Octarine wrote:Are the Ashland and Bunny Hutch burgers equally good? Hutch is easier to get to for us.

I don't remember it being as satisfying but I've only had the burger once at Bunny Hutch and it was right after Redhot Ranch took it over. I don't think they were preparing it in quite the same style, either but I could be wrong about that. Not a steep barrier to entry. If you're nearby, you might as well try it and see how you like it.

=R=

jay2021 wrote:I don't think they have these burgers at the Bunny Hutch

Yes, they do have the burgers at Bunny Hutch, but last time I drove by, they were still closed for the winter. Should be opening up soon, though.

stevez wrote:

jay2021 wrote:I don't think they have these burgers at the Bunny Hutch

Yes, they do have the burgers at Bunny Hutch, but last time I drove by, they were still closed for the winter. Should be opening up soon, though.

I most definitely had one there on 8/24/13 (which, I guess, wasn't right after they took it over).

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I most definitely had one there on 8/24/13

I would love to see the juicy details of what I can only imagine is your "food diary," Ronnie. I hope it is pink and has a lock and key.

Teresa wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:I most definitely had one there on 8/24/13

I would love to see the juicy details of what I can only imagine is your "food diary," Ronnie. I hope it is pink and has a lock and key.

You are correct!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I don't think they were preparing it in quite the same style, either but I could be wrong about that. Not a steep barrier to entry. If you're nearby, you might as well try it and see how you like it.

=R=

As it was explained to me when Bunny Hutch first opened, they were using the Hutch as sort of a "test kitchen" to develop the burgers for the Ashland location. The burgers went through a bit of an evolution before becoming the thing of beauty that is being served on Ashland. Unfortunately, Bunny Hutch closed for the season before I could get back there to see if the burgers were the same, once all the tweaking was done.

Saturday I spoke with Jeff Greenfield at the Ashland location and asked him about the Bunny Hutch. He said they installed char grills there and that it would be char dogs and char burgers there this year. He made a comment about maybe that would be more well received in that neighborhood. They are supposed to open in a couple of weeks.

The "Bunny Hut" post is still one of the best ever, nearly 12 years later!

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/111273

RobK wrote:Saturday I spoke with Jeff Greenfield at the Ashland location and asked him about the Bunny Hutch. He said they installed char grills there and that it would be char dogs and char burgers there this year. He made a comment about maybe that would be more well received in that neighborhood. They are supposed to open in a couple of weeks.

That might be a great move. If they can duplicate Wiener's Circle's burgers, I'll be happy.

I was just at the Ashland location and was told that the burgers at Bunny Hutch had been using different meat than at Ashland. So when jay2021 wrote:I don't think they have THESE burgers at the Bunny Hutch, he was correct. They had burgers but they were not the Ashland burgers.

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I was just at the Ashland location and saw them starting up a new batch of grilled onions. I asked, "You do grilled onions now?" and the response was, "we always have". Most places that have both usually ask you to specify raw or grilled, so I had no idea grilled were available. My next polish from there will definitely involve grilled onions.

The burgers we had were excellent. The buns were a bit soggy but that doesn't really matter to me.

What did hurt were the shrimp. Not nearly as fresh as the original location with a hard institutional crust and poor texture. Hard to believe they are from the same people as the incredible orders I've gotten at the location further S on Ashland.

To be fair, my gauge for shrimp may have been permanently recalibrated by Boston Fish Market in the last year. I'll be back for the burgers and fries sooner rather than later.

Max wrote:Maybe this is common knowledge, but I was just at the Ashland location and saw them starting up a new batch of grilled onions. I asked, "You do grilled onions now?" and the response was, "we always have". Most places that have both usually ask you to specify raw or grilled, so I had no idea grilled were available. My next polish from there will definitely involve grilled onions.

I mentioned the grilled onions in this thread back in January responding to your post. I figure anyplace with onions and a griddle has grilled onions. Plus they serve a Polish -- I think a City ordinance requires they come with grilled onions.

I had lunch today at Red Hot Ranch Ashland and learned that the Bunny Hutch will be opening soon but it won't be run by the Red Hot Ranch team. After opening Ashland the owners decided that it would be impossible to open the Bunny Hutch and stay focused on Ashland.

jay2021 wrote:I had lunch today at Red Hot Ranch Ashland and learned that the Bunny Hutch will be opening soon but it won't be run by the Red Hot Ranch team. After opening Ashland the owners decided that it would be impossible to open the Bunny Hutch and stay focused on Ashland.

Did they sell it?

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

jay2021 wrote:I had lunch today at Red Hot Ranch Ashland and learned that the Bunny Hutch will be opening soon but it won't be run by the Red Hot Ranch team. After opening Ashland the owners decided that it would be impossible to open the Bunny Hutch and stay focused on Ashland.

Did they sell it?

=R=

They never owned it. They had a deal with the mini golf course to operate it.

stevez wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

jay2021 wrote:I had lunch today at Red Hot Ranch Ashland and learned that the Bunny Hutch will be opening soon but it won't be run by the Red Hot Ranch team. After opening Ashland the owners decided that it would be impossible to open the Bunny Hutch and stay focused on Ashland.

Did they sell it?

=R=

They never owned it. They had a deal with the mini golf course to operate it.

Ah, thanks.

=R=

stevez wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

jay2021 wrote:I had lunch today at Red Hot Ranch Ashland and learned that the Bunny Hutch will be opening soon but it won't be run by the Red Hot Ranch team. After opening Ashland the owners decided that it would be impossible to open the Bunny Hutch and stay focused on Ashland.

Did they sell it?

=R=

They never owned it. They had a deal with the mini golf course to operate it.

Sorry to hear this. The BH was the closest RR outpost to us.

EvA wrote:Sorry to hear this. The BH was the closest RR outpost to us.

Yeah, me too. In fairness, it never really looked like they did much business at that location. I went there often for a dog and shrimp, but I noticed that most of the people (primarily HS aged kids playing mini-golf) that came in were looking for ice cream cones and little else. I'm sorry to see them go.

At least one price change went into effect recently, the double burger is now 5.25, up a quarter. Not sure if the other items went up, as I've given up on their rubbery dogs and haven't had a Polish in awhile. Still a great value for that burger.

The rubbery dog your refering to is a natural casing Vienna hot dog. Sometimes the casing can be thicker than others but that's a Vienna issue. The only hot dog stands I go to have this product. Let's just call it the "snap dog". If you primarily eat char dogs the casing is compromised by the direct flame making it less rubbery. The dogs cooked in the old fashion crocks at places like the ranch, jimmys, genes and judes and 35th street red hots tend to have more of a snap.

On a recent Friday night, after waiting for a certain noticiable amount of time @ Belmont for a northbound #9 Ashland bus, I opted to walk south a couple of blocks to Red Hot Ranch [2].
So I don't forget this; Red Hot Ranch 2 now has wi-fi (from Comcast), and using it, I discovered that service on route #9 was horribly tardy and bunched. (The next northbound buses were in 25, 26, and 30 minutes. Is BustRacker supposed to treat, or prevent, this ailment?)
Anyhow, with this much time, I ordered a double hot dog from here. The hot dog(s) was[|were?] OK. The snap surprised me a little. The french fries were really superb.
I'll give Red Hot Ranch 2 another shot, probably the next time buses on route #9 are tardy and bunched. I'll try a different item; but maybe not the fried shrimp ($9.14 | ½-lb).

Hell of a deal at 9 bucks. You could always get a half lb.

Pretty sure its @ $9 for a half pound and @ $17 for a full pound...I was in there today for a double ranch burger and as always, hurried home to put a copious amount of dill pickle slices on it to provide some crunch. Delicious!

jay2021 wrote:The rubbery dog your refering to is a natural casing Vienna hot dog. Sometimes the casing can be thicker than others but that's a Vienna issue. The only hot dog stands I go to have this product. Let's just call it the "snap dog". If you primarily eat char dogs the casing is compromised by the direct flame making it less rubbery. The dogs cooked in the old fashion crocks at places like the ranch, jimmys, genes and judes and 35th street red hots tend to have more of a snap.

I know what a natural casing dog is, RHR is the only place I've ever been where the dogs are consistently rubbery instead of having the snap. For whatever reason, their dogs just don't do it for me.

The Redhot Ranch on Ashland does have pickles for burgers. They're not listed on the menu board, but you can ask for them.

I heard about it from a comment at Serious Eats and recently got a chance to take advantage of the tip.

--
edc

saw a picture recently of a tasty looking Double Ranch burger and guess I made a mental note to hit the AShland RHR the next time I was in Chicago.

Went with a Singe Ranch cheeseburger yesterday as it was a work night and id already downed fried tacos and fried chicken within the last hour or so..

the burger - excellent - nice crisp char on the edges of the patty, crisp lettuce, tons of finely diced onions, etc. Perhaps my favorite burger around right now - definitely high on the bang for the buck scale - gonna be tough not to stop every time im in the area.

Fries... ate maybe 1 or 3, fries really arnt my thing - filler.

Also did a 1/2 lb of their shrimps.. there are better to be had in Chiland - all im gonna say -.

Recently, I had the chance to eat RedHot Ranch (1st time), That's A Burger (1st time), and Top Notch (2nd time) burgers all within a short time of each other. While the latter two were certainly enjoyable, I would put the RedHot Ranch double cheeseburger well above the others for the top spot. It was as close to the perfect basic diner style cheeseburger that I have had from a restaurant: char-crispy burger surface and properly seasoned. The fries were also excellent. If they had only used Martin' potato buns, it might have been a perfect score.

For value, I cannot imagine a better burger in Chicago. And only Au Cheval is above RedHot Ranch for overall diner style burger for me. I will be back there plenty of times in the future.

Chicago Hokie: Redhot received well-deserved mention from Kevin Pang in the Trib:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... tory.html#

Also, for reference:

RedHot Ranch: double cheeseburger and fries = $5
Au Cheval: cheeseburger (2 patties) and fries = $17

Although better, AC is certainly not 3x better than RHR.

I'd put this right behind the apple fritter at Old Fashioned Donuts as one of the best (everyday) food values in Chicago.