Joel Wanek wrote:Nearly every place discussed in this thread is a BBQ or Soul Food restaurant in largely African-American neighborhoods, serving largely African-American clientele. The subject of the thread could have easily been BBQ or Soul Food restaurants.

Not so. I had a wonderful appetizer of deconstructed chicken wings at Moto -- they were encased in bulletproof glass and diners were each given a keepsake Glock and had to shoot their way into the plate. I lost two fingers, but it definitely made me think of food in a new way.

cilantro wrote:-- they were encased in bulletproof glass

And playing off the whole "encased meat"
trend...it worked on so many levels.

Rene G wrote:There are so many places better than Coleman's I honestly don't know where to begin. But my favorite all-you-can-eat buffet behind bulletproof glass would have to be Queen of the Sea.

FWIW, I agree about Coleman's (UJ's, BA's etc, obvious choices).

But, my question is... anyone have any opiions on Captain Curt's BBQ? Was
at 8200ish Cottage Grove on SuperBowl Sunday, pickigng up some
wonderful jerk chicken from Uncle Joe's Jerk. And, across the street,
Captain Curt's was operating... Ive been there before and sort of seen
it (and not really paid much attention), but this time it smelled just
*wonderful*, and looking over I saw the smoke billowing away. If I
hadnt picked up too much chicken already, I would have stopped in.
As it was, I was sorely tempted, but resisted.

Is Captain Curt's usually any good? It certainly hasnt smelled quite like this
before, in all my trips to the area... Iam regularly a Uncle John's guy,
but is Captain Curt worth trying sometime? Or are there just many
other better cue spots on the Southside? (And I presume they
have bulletproof glass too - I dont know when I laast saw a
BBQ place that doesnt - so presumably it fits under this topic


c8w

Made a trip to Curt's about 10 years ago- it was great, but I wasn't all that well versed in bbq. Always liked his sauce-(widely available) Have no idea about what's going on there nowadays.

c8w wrote:Is Captain Curt's usually any good? It certainly hasnt smelled quite like this before, in all my trips to the area... Iam regularly a Uncle John's guy, but is Captain Curt worth trying sometime?

c8w,

Haven't been in 2-3 years, but last I was there it was no great shakes, right about Leon's speed. Though if you are smelling smoke that's an indication it may be worth a try.

I do have a funny Curt's story, was chatting away with, what turned out to be, Curt's wife. When asked if Curt was ever in the navy, thus the Captain, she said no, but after he opened more than one BBQ joint he felt plain ol' Curt didn't befit a man of his stature and started referring to himself as Captain Curt.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary, correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Curt's the place recommended to us by the guy in the Barbara Ann's parking lot? We were eating the post-GNR slab, tips and links and he stopped to note that Curt's had seating. You commented that the BBQ from BA's is better, and he agreed? Curt's, right?

unbeknowneth wrote:You commented that the BBQ from BA's is better, and he agreed? Curt's, right?

Unbeknowneth,

Right you are on both counts, it was Curt's the gentleman recommended and he and I both agreed Barbara Ann's BBQ is preferable over Captain Curt's.

Enjoy,
Gary

Interesting how my thread evolved.

So....we were racing yesterday and as usual we enjoy a late night snack when it's all over. We headed to Sharks in Joliet.

When we pulled up we thought the place had changed owners. Sign was gone from the exterior of the building.

But, lo and behold, it's Still Sharks Fish and Chicken.

We ordered the fried oysters, honey bbq bonless wings, regular order of wings and the little guy had his cheese sticks. We like that they toast their white bread before wrapping it in the service paper.

So I ask the girl serving me why the huge exterior neon sign is gone and she said it was stolen last week. they have video surveillance tape of four guys pulling up in commercial flatbed trucks and working for an hour to steal their sign.

I found that kind of ironic that they use plexiglass inside but their neon sign 14 feet above gets boosted outside.......

A year late with this response, but here goes:

dicksond wrote:There used to be a BBQ place at Chicago and Orleans in the 80s that had bulletproof glass and steel drawers to deliver the food.

Leon's had a northside outpost on North Avenue near Orleans in that time frame. They were within sight of the old Cabrini Green complex. We used to go there on a regular basis with little regard for the neighborhood or bullet proof glass implications.

On a related note, back in the late '80s/early'90s when I was still working downtown, we used to regularly head over to the Harold's Chicken Shack near the then new Greyhound bus terminal. There were usually four or five us; the majority being skinny suburban white boys who had little contact with the big bad city beyond working hours. At that time I too was living in the suburbs but had a long and very comfortable history with Chicago and all of its diverse neighborhoods.

We were always accompanied by our co-worker, Aaron Britton, who also happened to be the person to introduce us to Harold's, and who also just happened to be African-American. Aaron had a wicked sense of humor that frequently played on any uneasiness in regard to racial issues. The end result was usually to make you feel a bit foolish at first, but ultimately whatever gag Aaron threw out would then break the tension and put everyone on an even keel.

The first few times we all went into Harold's, it was obvious we were the minority and Aaron just waited for his opportunity to nail us. The body language employed by our friends told him that these boys were out of their comfort zone. So as we all waited in line to place our orders, Aaron waited patiently to spring his trap.

After a few minutes of standing there we all relaxed a little. It had a palpable effect on the room and Aaron grabbed the moment by suddenly shouting in a mock angry voice, "What did you call me?!?"

Four little white heads with great big eyes whipped around and locked on Aaron who bust out laughing. There was a moment of uncertainty and then we all cracked up too. I don't remember if our fellow customers found the same level of humor in the moment, but suddenly the body language of the whole room changed for the better.

We went back to Harold's many times after that. Sometimes we even went without our "escort".

Buddy