Jamieson22 wrote:

Chitown B wrote:
that didn't answer. which is it? lol

edit: confirmed closed. They're in there, but the sign on the door says closed.

weird day to close, a Wednesday.

Wednesday would be a weird day to close. Luckily today is Friday.

I meant Thurs. They had their last day yesterday.

The Chinese fast food place by Billy Goat was long run by Koreans. They had a "secret" Korean menu about 10 years back. That disappeared for a while, then the place had a concept makeover and began marketing 1/2 the menu as Korean. It's all steam table stuff. I get the chigae with brown rice from time to time. Another twist in on the block is the cab fare (Indian and some middle-eastern) sharing the Burrito Buggy space now. Not too good, but OK for a samosa now and then.

I'm unfortunately well familiar with all of the offerings as I've worked w/in a few blocks of the places mentioned by teatpuller for 15 years.

A little known, pretty good offering is the wonton and egg noodle soup at 65. It's a special order and much better than the other stuff. Certainly not Sun Wah or anything, but OK and better than Wao Bao's (I like to baos fine). I can't get behind the cheap slice places or the Billy Goat, except as a place to drink bad beer.

JeffB wrote:The Chinese fast food place by Billy Goat was long run by Koreans. They had a "secret" Korean menu about 10 years back. That disappeared for a while, then the place had a concept makeover and began marketing 1/2 the menu as Korean. It's all steam table stuff. I get the chigae with brown rice from time to time. Another twist in on the block is the cab fare (Indian and some middle-eastern) sharing the Burrito Buggy space now. Not too good, but OK for a samosa now and then.

I'm unfortunately well familiar with all of the offerings as I've worked w/in a few blocks of the places mentioned by teatpuller for 15 years.

A little known, pretty good offering is the wonton and egg noodle soup at 65. It's a special order and much better than the other stuff. Certainly not Sun Wah or anything, but OK and better than Wao Bao's (I like to baos fine). I can't get behind the cheap slice places or the Billy Goat, except as a place to drink bad beer.

I really like 65, one of the few things I miss from my four years on Randolph ending four years ago. If it were remotely conceivable to double-park there I'd swing through now and then (same with Xoco), but these days getting into the Loop from either HP or OP is a 1.5 hour, $5.50 roundtrip proposition. Thanks, LAZ (not our LAZ) and Daley.

Damn ... that sucks. I was always a double cheese no pickle no peppers. I swear, that dude at the grill must have had asbestos hands and to me, those fries were the best in the city.

I bet they got eminent domained/TIF'd out of the space like the chinese place that used to be where the condos are now. Thanks, Mayor Shortshanks.

In the immortal words of Mrs. Peppers --- "Thank you ... can I help you NEXT !!"

I'm told that the husband and wife team that runs Peppers was no longer able to make their rent and they've been having some hard months as the economy has progressed further in to the shi**er. It's very sad - they seem like such nice folks. I guess they're going to help out with the grandkids and spend some time with their daughters.

On another note: Cal's is not closing. This was confirmed for me by Mike the bartender/manager (Cal's is also a family business and Mike is the nephew of the owner.)

That does make me a little sad if the economy took out another small business. I worked at the CBOT in the '90's and Peppers was my go to place 2-3 times a week. I guess that's why I always felt at home when I started working in Northbrook and found a similar routine in the Dog Walk.

I'm working in the loop again and have seen the place from the Brown line tracks and every time I said to myself that I had to walk down there again for a double cheese and fries.

walked by a couple days ago and saw Pepper's is back open looked like a younger couple, maybe they just bought it and are running it the same.

went by today -



burgers start at a base $3.50, fries at $1.50

Today's special was a double cheese plus fries for $5 (tax incl)

Tried the "new" Pepper's yesterday. The backstory: longtime commodities trader takes over Pepper's when Korean couple calls it quits after many years. Contrary to speculation, the building -- owned by Cal of the eponymous bar next door -- is not scheduled for demolition. Plan was to keep Pepper's as is, with a few modest changes -- cleaning decades of grease from the walls, extended hours. I wish they had kept the quirky old menu filled with unavailable items such as veal cutlets, pork chop sandwiches, etc. I'll miss the worn old hand-painted wooden sign, one of the greatest in town, up there with La Scarola's rusting masterpiece. The double cheese was, if anything, better than I remember. The new eggy bun is an improvement. Otherwise, it's the same.

Went to Peppers for lunch last week. Had the cheeseburger special with fries and coke for $5. Good price.
Noticed that almost everbody in front of me and behind me ordered the double cheeseburger. However nobody was ordering fries or drink. I thought people would be ordering the special too. It was interesting to me.
Well when I sat down to eat the meal, I quickly figured it out. Fries were anemic, white, barely cooked type. Not very good. The coke was mostly ice.
The burger was good. Flame cooked, good bun and decent lettuce and tomatoe.
For $5 the combo meal was a good price. Rather eat at Peppers than McDonalds but McDonalds fries are actually better and they give you some coke with your ice.
So in the future I will just order the Doublecheese like everybody else!
probably not part of the regular rotation for me but good for a quick burger on a rushed lunch day.

Peppers is closed (again). So is the burger/beef joint around the corner south on financial. It's getting pretty hard to find cheap burger/fries places. Now if you want a bad falafel, you can find that on every block.