I understand people just straight up not going but it does confuse me how people can go thurs-sun in the afternoons and evenings and get frustrated with a wait. I woudlnt expect anything less from any remotely popular place, really.

Like I said earlier, go early in the week for a late breakfast and you'll be seated probably upon walking in the door. For those that work 9-5s, this is when you claim those annoying dentist and doctor appointments

Very similar to hot dougs, kumas is out of consideration Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Smoque is also the same way for me too.

djenks wrote:Like I said earlier, go early in the week for a late breakfast...Very similar to hot dougs...Smoque is also the same way for me too.

Not disagreeing with you (just shaking my fist at the universe), but I rarely, if ever, feel up to eating a big, horking burger or a pate-laden sausage for brekkie. On the rare occasions that I do, I think it equally unlikely that I'd sway a group of folks to join me, simply for the sake of cornering a table at the aforesaid establishments.

Stopped by Kuma's tonight after work, probably around 6:00 or so, and the wait was only about 20 minutes at the most for two people.

I had the Neurosis but my companion enjoyed the burger of the month: the Axehandle. It's a pile of waffle fries with the burger patty on top, covered in sausage gravy and a fried egg, with a homemade biscuit on the side. A sign of things to come for Kuma's South, maybe? Either way, I tried a bite and the gravy was delectable.

I figure I have no problem doing the board a service and stopping by once a month to announce the burger of the month. I can't seem to find anywhere else that does this, so I will make the terrible sacrifice of eating at Kuma's at least twelve times a year to bring you the news.

nshef wrote:I figure I have no problem doing the board a service and stopping by once a month to announce the burger of the month. I can't seem to find anywhere else that does this, so I will make the terrible sacrifice of eating at Kuma's at least twelve times a year to bring you the news.

Nothing like taking one for the team

=R=

nshef wrote:[T]he Axehandle. It's a pile of waffle fries with the burger patty on top, covered in sausage gravy and a fried egg, with a homemade biscuit on the side. A sign of things to come for Kuma's South, maybe? Either way, I tried a bite and the gravy was delectable. (emphasis added)

Interesting. What goes around, comes around?

The thread has come full circle.

nshef wrote:The thread has come full circle.

I'm puzzling over what this means. Non-rhetorical, non-snarky question: What does it mean? I know it means something, and it's causing me some anxiety that my brain is falling short in figuring it out. Thanks.

riddlemay wrote:

nshef wrote:The thread has come full circle.

I'm puzzling over what this means. Non-rhetorical, non-snarky question: What does it mean? I know it means something, and it's causing me some anxiety that my brain is falling short in figuring it out. Thanks.

Go read the first post.

eatchicago wrote:Go read the first post.

Ah. The breakfasty thing. Thanks.

riddlemay wrote:

eatchicago wrote:Go read the first post.

Ah. The breakfasty thing. Thanks.

Too bad they do not serve breakfast anymore. The corned beef hash looked and sounded great!

I wonder what the story with The Bear logo is?

Cool! To keep updated as to The Burger of the Month you can check Kuma's MySpace Blog.

Panther in the Den wrote:Cool! To keep updated as to The Burger of the Month you can check Kuma's MySpace Blog.

Well how about that. Now I have no excuse to go there once or twice every month... not that I needed one anyway :]

Thanks for the info!

nshef wrote:

Panther in the Den wrote:Cool! To keep updated as to The Burger of the Month you can check Kuma's MySpace Blog.

Well how about that. Now I have no excuse to go there once or twice every month... not that I needed one anyway :]

Thanks for the info!

We still need to get a first hand report.

Panther in the Den wrote:I wonder what the story with The Bear logo is?

I'm pretty sure the story has already been told in this thread... not that I blame you for not reading through the whole thing because I don't feel like doing it either to verify whether or not it's been told in this thread.

Anyway, Kuma's Corner is named after the owner's dog (since passed, I believe) named Kuma. Kuma also happens to be the Japanese word for "bear." Hence the bear meme.

Panther in the Den wrote:Cool! To keep updated as to The Burger of the Month you can check Kuma's MySpace Blog.

Kuma's MySpace Blog also wrote:Tuesday, February 03, 2009
We will be closed on Valentine's Day, Saturday February 14th, 2009.

This month's featured burger is the "Axehandle": The standard 10-ouncer atop a pile of fries, smothered in homemade sausage gravy, topped with a fried egg, with a house-made buttermilk biscuit on the side. I took a picture with my phonecam, but I don't know that it does the dish justice.

Had it for lunch today with an Abita root beer, and I'm still recovering. Yowza.

Flame away, count me one as one shall not return to Kuma due to the waits.

I knew what I was getting into and I was prepared for a 2+hr wait on a Friday (I've done it before). I had out of town friends who I wanted to show case one of the better burger joints w/ a nice beer selection in town (two Fridays ago), the wait turned out to 3 hours (I checked my watch, 7:20-10:20PM), add insult to injury, another whole hour just to get our food (when other groups of same size who have sat down after us had gotten their food way ahead of us). No burger is worth 4hour wait, and I'm drawing the line. The waitress pretty much admitted forgetting our orders by apologizing and giving a free order of fries, nonchalantly.

Scalability (both # of table and level of service) has clearly become a problem at Kuma, and I for one, have taken this one off my restaurant rotation list. Not without some sadness.

fenger wrote:I had out of town friends who I wanted to show case one of the better burger joints w/ a nice beer selection in town (two Fridays ago), the wait turned out to 3 hours (I checked my watch, 7:20-10:20PM), add insult to injury, another whole hour just to get our food (when other groups of same size who have sat down after us had gotten their food way ahead of us). No burger is worth 4hour wait, and I'm drawing the line.

So, were your friends impressed, or do they think you've lost it?

Sodboy13 wrote:This month's featured burger is the "Axehandle": The standard 10-ouncer atop a pile of fries, smothered in homemade sausage gravy, topped with a fried egg, with a house-made buttermilk biscuit on the side. I took a picture with my phonecam, but I don't know that it does the dish justice.

Had it for lunch today with an Abita root beer, and I'm still recovering. Yowza.

I just had a heartattack reading about that awesoem sounding burger. Now I need to go get me one.

Hit Kuma's yesterday around 5:15 or so I'd guess. It was PACKED. Ended up getting barseats after a beer or so and just spent the eve there.

The Axehandle was quite good. Burger + sausage gravy + egg makes it hard not to be delicious. I do have to say it would have been MUCH better with their old fries. The waffle fries suck, and have prevented me from ever ordering a Slayer again (my old time fav). Oh well, if only that was my biggest problem in life.

I am also not sure if it is just a cyclical thing, but the last two times I have been at Kuma's the beer list has been extremely underwhelming. Last night they had Metropolitan Brewing Copper Lager (from Chicago, never heard of them and good thing as it was terrible), 2Bros Northwind, Alpha King and Allagash White. Decent selection for a corner bar but certainly not anything to be excited about. The bottle list was a bit mundane as well, most of them available at my corner store. Kuma's used to be a destination for beer as much the food so hopefully they revamp the beer list soon.

Of course I will still go back in a heartbeat...

Jamie

I don't care for the waffle fries either, that's why I got my Axehandle on chips. It was pretty good.

Jamieson22 wrote:Hit Kuma's yesterday around 5:15 or so I'd guess. It was PACKED. Ended up getting barseats after a beer or so and just spent the eve there.

The Axehandle was quite good. Burger + sausage gravy + egg makes it hard not to be delicious. I do have to say it would have been MUCH better with their old fries. The waffle fries suck, and have prevented me from ever ordering a Slayer again (my old time fav). Oh well, if only that was my biggest problem in life.

I am also not sure if it is just a cyclical thing, but the last two times I have been at Kuma's the beer list has been extremely underwhelming. Last night they had Metropolitan Brewing Copper Lager (from Chicago, never heard of them and good thing as it was terrible), 2Bros Northwind, Alpha King and Allagash White. Decent selection for a corner bar but certainly not anything to be excited about. The bottle list was a bit mundane as well, most of them available at my corner store. Kuma's used to be a destination for beer as much the food so hopefully they revamp the beer list soon.

Of course I will still go back in a heartbeat...

Jamie

Metropolitan is a new brewery that just started up in Chicago that is focusing on German lager style beers, I have not had a chance to try. Was the Copper Lager terrible in any specific way, or did it simply suffer from the limitations of its style? My guess would be that as Kumas rotates their taps regularly and trys to focus on local and seasonal you had the misfortune of happening upon one of the less exciting beer seasons, as we head in to Spring.

KSeecs wrote:Metropolitan is a new brewery that just started up in Chicago that is focusing on German lager style beers, I have not had a chance to try. Was the Copper Lager terrible in any specific way, or did it simply suffer from the limitations of its style? My guess would be that as Kumas rotates their taps regularly and trys to focus on local and seasonal you had the misfortune of happening upon one of the less exciting beer seasons, as we head in to Spring.

It was very "ordinary", and actually the flavor profile was very reminiscent of PBR, with that same sort of bite, just with more sweetness. Will be interesting to see how well a brewery specializing in lagers will do; since most of them by nature are boring

I tried the Copper Lager at the brewery a few weeks ago; I thought it was a very good rendition of the style. Certainly, much more malt and somewhat more hops than PBR (I assume weren't making that comparison seriously). Perhaps you just don't like lagers in general? I can understand that, because ales usually do have more ester and sometimes phenolic character, but I really don't think it's fair to describe the beer as "terrible" unless you think it does a poor job of delivering the style it aspires to. That definitely wasn't my experience with the Copper Lager.

Sodboy13 wrote:This month's featured burger is the "Axehandle": The standard 10-ouncer atop a pile of fries, smothered in homemade sausage gravy, topped with a fried egg, with a house-made buttermilk biscuit on the side. I took a picture with my phonecam, but I don't know that it does the dish justice.

I don't know if any picture can do the Axehandle justice, it is an ingeniously composed burger, what seems like wildly varied components coming together in a delicious, and attractive, package.

Kuma's Axehandle



Speaking of attractive, my favorite Kuma's waitress was on duty Thursday lunch, Erin.

Erin w/Axehandle



Burger was cooked perfectly, sausage gravy to do any Southern grandmother proud and no problem adding fresh jalapeno and substituting house made chips for waffle fries as per this thread. Oh, and Mr. JiminLoganSquare, you should really stop in Kuma's for a biscuit, it will make you smile.

Yes, it was busy, but no wait at 1pm for 2-people and everyone in the place looked happy and well fed.

Enjoy,
Gary

Finally, something that would make me wait in line 2 hours at Kuma's Corner! Maybe I'll recreate the Five Easy Pieces diner scene and get myself some awesome biscuits and gravy ("Axehandle; hold the burger, hold the fries, hold the egg").

It seems odd that they will make homemade chips, but not fries.

nr706 wrote:I tried the Copper Lager at the brewery a few weeks ago; I thought it was a very good rendition of the style. Certainly, much more malt and somewhat more hops than PBR (I assume weren't making that comparison seriously). Perhaps you just don't like lagers in general? I can understand that, because ales usually do have more ester and sometimes phenolic character, but I really don't think it's fair to describe the beer as "terrible" unless you think it does a poor job of delivering the style it aspires to. That definitely wasn't my experience with the Copper Lager.

While not at the top of my list, I do like lagers. I just didn't find Dynamo to be that exciting a Vienna Lager. Just seemed out of balance compared to the Goose Lincoln Park Lager I had drank a few nights before. To me, that falls more in the style and my preference. Perhaps it was just a bad first impression.

One thing I failed to question about my last visit:
Why is Surly Bender $9 for a draft at Kuma's? It appeared to be regular old Bender, not Coffee/Bourbon/Oak or any of the special versions that may warrant a premium. Just seemed ridiculously out of whack.

Jamie

Surly Bender is listed as $6, maybe you got overcharged?

geli wrote:Surly Bender is listed as $6, maybe you got overcharged?

I didn't get charged. I didn't order one because the beer list had it at $9.