Matzo Ball Soup, River North and environs?

Something of a timely request here. A friend of mine has a hankering for some matzo ball soup. I do, too. What a coincidence. We're going to the Andrew Bird show at the Fourth Presbyterian Church tonight, it's at like Chestnut and Michigan, 900 N or so. Is there anywhere that serves up a decent bowl at around 10 pm or so? Am willing to drive some, but obviously the further it is, the longer it takes to get there, and the later it becomes.

Not sure I can make it up to The Bagel before they close at 10 pm. Any other options? Doesn't have to be a Jewish deli or anything, but what's out there?

Thanks so much.

I think most places probably will probably be closed by 10 pm.

I was going to suggest Steve's deli on Hubbard, just west of Orleans. I can't vouch for their Matzo balls but I saw a few orders go past as I ate lunch there today.

You could try Eleven City Diner but that's in the South Loop. They might be open later?

You can try Wao Bao across the street and pretend it's kreplach soup.

Seems like the only place that's open and nearby is Ada's. Thoughts? Will this suit my needs?

If not, a place for something good and hearty and maybe Eastern European and open late? Grasping at straws here. Veselka?

I had the matzo ball soup at Ada's once, and thought it was very, very salty.

No experience - but what about:
Mitchell's Original
1953 North Clybourn Ave.
(773) 883-1157‎

Mitchell's closes at 3 pm. Boo. In other news I thought, hmm, Cafe Spiaggia might be delicious and according to this Foodie iPhone app thing I have seats until 10 pm. Turns out they only seat until 9:30. Lame, lame, lame.

What to do?

Here are some places where you can have good matzo ball soup, but not that late.

Steve's Deli on Hubbard would have been my first recommendation as well, but they're only open till 8 pm, according to their Metromix listing.

Ashkenaz Deli is slightly closer, but they're only open till 7.

Eleven City Diner is only open till 9:30 during the week.

Maybe have the soup before the show?

Fox & Obel is open till midnight. They had their matzo ball soup in their fresh soup section (just past the fish counter) late Monday night when I was there. I don't see it on the cafe menu on their website but maybe if you asked in the cafe they might be willing to heat some up for you so you could eat it there...? (Otherwise you could buy it until midnight but you would have to get the soup to go and eat it somewhere else.)

I don't normally think of them as a Jewish deli but I can tell you that their Jewish deli style kippered salmon is outstanding, and at $19.99/lb it's cheaper than Kaufman's.

This is probably your best bet for getting matzo ball soup after the show.

BryanZ wrote:If not, a place for something good and hearty and maybe Eastern European and open late? Grasping at straws here. Veselka?

Isn't Veselka ~800 miles away? Who knows if it'll be open by the time you get there?

Or did you mean Podhalanka?

Veselka is always open and I miss it so.

Alas, I got out of the show just moments too late to get to Ada's. Fox and Obel would've been a good idea. This weekend maybe I'll do a matzo ball soup progressive so I can utilize some of these great suggestions. Thanks, everyone.

Ended up at Tabaq for some late dinner. Place was pretty good in an is-that-television-playing-Al-Jazeera-seriously?-I-think-it-is-but-my-Arabic-is-rusty kind of way. Cheap, too.

BryanZ wrote:Alas, I got out of the show just moments too late to get to Ada's. Fox and Obel would've been a good idea. This weekend maybe I'll do a matzo ball soup progressive so I can utilize some of these great suggestions. Thanks, everyone.

If you do get to Ada's in your weekend survey, I'll be interested to know if the off-the-charts saltiness of the matzo ball soup that I had was a one-off that day, or whether that's just the way it is.

I was good for my word and ate a truly excessive amount of matzo ball soup today. I feel kind of ill actually. I think I overdosed on Jewish penicillin or something like that.

Started off at Steve's, went to Manny's, and got taken to the house by the Mish Mash soup at The Bagel.

Steve's Deli

The service at Steve's was a bit disorganized, but I got my soup eventually. It's an interesting concept that I like and one that many chefs would probably sign on to, too. Make a good broth, properly cook your garnish, build the soup in the bowl. This was the most elegant dish I'd have today, but I thought it was a bit light on flavor. The carrots were kind of bland, and there wasn't enough broth overall. Still, I'd go back for this soup.

Manny's

One can't go to Manny's and get just soup. So naturally I got a half sandwich, too. Corned beef seemed to be the default, as the sandwich was simply handed to me even though I might've preferred pastrami. Oh well, this was my first Manny's visit in a couple years and a nice reintroduction. The soup was the heartiest of the three I sampled today. The broth was richer but probably too oily too. The matzo ball was also the coarsest but not necessarily worse. A very simple bowl of soup but quite satisfying.

The Bagel

My friend happened to call me just as I was sitting down to the counter here and when I told him I was about to order the Mish Mash he paused, chuckled, and said it was "pretty filling". This bowl of soup was absurdly, frighteningly large--naturally, a couple "that's what she said" texts were exchanged between myself and said friend when the soup was placed before me. There's all kinds of culinary Judaica in this bowl that I wasn't fully able to identify. According to the menu: Chicken broth with "the works", matzo ball, kreplach, noodles, rice and kasha. It felt like more. This was a serious bowl of food and quite tasty, but the broth had a very strong spiced component that got a bit tiring after a while. Then again, that could've been due to the fact that I'd probably consumed about a half gallon of chicken stock by this point. If I had to guess, the spices evoked nutmeg or clove.

In my idea world I'd take presentation cues from Steve's, refine Manny' hearty broth, and include The Bagel's extremely pillowy matzo ball.

As something of an aside, it was refreshing to be put back into Jewish culture, if only for a few hours. Naturally, I don't really mean this in a religious sense but in a cultural one. I'm not Jewish but growing up where I did and with my friends cultural Judaism was always a part of my life. In Chicago I feel like I've kind of missed out on that. From the cute, jappy girls to the onery old Jewish men, I was thoroughly charmed. My body is awash in chicken broth, my stomach might be overflowing with matzo meal, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

BryanZ wrote: My body is awash in chicken broth, my stomach might be overflowing with matzo meal, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

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In Chicago I feel like I've kind of missed out on that. From the cute, jappy girls to the onery old Jewish men, I was thoroughly charmed. My body is awash in chicken broth, my stomach might be overflowing with matzo meal, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Come up north - Rogers Park, Skokie, Wilmette, Highland Park, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield -plenty of Jewish cultural and religious action here. Not to mention Chicken soup.