roumanian restaurant in chicago in the 1970's

i would appreciate any help on trying to remember details of a roumanian restaurant in chicago that was listed in the chicago magazine dining guide. they served these very spicy sausages that started with the letter k.
does anyone remember details of the place and the name of those sausages. thanks in advance for any help.

jfadds wrote:i would appreciate any help on trying to remember details of a roumanian restaurant in chicago that was listed in the chicago magazine dining guide. they served these very spicy sausages that started with the letter k.
does anyone remember details of the place and the name of those sausages. thanks in advance for any help.

This might not be of much help, but here it goes:

There's a Little Bucharest restaurant on Elston near Belmont, but I don't know how long they've been in business (but they've been there for more than 10 years). You could give them a call, probably, and ask them.

"Sausage" in Romanian is "carnat" (pronounced something like kehr-NUTS). The letter "k" is not used in the Romanian language.

Maybe karnatzicles (karnatzel) at Ghisela's on Wells?

bobbem wrote:There's a Little Bucharest restaurant on Elston near Belmont, but I don't know how long they've been in business (but they've been there for more than 10 years). You could give them a call, probably, and ask them.

They've changed the name, but they're still there, and they've been around since 1970, according to one of the press reviews on their website. That sounds about right, as I remember going there in the mid 1970s.

Continental Cafe
3661 North Elston Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
(773) 604-8500

Rene G wrote:Maybe karnatzicles (karnatzel) at Ghisela's on Wells?

Sounds like something they'd serve
at the Testicle Festival
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=16379

Joe Steins Original Roumanian restaurant..at that time on Sheridan
road opposite the Edgewater beach Hotel in a remodeled residence that now houses an Asian restaurant.They were karnartzel.with more garlic then you could imagine..........My family misses Joe's verymuch,but not for the karnatzel.....the sweetbreads,that's another story.

A popular sausage in Romania is cirnati oltenesti (pronunced ker-knots oltzenesht). This is a thin, smoked cured sausage a bit on the dry side that is served grilled. I think that "cirnati" is a generic term for cured sausages and the adjective, "oltenesti", refers to the region where the sausages are made.

dickinboca wrote:Joe Steins Original Roumanian restaurant..at that time on Sheridan
road opposite the Edgewater beach Hotel in a remodeled residence that now houses an Asian restaurant.They were karnartzel.with more garlic then you could imagine..........My family misses Joe's verymuch,but not for the karnatzel.....the sweetbreads,that's another story.

The original Joe Stein's was located on west Roosevelt Road. The restaurant was located on the second floor. Each table had a bottle of Old Colony orange or cherry pop waiting for it's guests. The specialty of the house was a platter of Roumanian skirt steaks smothered with grilled onions, served family style. Our family dined at Joe Stein's on a regular basis. My grandfather was personal friends with Joe Stein and he always had a reserved table for our family. The restaurant was never the same after their move to the north side.