slaw) tell her I'm on the way home.

We had a birthday party worth of food in under 10 minutes.

Flip, or any other South N'Ville's folks, this is only a carry out place, but I give it high marks and worthy of LTH try out.

It was funny. After 6 years talking about it, my wife said "Yeah, this was worth you talking about it for the past six years"

Edit:
Ooops, forgot the review
Chicken: even after 20min in the car (travel box with holes) the chicken was still crisp and moist.

Fries: This was the part that was interesting. Fries were well done, just like I like them, but they were in "insulated" bags. There were not soggy at all

Hush puppies were good, less corn than I recall, but still an A in my book.

Overall rating: B+

WFF was my Grandmother's favorite restaurant. She lived in Joliet and we used to go to the original with her quite often. I used to go to the Downers Grove location for take out every now and then; but now I see there is one in Riverside. An even shorter drive for me! Thanks for the reminder about this place.

We went to the Riverside location for years before moving "west"

Last time I had WFF (before yesterday) was 7-10 years ago, from the Riverside location.

Pickled beets were not available, to mom's dismay

Will,

I've been eating carry out from WFF since we moved here 20 years ago. There used to be a carry out location near Washington and 87th, it then moved to Washington and Gartner until it closed. We take my Grandma to the Joliet location for her birthday.

I've had mixed results from the Riverside location when I lived in Lyons, but find consistant good results from the Downers Grove shop. Since the DG is on my way home it is a lot more convienient than Plainfield, but if I were in the area I would not hesitate to visit if chicken were on my mind.

Flip

Thanks for the memories, you all! White Fence Farm was a regular part of my family's culinary traditions when I grew up in the Western Suburbs. We always went to the dine-in location (Joliet?) and marveled at all the amusements, and my parents loved the food. I've only been there once in recent years, but I'm glad to hear that others still enjoy it!