Graham Elliot at Lollapalooza

So in case you hadn't heard, Graham Elliot has a booth this year at Lollapalooza. Amongst the junk food and standard festival fare, GE's booth is a welcome change. Yesterday we tried the Parmesan/truffle popcorn and one of his lobster corn dogs with lemon aioli. We didn't try the Buffalo chicken wings with blue cheese foam or the portabello mushroom satay with peanut sauce, but that's because I don't eat mushrooms and am not particularly fond of eating meat on bones at a hot sweaty festival. I imagine we'll be back for more corn dogs today, they were absolutely delicious. We even saw chef walking around near his booth and shook his hand and told him how delicious everything was. I hope more great chefs in the city take his lead and start offering up more tasty choices at fests like these. One can only eat so many veggie burritos, quesadillas and brats before you decide to save your money and your appetite until after the show ends

Jen

I'm still dreaming about those corndogs! The lemon aioli was nice and zesty and the corndog was stuffed with lobster, a great light batter and it was perfectly fried, not greasy at all. I was stunned to see the Graham Elliot stall at Lolla. The food offerings are definitely better than your average Grant Park festival.

I agree with the sentiments on the Lobster Corn Dog. It was delicious. Not too messy, nor too dry, and it was a really big portion without skimping on the lobster.

All the more reason to get back over there before summer is over. Thanks Chef!

HI,

For the curious, how much does a lobster corndog cost

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

For the curious, how much does a lobster corndog cost

Regards,

I don't know, but per Graham Elliot on twitter, they just sold out of the lobster corndogs at Lollapalooza. 8000 sold this weekend.

Darnit, I missed out on this. Whenever I'm at a streetfest, the lure of Lee's Concessions' "Chicken on a Stick" is impossible for me to avoid, as was the case twice at Lolla this weekend.

The lobster corndogs were $9. Not bad considering many of the other offerings were in the $6-7 dollar range. I thought it was well worth a few extra bucks to get something of this quality!

Tracey

I also really liked the lobster corndogs. Kind of tasted like an amazing hushpuppy with corn and chunks of lobster in it, with a little spice and lemon to add to the mix. And it was fried perfectly - not bad for $9 considering the cost of everything else there.

When I got up to the counter to order on Sunday evening, the fry-cook yelled "I've only got about 10 corndogs left"! I think that was the most agitated and nervous I was all day, hoping I could score one of the coveted nuggets.

Lobster corn dogs are pretty special, but I wouldn't dismiss the rest of the stuff as standard fest fare. The Adobo Grill tacos and guac, for example, might be the first dish I ever had from a tent in Grant Park that was better than the same item in the restaurant. Of course, tacos are the archetypal street food. The brats are Paulina brats, and the beef and sausage from Stefani's looked good too. Much better than the standard greasy-smelling midway of bad Chinese, fries and lemonade. And fairly priced. Unfortunately, the beer selection pretty much sucked, even at the supposed microbrew tent with a handful of Bud/Inbev stuff. The City should take the same approach with beer that it did with food. The local Bud distributor gets enough plums already, it seems.

JeffB wrote:Unfortunately, the beer selection pretty much sucked, even at the supposed microbrew tent with a handful of Bud/Inbev stuff. The City should take the same approach with beer that it did with food. The local Bud distributor gets enough plums already, it seems.

Another reason why Pitchfork wins -- Goose Island!

The lobster corndogs may have been the best performance at Lolla this year! (except for TOOL).

The batter was incredibly light and cruncy, and i found the remnants of several corn kernels on the inside of the batter. NICE! The filling was hot, juicy and fulll of body. It had the perfect amount of heft and chew for a good sausage, which is more impressive considering the ingredient at hand.

the corndog was a definite conversation piece and every single person who had one that i spoke to was raving about them.

Do we have to wait till next year to eat these again, or what?

LOVED IT. Loaded with delicious claw meat. Perfect batter. Just scrumptious.

I was so sad when they ran out on Sunday. The sweet people running the tent informed me that they would be serving it at the restaurant. Hallelujah!