Collard Greens Search

My co-worker, a sweet southern girl, is on the prowl for some good collard greens. She says, You can't get collard greens in Chicago. I say, let's ask the LTHForum. Any thing good where you'd send a nice young-ish girl from the western suburbs?

HI,

Are you looking for collard greens prepared in a restaurant or to purchase and cook at home?

Regards,

Edna's on Madison & Kedzie has good greens.
I can't really speak about much of their other
food as I haven't tasted it, but I used to love
getting an order of their greens along with some
yams. They have been there for nearly 40 years
and are almost always busy, so I think its safe
to assume its all good.

Edna's
3175 W. Madison Ave.
(773)638-7079

mrs.ricebag wrote:My co-worker, a sweet southern girl, is on the prowl for some good collard greens. She says, You can't get collard greens in Chicago. I say, let's ask the LTHForum. Any thing good where you'd send a nice young-ish girl from the western suburbs?

I've purchased collards, mustard greens, etc., at Billy's in Oak Park.

Billy's Fruit Market
400 Madison Street
Oak Park IL, 60302

The Jewel at Western and Roscoe sells mustard and collard greens that have already been picked and cleaned for you under the Glory brand.

As far as Restaurants go, its hard to beat the ham studded greens of Priscilla's Ultimate Soul Food on Roosevelt Road in Hillside. It is an LTH great neighborhood restaurant to boot.

I don't know what authentic southern collard greens are like, but I think the collard greens at Wishbone are pretty good.

Wishbone
1001 W Washington
(312) 850-2663

and

3300 N Lincoln Ave
(773) 549-2663

Come to the UIC Student Center West at lunch time - Robinson's Ribs is one of the vendors, and one of their sides is (are?) greens (mostly collard, I think). They give you a boatload of food for around $6 - one main, two sides, roll or cornbread.

SW Corner of Polk and Wolcott
Entrance on Wolcott
(approx 1901 W. Polk)

YourPalWill wrote:The Jewel at Western and Roscoe sells mustard and collard greens that have already been picked and cleaned for you under the Glory brand.

As far as Restaurants go, its hard to beat the ham studded greens of Priscilla's Ultimate Soul Food on Roosevelt Road in Hillside. It is an LTH great neighborhood restaurant to boot.

Actually just finished a can of the Glory Foods collard greens ... pretty darned good when served with cornbread.

I'd say get yourself to Pearl's Place for some good fried chicken, even better greens, and some of the best sweet potato pie in town.

Discussed here and here

Pearl's Place
3901 S. Michigan
773-285-1700

Best,
Michael

YourPalWill wrote:As far as Restaurants go, its hard to beat the ham studded greens of Priscilla's Ultimate Soul Food on Roosevelt Road in Hillside. It is an LTH great neighborhood restaurant to boot.

Will,

Priscilla's greens are quite good, though, as Michael pointed out, and I am sure you are well aware, there are other good spots for soul style greens. Pearl's, Edna's, Mrs. Johnson's, Macarthur's and Army and Lou's to name a few.

Priscilla's Greens



Enjoy,
Gary


Priscilla's
4330 W. Roosevelt
Hillside, IL
708-544-6230

Macarthur's
5412 W. Madison St
Chicago, IL,
773-261-231

Army & Lou's
422 E. 75th St
Chicago, IL
773-483-3100.

Edna's
3175 W. Madison St
Chicago, IL
773-638-7079.

Johnson Soul Food Restaurant
8233 S Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL 60620
773-488-5700

Pearl's Place
3901 South Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60653

No collards in Chicago? There are collards everywhere on two of the city's three Sides, and plenty of options on the North one as well. As noted, places such as Wishbone and Feed. Blue Bayou used to have really good greens, not so sure now. Robinson's around town. Unfortunately, we lost some of the best collards long ago when the ACC-themed Brother Jimmy's closed...

jlawrence01 wrote:

YourPalWill wrote:The Jewel at Western and Roscoe sells mustard and collard greens that have already been picked and cleaned for you under the Glory brand.

As far as Restaurants go, its hard to beat the ham studded greens of Priscilla's Ultimate Soul Food on Roosevelt Road in Hillside. It is an LTH great neighborhood restaurant to boot.

Actually just finished a can of the Glory Foods collard greens ... pretty darned good when served with cornbread.

JL, I agree that Glory's canned brands are quite good. But, just for the sake of clarification, I was referring to the fresh greens sold in the produce section that are cleaned and bagged.

I noticed the Glory pre washed greens for the first time last week at my local Dominicks. I sauteed up a mustard/turnip combo in duck fat with garlic and onions. They were very good, and since they are prewashed, you dont have to worry about drying them before cooking (I am not a big pot-liquor fan, dilutes the duck fat too much). There were a few big chunks of stem that I picked out, but otherwise usable right from the bag.

-Will

yep, i get my greens from the 3J's truck or heaven on 7--111 n. wabash. haven't tried coco's fried lobster, but will do so and report bac.

mrs.ricebag wrote:My co-worker... says, You can't get collard greens in Chicago.

So what's the verdict? Too soon? Always good to know what an actual southerner thinks. Funny, I never had decent greens until I got to Chicago, despite living in KY and Atlanta...guess I just didn't know where to go...

i agree that it can be a bit difficult to find good collard greens rather than just adequate. whole foods carries fine fresh greens (as you'd expect), but as i'm usually too lazy to cook 'em myself, let me recommend:

heaven on seven (but only the original location on wabash)

and

Cathy's Ultimate Soul Food
5638 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60651-2619
http://cathysultimate.com/

which was friendly, classy, inexpensive, and succulent. if i praise it too highly, you'll think i'm a shill, but i promise a dinner of their fried chicken, collard greens, mac & cheese, sweet tea, and a slice of red velvet cake will make you think you were in heaven.

it is on par with my grandma's cooking...sigh, i wish i lived closer.

Hi,

I just called Cathy's, they are open at 7 AM and close at 8 PM. Closed Mondays.

I know I have not heard of this soulfood restaurant.

Thanks and welcome to LTHforum!

Regards,

I stopped in at the Michael's on Rte 59 yesterday, and thought how much I liked this store's produce department. They have everything, including collard greens. They're not bagged and cleaned (I don't think), just fresh. All of the produce is quite reasonably priced. I bought a bunch of escarole for 99 cents.

In addition, it looks like they've expanded their cheese department, and have everything for the ethnic shopper, including canned and boxed products from just about everywhere, and all manner of meat parts. Store seems to have an emphasis on both Mexican and Indian/Pakistani ingredients, which would tend to reflect the area population.

Michael's Fresh Market
856 S Rte 59
Naperville, IL
630-637-3800

It's located in the strip mall at Ogden and Rte 59, on the northeast corner (near Wal-Mart, Outback, and Carraba Grill).

ah, thanks for listing cathy's hours, i forgot -- fyi, i was there on a saturday night for dinner, not the sunday brunch. i'd never heard of it before either; our group was driving to the redmoon spectacle in garfield park a month ago or so, and we decided to explore the area to see what we might see. when we saw the mural outside, we knew our search was over.

oh, let me rattle off a disclaimer: we were among the last patrons of the night, were a large group, and were definitely not from the neighborhood -- nevertheless, the service was excellent. cathy decided that since she had an entire fresh batch of desserts prepped for the next morning's buffet (and since it was our first time there) that we absolutely had to try each of them. thus, the table was comp'd a round of red velvet cake, german chocolate cake, bread pudding, and caramel cheesecake. and yes, i recommend all their deserts highly.

HI,

It sounded good before, though your story makes the place seem even more enchanting!

I shall follow your path soon!

Regards,

Mhays wrote:

mrs.ricebag wrote:My co-worker... says, You can't get collard greens in Chicago.

So what's the verdict? Too soon? Always good to know what an actual southerner thinks. Funny, I never had decent greens until I got to Chicago, despite living in KY and Atlanta...guess I just didn't know where to go...

I completely forgot about this posting until today, where I looked it up and saw these many wonderful responses. So, I emailed the thread to Amanda, and I'll let you know what she said. Now, I'm hungry for collard greens and I've never had any. Thanks for all your responses!!! (12.27.06)

Thread bump for the season. I snagged the last, small bunch, at Stanley's on Sunday. Doing everything in my power to stay out of the grocers today. It's fine, no one else likes them but me.

Washing them in salt water now. Will rinse and let dry overnight. Then into the pressure cooker with some seasonings and will start the black-eyed peas. The last few years I've bought them fresh, but that's for another thread.

The Shop & Save stores carry Collard Greens on a regular basis. They also have smoked pork hocks or, if you're trying to do a healthier version, smoked turkey legs.

I shop at their Des Plaines location.

Buddy

Shop & Save
518 Metropolitan Way
Des Plaines, IL 60016
(847) 227-5800

Hi,

I saw quite a stack of collard greens at Lewis Market on Grand in Waukegan yesterday.

Regards,

They had them earlier in the week at Strack and Van Til on Elston. They were out of fresh black eyed peas this week, but had them last week.

re Glory collard greens (mentioned upthread)-

They offer two styles in cans - "Seasoned Southern Style", offering 560 mg sodium per 1/2 cup serving, and "Sensibly Seasoned", with 240 mg sodium per serving.

They also have fresh greens of course (circa 3.75 mg sodium per 1/2 cup)

I use collard greens in gumbo z'herbes, and I've never had any trouble finding them -- fresh or frozen -- at the multi-ethnic stores out here in the suburbs -- Garden Fresh, Harvest Fresh, Fresh Farms, Produce World. Granted, I didn't look this week, and they may all be sold out, since it's the season to eat these (and Hopping John) to bring good luck. But eery time I've looked for them, they've been there. I'd think it would be even truer in the city.

And there are, of course, the Glory versions -- which I keep on hand to add to soups. The high sodium content works nicely to season an entire batch of beans and greens.

$.98 at Fresh Farms on Touhy as of this morning.

I really like the collard greens at Pecking Order. The description from their menu: Braised collards, mustard greens, coconut milk, ginger, apple wood smoked bacon, crispy onions. I also enjoyed the collard greens at Smoke Daddy recently. They were prepared more like spinach -- sauteed with garlic. I prefer when they are more cooked down, but they were a nice counterpoint to all the barbecue we ordered.

Pecking Order
4416 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 907-9900
peckingorderchicago.com

Smoke Daddy
1804 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 772-6656
thesmokedaddy.com

Maybe there are some that like them that way, but the Greens at Heaven on 7 were very off-putting to me - with a Bread and Butter Pickle sweetness and almost no smokey meatiness.