5-cent chicken, Sundays in November

Chef Luciano & Gourmet Chicken celebrates its reopening with a cheap chicken deal.

LAZ wrote:Chef Luciano & Gourmet Chicken celebrates its reopening with a cheap chicken deal.

Is it good?

Never mind that. How are the portions?

mrbarolo wrote:How are the portions?

A leg and a thigh, plus rice.

pairs4life wrote:

LAZ wrote:Chef Luciano & Gourmet Chicken celebrates its reopening with a cheap chicken deal.

Is it good?

It sounds like the five cent dinner will be roast chicken but Chef Luciano's fried chicken was good enough that John T Edge included it in his 10 places for fried chicken article for USA Today and wrote a chapter about it in his book, Fried Chicken, An American Story. Not long after all this attention, Chef Luciano stopped selling fried chicken altogether, opting instead for roasting. From a quick glance at the menu board a few weeks ago it looks like fried chicken is available again but on a smaller scale than previously. I haven't yet tried the current version but was a big fan 6 or 7 years ago. Chef Luciano, whose real name is Dave Gupta, is from India and isn't afraid to use spices.

LAZ wrote:In 1929, the first White Castle restaurant in Chicago opened on Cermak and Wabash. Since 1983, that building has been home to Chef Luciano & Gourmet Chicken, which just finished a renovation project to restore the building’s facade to its original splendor, complete with a castle tower, new lighting and period-specific signs. Seating has also been added, along with a chef’s table for VIP diners and a new walk-in cooler.

It warms my heart when I see sensitive restorations of this sort. Comparing two pictures taken a couple years apart will give an idea of the scale of the project. Bravo, Chef Luciano! I stopped by a few weeks ago to admire the new building and have some chicken (though I got sidetracked by a nearby roast pork and rapini sandwich). Are the new signs and lighting finished already?

June 2008


October 2010


I don't think the White Castle at Cermak & Wabash was the first in Chicago. It was certainly one of the early ones though. Also, the kitchen VIP table has been a quirky feature at Chef Luciano's for years.

Chef Luciano
49 E Cermak Rd
Chicago
312-326-0062

Gourmet Chicken
43 E Cermak Rd
Chicago
312-326-3450

On the topic of old White Castles, here's an impressively preserved specimen I saw just last week (not in Chicago). There are only a handful of these old porcelain-on-steel beauties left; this one was built in 1936. I'll post a little more on it soon in a more appropriate thread.



Castle Jeweler / Castle Accordion
3252 Lyndale Av S
Minneapolis MN
612-821-8766

Thank you all for the kind words about the renovation. We are very happy with the result and excited about the future of the restaurant.

Thought that you might be interested in this:

http://www.wbez.org/blog/lee-bey/2011-0 ... aves-83226

We are going before the landmarks commission tomorrow to begin proceedings to be declared a landmark building.

Also, Channel 7 picked up the story and we are going to be on the 5 PM new this evening.

Rocky Gupta
Co-owner
Chef Luciano & Gourmet Chicken