Hi,

Captain Porky's has finally opened at the new location at US-41 and Wadsworth Road:



Dino and one other guy have reliably been front of the house while cooking, chatting up customers and keeping things moving along. What was once a one-man show was today a team of at least six people who worked a continuous flow of customers. It was clear they were still learning their paces with no time to chat. Most importantly, the food has stayed on target.

My all time favorite jumbo Gulf shrimp was as wonderful as ever:



We thoroughly enjoyed our lobster sandwich:



For the heck of it, we went with the crab salad for $3.99. Yes it was krab, which was not a surprise at this price.



The best new features at Captain Porky's are indoor seating, public bathrooms and fountain soda. The old location had a few picnic benches outside, which worked in nice weather as an alternative to Illinois State Park. Otherwise it was eat in the car or at least once I did a lean-to while eating and chatting with Dino. This indoor seating frees me up from considering where to eat when the weather is not favorable.

From our seat, we could watch the non-ending flow of customers at mid-afternoon. This picture was taken during a rare lull in customer traffic.



It was clear they were working their butts off today with very little opportunity to relax. They made the right move to relocate, because easy-on and easy-off to the highway makes a world of difference from their old place. I'd pass Delaney or Wadworth Road, then do a little mental gymnastics trying to decide if I had time to visit or not. This move shaves about 30 minutes from my decision criteria.

Captain Porky's - established 1984
US 41 & Wadsworth Road
38995 Route 41
Wadworth, IL
Phone: 847/360-7460
Fax: 847/360-7461
http://www.CaptainPorky.com

Regards,

This is really good news. I've been waiting for this for a while, looking longingly at the construction as we've gone by on 41. This might necessitate a trip tomorrow.

Wish I'd known earlier -- we came very close on our way back from Wisconsin this afternoon.

I talked with Dino a couple weeks ago -- he said "the new location will kick our asses."
He expects to be busy, busy, busy, just making it work. I'll be sad the old location will be idle until things get up to speed, but I look forward to him being open in both places eventually.

[edit -- left the word "will" out of the quote from Dino]

We decided to make the trip up to Wadsworth today to check out Captain Porky's new location. Boy, am I glad we did.
We got there about two, and hit the Shanty first for a cocktail or two. They're doing construction of their own too, expanding the dining area. Our appetites whetted, Mrs. Trpt and I strolled next door. As you can see from Cathy's photos it's spacious. Even though it was crowded service was swift and pleasant. The young lady who took our order (Dino's daughter) said they'd been open about a week and that it has been really busy from the get go.
I got a half pound of oysters, and a soft shell crab po'boy. Mrs. Trpt got a pound of the jumbo shrimp and then we ordered rib tips to take home. Happiness ensued. The oysters were tasty, the shrimp their usual fresh, stellar selves, and the po'boy small but savory. The coleslaw and garlic potatoes that came with the shrimp were quite good as well. The tips will have to wait until tomorrow, we even had a bunch of shrimp left over that made a nice snack later this evening.
Things were hopping even at three in the afternoon on a Sunday, a lot of take out orders and a number of parties dining in.
The future looks bright for Captain Porky's, this new location is so much more convenient than the old one. Well worth a forty mile trip. There's no place just like it.

This is exciting news. We have a family lake house nearby in Bristol, WI and there is really very little good to eat in the immediate area. We had been schlepping over to Zion to visit Porkys when we didnt feel like eating at the Shanty. Now we wont have to deal with an extra half hour trip off of the highway.

Heading up here Saturday I believe, and shame on me for never trekking up there before, and not checking out the menu on their website. Not sure where to begin with such a large good looking seafood portion of the menu, but based on reading the feedback the shrimp and other fried foods seem to be where to start and end.

Are they BYOB?

Yes, the fried seafood and the fried cheese.

No, the barbecue.

Hi,

I suggest calling on the BYOB. Dino's son's restaurant The Shanty is next door with a full bar.

Regards,

Is there seating now? Because there wasn't before, right, which renders BYOB kind of moot.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I suggest calling on the BYOB. Dino's son's restaurant The Shanty is next door with a full bar.

Regards,

thanks, not a deal breaker, but always nice to know.

Is there seating now? Because there wasn't before, right, which renders BYOB kind of moot.

There's three or four picnic tables plus counter seating inside. Made a quick run up there for an early lunch last Thursday after playing golf at the naval base (best secret in Chicago). Had a combo of the fried shrimp/rib tips. Everything was great. One of those places I wish was much closer to the city.

Mike G wrote:Is there seating now? Because there wasn't before, right, which renders BYOB kind of moot.

There are several picnic tables and benches indoors, along with counter seating and stools at the window.

We visited Saturday afternoon on our way to a picnic in Racine. Tried the fried gulf shrimp, fried goat cheese and the fried zucchini. The place was hopping with lots of catering orders along with a steady stream of customers. We had sat with Dino, his wife and daughter at the GNR dinner a couple of years ago so it was nice to see them again. (Dino and daughter.) Everything was top-notch. The new location is definitely more convenient for us and hope to make it a more regular stop on our treks to and from Wisconsin.

Mike G wrote:Yes, the fried seafood and the fried cheese.

No, the barbecue.

Exactly. The shrimp and oysters we had last week were stellar, rib tips not. Not much smoke flavor and the sauce was bland and sweet.

I've really got to get over to Captain Porkey's. I work just under 4 miles from the new location. Maybe I'll go tomrrow for lunch.

Mike G wrote:Yes, the fried seafood and the fried cheese.

No, the barbecue.

Hit Porky's twice this weekend. i tend to agree that barbecue is not usually their strong suit when compared to the seafood. Perhaps the relocation has changed things as the ribs and tips were both considerably better then I remembered. The shrimp were absolutely out of this world. I love the new porkys

Finally after 2+ years of trying to get to Captain Porky's today is the day(its basically as far awy from my place as any GNR can be)..

really looking forward to some shrimp, and other deep fried seafood, as well as some alligator, and perhaps a po' boy.

Also hopefully going to stop @ the Shanty for a couple of drinks.

I had the opportunity to try Captain Porky's on Thursday ( after my golf buddy weaseled out on our tee time, claiming to have a "sore back" ) Anyway, all that I can say is that the jumbo gulf shrimp that I was served was probably the BEST that I have ever had. Great texture and freshness coupled with tasty garlic potatoes made for a fabulous lunch.

Terrific food, service, and value---- I personally do not see how he can serve food of that quality at such a low price.
( 1 lb. jumbos + 2 sides and cornbread or roll for $15.99 )

Best of luck to the Captain at his sparkling new location!

A decent visit up to Captain Porky's yesterday for lunch. I liked some things we had, and other items were just ok.

I really liked the dispaly case with all the fresh seafood, and their method of reaching in the display case, and battering anf frying what was ordered as they were ordered. Great concept, and it was really nice to see all the fish and other seafood.

One thing that troubled me was the alligator, it was displayed in a bag marked farm raised gator. Another place I go to that has gator, they get the whole tail, and trim it themselves. Gator was not ordered @ Captain Porky's.

Service was good and pretty quick, Dino was working hard behind the counter as was his daughter, both of whom I had met at the GNR dinner @ Sun Wah over 2 years ago.

There was a large case with their hot and bbq items, a large stack of ribs at one end. No bbq was ordered(its very rare that I will purchase/eat commercial bbq).

We ordered 1# of the large gulf shrimp, an order of lake perch, an order of oysters, an order of hush puppies, and a lobster salad po'boy.

The fried shrimp are good, fresh, & well cooked. However the batter really didnt blow me away, it was kind of bland. Overall a decent fried shrimp. Not the best I have had in Chicagolandland, The best fried shrimp I have ever had? not even close

The lake perch was probably my overall favorite, I love deep fried lake perch, and these were perfectly cooked, once again I would have preferred a little more zip in the batter.

The oysters were kind of disappointing, their uniform shape is different than other deep fried oysters I have had. I discussed with p_g that oysters I have had and liked were typically shaped more like a deep fried mushroom, and when you bit into them they were juicy, and you got the full funk of the oyster. CP's were small, and didnt pack much flavor.

hush puppies were ok, I am no hush puppy expert so i have nothing additional on these.

The lobster roll po'boy. Too much going on and too much filler in the salad imho. There were big chunks of great tasting lobster, but way too much celery, and bell peppers. I would have gladly taken a smaller portion of the lobster salad with less filler which would have allowed the focus to be on the lobster.

Overall I liked Porky's( not enought to visit unless I am in the immediate area though), and am always glad to try a new GNR, and cross another place off my list

We also enjoyed a couple drinks @ The Shanty after lunch, nice place, suprisingly smaller than it appeared on DDD. I would like to get back to The Shanty to try a burger which looked great.

Porky's:



pics of the seafood:







ribs:



fried shrimp:



oysters:



hush puppies:



lake perch:



lobster roll po' boy:

after a late night at work, I decided to shoot up 94/41 and check out the new Captain Porky's.

First off, the new location makes is so much easier to get to. It took me under 40 minutes to get there from Evanston.

The food was fantastic as usual. I ordered a ridiculous amount, as I always do, and figured on taking some home. Had the jumbo gulf shrimp, which imo, have no peer in Chicago. Perfect texture, perfect breading, and that great, deep, shellfishy flavor that you can only get from wild gulf shrimp. It's been too long since I've had these. They are just phenomenal.

I also had some hot links, hush puppies, a rib or two, and I cannot leave without getting some of Dino's baklava. Nothing disappointed at all.

Dino was friendly and chatty, as always. He remembered me (I haven't been up since last summer) and immediately asked about my restaurant, then offered to give me a tour of the new place. He's fully operational and the dining room is quite comfortable (especially compared to the original location), but he's got big plans for some other sections of the building as well.

They were moderately busy from 8:30-9:30 when I was there. It's great to see CP's thriving and cranking out food of this caliber in their new location. He was telling me that they do a goat roast every Sunday and that they're mobbed for it...the goats sell out in like a half an hour and he keeps making more and selling out. This guy has been doing free range/organic/natural/farm-to-table stuff for years, long before it became the trend.

I only wish I was closer so I could patronize them more often. One of my favorite restaurants of all time!

Stopped at Captain Porky's on my way up to to Wisconsin this past weekend, and found the detour off 94 to be more than worth it. The jumbo shrimp are, as noted many times throughout this thread, perfectly breaded & perfectly cooked throughout. Moreover, they are so big that the word "jumbo" doesn't do them justice...these were some mega-ultra-super-jumbo shrimp.

The surprise favorite for me were the greens...they were so rich & buttery that I swore they must've been 50% pure butter. However, Dino assured me that the only ingredients were salt, pepper, his family's olive oil, and wild, organic greens (including milk thistle, if I recall correctly) from his farm. They were spectacular.

While I also enjoyed the fresh, hot fries, I didn't care much for the cold, dense cornbread. Next time I think I'll just get the shrimp and a big mess o' greens...and if next time isn't soon enough, I'll just have to make up some reasons to head up that way.

CP's now does briskets. Not a lot of smoke to them, but still very flavorful. They're not on the menu yet, but they say they go thru 40 briskets a week, so something must be clicking. If you can't tear yourself away from the jumbo shrimp (and not a lot of reason to do so), take a lb home with you, warm it up, crack open some fresh buns (plain white bread will work, too) and have a quick, easy dinner on the Cap'n.

I love this place but have to admit the batter they use is very bland. It needs more seasoning, I even order the "cajun" jumbo gulf shrimp but still there is no kick. I almost want to bring my own seasoning to pepper the shrimp whenever I order it. Granted, the shrimp are tasty in their own right, juicy gulf shrimp are hard to come by, and Im thankful the batter is not greasy like many other chicagoland shrimp joints, but even though the cocktail sauce is decent there simply is not enough of any discernable flavor from the batter itself, which is dissapointing and thus in no way can I call this the best fried shrimp by any means.

Here's hoping Dino never changes the batter on his jumbo shrimp. It's light, almost tempura like and perfectly flavored. I've never had better. Of course I'm talking about the regular not Cajun style. I'm one of those who does not care to have the pain fibers in my tongue tortured. I've had some meals ruined by too much hot pepper. The first few bites are fine but the effect is cumulative. Half way through the meal my nose starts to run. It can turn me off on a dish or a restaurant for a long time. I do respect those who like their food spicy hot and do not mean to speak for them. Perhaps others can comment on the Cajun style.

Eddie

I love this place but have to admit the batter they use is very bland. It needs more seasoning, I even order the "cajun" jumbo gulf shrimp but still there is no kick. I almost want to bring my own seasoning to pepper the shrimp whenever I order it.

Here's hoping Dino never changes the batter on his jumbo shrimp. It's light, almost tempura like and perfectly flavored. I've never had better.

strangely, I agree with both of these quotes.



another great meal at CP's tonight. I go probably around once a month or so and it's always fantastic. we usually order shrimp, some other fried fish, and then ask Notah (Dino's daughter) for guidance. she (or Dino, if he's around) will tell you whether the croppie is fresher than the bluegill and what just came out of the smoker, so that's what we usually get and it's always delicious.

while the level of seasoning in the batter isn't where it'd be if I was cooking it, I do believe that it's exactly what Dino, who is a purist, is going for. I usually feel at first that it's a bit underseasoned, but what happens is that as I eat, I end up really noticing the texture and clean, fresh flavor of the fish.

also I usually get a half-order of their boldly spiced hot link, which is too spicy for anyone in my family other than me, and which I dip in their hot bbq sauce.

elakin wrote:while the level of seasoning in the batter isn't where it'd be if I was cooking it, I do believe that it's exactly what Dino, who is a purist, is going for. I usually feel at first that it's a bit underseasoned, but what happens is that as I eat, I end up really noticing the texture and clean, fresh flavor of the fish.

I stopped in to Captain Porky's while on a breakfast/sweet corn run to points north. I got an order fried gulf shrimp to munch on in the car and I couldn't have described them better than this. The shrimp were (as aways) pristinely fresh and breaded and fried to order with Dino's deft hand. I only wish Captain Porky's was closer to the city because I would be there much more often. As it is, GNR Captain Porky's continues to live up to its award winning status and is a special stop for me every time I am in that part of the state.

Captain Porky's Fried Gulf Shrimp ala Trunko

Today was a Cap'n P's day for me too -- stopped by after a late afternoon beach trip. Dino was bragging/complaining about serving food to several hundred golfers in the tent out back, plus two weddings.

Hmm... too bad I can't use him for my son's upcoming nuptials, my future daughter-in-law insists on certified Kosher.

After the photos and not having had fried shrimp in a looooooong time, decided to drop the top & head up to Captain Porkys.

I didn't look too closely at what entrance I went in and was seated and given a menu for The Shanty. Oh boy, wrong place. So got up and went in the 2nd entrance facing 41, when I saw the aligator head on the counter, I knew I was in the right place.

Had 1/2lb each of the shrimp & fried oysters. I'd like to see more seasoning in the breading on the shrimp but that said, I polished my 1/2 lb off pretty quickly. Dino mentioned that he can't put the same breading on the oysters as the shrimp due to moisture content of the oysters, so the breading on the oyster was more dense than the shrimp. He also mentioned how he used to use much larger oysters but that most folks complained about there being too much 'oyster guts'

Also brought home a small container of the conch salad, quite delicious. I had asked Dino if he ever made conch fritters, he said he has but that too much conch goes to waste as not many folks order it. His conch comes in 5lb frozen blocks. Perhaps if others are interested, there could be a dinner at Capt Porkys where enough volume would happen with conch fritters that Dino would make them, I have to imagine they would be good.

I drove past today around 11 after delivering a finished project (I rarely am in the area), and noticed them because of a post here. The last time I was past that intersection (years ago) it was an awful sandwich shop. However, I stopped in and enjoyed a lobster (on special) and brought home ribs and rib tips for the kid and the better two-thirds. They have both a mild and spicy sauce for the ribs - someone had said in an earlier post that the rib tips were bland so I got the spicy sauce. A Smelt fry was on special as well and I was tempted. The butter/butter substitute they used was very salty IMHO.

I was debating some of the fried fish dishes but it still was an hour to get home and I did not bring a cooler I passed.

Very friendly service and obviously popular - I drove past just as they opened, and they filled up while I was there. Obviously many regulars - they came in knowing what they wanted.

Thanks for the post pointing them out - it was worth the stop. Some of the prices I contend are a little expensive for what they are, but others were very reasonable going through the menu.

Stopped in tonight on my way home from the beach.
Got my usual combo of hot links and jumbo shrimp. Shrimp as usual are perfect, links as usual are very tasty but not the greatest texture-wise (comes from sitting in a steam tray for a while, I'd imagine). Greens were very garlicky, to the point where the garlic potatoes were just about invisible. Mmmm..

Dino is now marketing his family's olive oil as "Lonely Olive Tree" brand EVOO, "Mountain Grown" near Sparta.
There were slices of bread with the oil and parm for tasting.

It's very good -- I don't know the right words to characterize it; I probably should have tasted some without any parm, but I was hungry at the time, and logic didn't enter into it.

A bottle is about $14-15 (I lost the receipt) for 750ml

JoelF wrote:Dino is now marketing his family's olive oil as "Lonely Olive Tree" brand EVOO, "Mountain Grown" near Sparta.
There were slices of bread with the oil and parm for tasting.

It's very good -- I don't know the right words to characterize it; I probably should have tasted some without any parm, but I was hungry at the time, and logic didn't enter into it.

A bottle is about $14-15 (I lost the receipt) for 750ml

At the recent LTH North lunch he mentioned that it will be sold at Mariano's.