Retrospective: Chicago's Best Burgers (2005-Chicago Tribune)

Here at the domicile, I continue to go through skids of business-sized envelopes in an urgent search for my father's will. {It was not in the location where he once told me it was.} I haven't found it yet. But it is interesting what I am finding.

For this forum, it is a copy of the 14 June 2005 Chicago Tribune Dining Guide. It is a 36-page 8½" * 11" glossy paper magazine titled "Chicago's best burgers" - From a field of 100, we crown 5 champions.
Edit: Courtesy of Roadfood, here is the entire article.
The person tasked with this evaluation was Phil Vettel.
It mentions that it had last opined this subject in 1995. There had been turnover. Of the 2005 Top 5 list, only one was in business in 1995. Several of the top finishers in 1995 were not around anymore.
{Did the Tribune do this list this year?}
I am composing this post off-line. There may be future edits if I learn the restaurants about to be annotated have | had a thread here on LTH.
• The 2005 5 Best •

1. Rosebud Steakhouse; 192 E. Walton St.
2. Naha; 500 N. Clark St.
3. Park Grill; 11 N. Michigan Ave.
4. Select Cut Steakhouse; 2808 N. Halsted St.
5. Paradise Pup; 1724 S. River Rd. - Des Plaines

Here are an additional eleven restaurants which got to the 'third round':

• Wollensky's Grill - River North
• Square Kitchen - Lincoln Square
• Silver Palm - River West
• Rockwell's Neighborhood Grill - Ravenswood
• Nick's Tavern - Lemont
• Medici - Hyde Park
• Jake Moran's - Mundelein
• Hunker Down Steaks - Alsip
• Hackney's - Palos Park and other locations
• Candlelite - West Rogers Park
• Bristol Tap - Bristol

The well-loved burger purveyors eliminated in the first round were Pete Miller's Steak House (the 1995 champions), Moody's Pub, Country House, Charlie Beinlich's, and Boston Blackie. Other venues which got a lot of mentions, but ultimately did not win were Jury's and O'Neil's.

I remember that article, and some very high praise for the Rosebud Steakhouse burger from around that time by the Chicago Burger Project. In fact, i even found a thread describing an outing where G Wiv, Mike G and I tried the burger with mixed results. http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=183908#p183908

pudgym29 wrote: Here at the domicile, I continue to go through skids of business-sized envelopes in an urgent search for my father's will. {It was not in the location where he once told me it was.} I haven't found it yet. But it is interesting what I am finding.

good luck with the will hunting....been there, done that, and never found my father's will. his copy never showed up; his lawyer had died, and the firm that took over couldnt find his copy, and since he was dead, i couldnt yell at him.....

As a food category, the best burgers have changed an awful lot in the past ten years. Quite aside from the proliferation of places serving great burgers, there is now far greater diversity in the ingredients in the meat patties themselves as well as those that are placed on top of them. For proof, one need only look at any good listing of the best burgers in town, such as these:

Chicago's Best Burgers: The Definitive Guide (Thrillist)
The 10 Best Burgers in Chicago (Zagat)
The 6 essential Chicago burgers (Tribune/Pang)
Hamburger Hop results: The winner of best burger is ... (Tribune/Vettel)

People's expectations for when they go out for a burger have changed so much since the nineties. I am glad I don't have to put together lists for ten bucks each like some internet writers do.

It wasn't too long ago that Chicago wasn't regarded as a serious burger town (Moody's was regarded as the best in some circles, but competition wasn't very stiff). Now we enjoy a plethora of good-to-great burgers of various styles, from Edzo's griddled patties to Owen & Engine's tavern-style beomoths to Kuma's and the Bad Apple's baroque variations to every kind of ethnic variation that you can think of.

Well, at least it's good to see that all the 2005 best are still in business (as far as I can tell - I haven't actually been to any of them).

mdpilam wrote:Well, at least it's good to see that all the 2005 best are still in business (as far as I can tell - I haven't actually been to any of them).

Yes, the top five are still around, although not all of those getting to the "third round" are.

justjoan wrote:

pudgym29 wrote: Here at the domicile, I continue to go through skids of business-sized envelopes in an urgent search for my father's will. {It was not in the location where he once told me it was.} I haven't found it yet. But it is interesting what I am finding.

good luck with the will hunting....been there, done that, and never found my father's will. his copy never showed up; his lawyer had died, and the firm that took over couldnt find his copy, and since he was dead, i couldnt yell at him.....

Yes Good Will Hunting