ChiNOLA wrote:As an added bonus, Charlie's is within a stone's throw of both ECS and Hecky's - a situation that is just crying out for a side by side Evanston fried chicken taste off between these three worthy contenders.

Anyone interested?

Absolutely! And I've recently entered the hardcore "Envie" phase of Southern food withdrawal. I desperately need a fix.

Absolutely! In fact I intend to relive one of the dinners of my youth tonight by going to Cajun Charlie's for fried chicken and Fanny's spaghetti. That won't deter me form doing a three way chicken-off ion the near future, though.

stevez wrote:That won't deter me form doing a three way chicken-off ion the near future, though.

ChiNOLA,

As a fan of the fried chicken at both Hecky's (Evanston) and Evanston Chicken Shack, I'm with Sal and Steve, great idea, count me in.

Enjoy,
Gary

I'm in. When?

Hi,

ChiNOLA - I guess you need to assign a time and a place to rendezvous on Events. If it were a Thursday around 12:30, I could easily do it or evenings!

Regards,

Aaargh! I just picked up a freelance gig on the Southside, so I'd definitely need a weekend or an evening in which to participate.

What say ye?

I'd go for a gumbo-a-thon: Charlies, Langiappe, Heaven on Seventh, and as a point of evil comparison Dixie Kitchen.

Short of that, Sal and ChiNOLA, I would be interested in your comparisons.

I posted This Notice on the Events board - tentatively planned for Saturday, July 16th.

Nice to see this place get a shout-out in this week's edition of Chicago Mag'sDish

HI,

On our way home, Josephine and I drove past Cajun Charlie's Restaurant. The shades are pulled and the windows painted 'Cajun Charlie's' are scrubbed clean.

Regards,

Thanks Cathy,

Cajun Charlie's started out with great potential and good food but I think Charlie didn't give it enough of his personal attention and it declined. I observed the slow decline over a series of visits.

Jesper

I think Charlie is a very good chef ... but a lousy businessman. At one point he told me that he needed an investor, but what I really think he needs is a strong manger - I think that' s why he could be so successful at Fanny's. Henry Adaniya, where are you?

nr706,

Who's Henry Adaniya?

Jesper

Former, recently retired owner of Trio, who brought Rick Tramanto & Gale Gand (Tru), Shawn McClain (Spring, Green Zebra, Custom House), Grant Achatz (Alinea), and, arguably, Dale Levitski to prominence.

If by better management you mean not lying to customers.

We visited twice. Both instances the bill was over $50 and we wanted to pay by credit card. Both times, we were told the credit card machine was down and we had to pay cash. Thanks.

I agree with the comment of brunswickrules. The first few times I went to Charlie's, I used my credit card with no problem. Then I was repeatedly told the credit card machine didn''t work. I certainly got suspicious.

Jesper

Charlie was - maybe reluctantly - honest with me, Gary and Cathy at a lunch we had prior to the event that shall remain mentionless, that he was having financial troubles. My guess is the credit card troubles were related to bank troubles. The bank processing his credit card transactions might have cut him off (pure speculation), which would cause the machine to not work.

I'm not trying to apologize for the guy, he clearly made a lot of mistakes. I'm just trying to add some perspective that I have.

HI,

I frequently watch WGN news while eating lunch at home. I especially like the Lunchbreak segment, which features a chef or cookbook author preparing a dish.

Today's featured Chef was Charles Murray whose face and voice rang a bell. It took a minute longer before I realized it was the Chef-Owner of Cajun Charlie's. He now has a private catering business delivering meals to families called Custom Dinner Design http://www.customdinnerdesign.com. He has been in this business for four years obliquely commenting he had a restaurant before that.

On WGN's website, they have recipes for oven baked chicken and seafood gumbo.

Regards,

I bet that if he had his druthers, old Charlie would prefer not to have his current venture associated with this thread. New start and all that, and surely not the kind of marketing likely to bring him business.

Hard to escape your history once it gets out here on this Internet thingie...

nr706 wrote:I think I finally figured out this photo posting stuff.

But it sure takes one back when one can find the above comment from May 12, 2005 - nearly a millennium ago!

Hi,

Despite the financial issues which affected his last days at the restaurant, there were people who like what he offered. He was also one who knew how to make Fanny's Meat Sauce, which meant a lot to people. I'm sure there are people who would like to find him to get those dishes or renew their acquaintance.

He is four years into his new business, which is longer than Cajun Charlie's.

Regards,

I'll admit that I'd gladly pay Charlie for the Fannie's spaghetti sauce recipe, but I'd have to think twice before patronizing his new catering business.