Just got back from a Swine Flu-turned-Megadeth and some of the homemade chips which are really outstanding, especially when dipped in ketchup. I felt pretty good arriving at 11:15 with no one there and getting a seat immediately. Now a nap...

their ketchup is awesome--i also love the roasted garlic mayo they put on the plague bringer... i wonder if they'd provide that as a side for dipping

It really is good ketchup! But then again I just love ketchup. They'd probably bring you a side of sauce if you asked. It's not the Wiener's Circle, after all.

Forgot to mention, the Megadeth is supposedly on the menu forever now, not just for summer. Yippee!

MBK wrote:their ketchup is awesome--i also love the roasted garlic mayo they put on the plague bringer... i wonder if they'd provide that as a side for dipping

I asked about the ketchup a while back and they kick it up with the inclusion of ground giardinera, so I was told. I also regularly augment my fries with a request for their aioli or a side of the chipotle mayonnaise, for which I've never been upcharged.

headcase wrote:

Chitown B wrote:

headcase wrote:I look at Kuma's like I do places like Big Star, and to a lesser extent Small Bar, they are bars that serve food; I don't expect them to act like normal restaurants. It's also alot harder to try and estimate wait times, how can you tell if a table is just having food, or intends to have half a dozen beers? That can be the difference between a one hour table turn, and three hours.

SSDD

I don't agree. At some point Kuma's became way more than a bar that serves food, shifting to primarily a food establishment that serves a lot of beer. Same as Hopleaf. People aren't making treks to either of these places to grab an Original Sin.

But is that the owner's fault or the customer's?

I would never go to Kuma's JUST for a burger, if I go it is to eat and hang out drinking beers for a while. When I go out to eat at a restaurant, I figure it will be an hour - hour and a half from the time I sit down to the time I leave; I don't put those limitations on bars that serve food.

SSDD

PS -- I've been here almost fiver years and I still haven't been up to Hopleaf, but when I get up there it will be for the beer selection, not the food.

I don't see how anything is anyone's "fault" - that's just how it is. To ignore that doesn't make sense.

And if you're not going to Hopleaf for the food I feel sorry for you. It's excellent. I recommend the mussels if you like mussels - they are exquisite.

Chitown B wrote:
I don't see how anything is anyone's "fault" - that's just how it is. To ignore that doesn't make sense.

And if you're not going to Hopleaf for the food I feel sorry for you. It's excellent. I recommend the mussels if you like mussels - they are exquisite.

But to me it isn't about ignoring it, it is about how a venue chooses to run itself. This entire sub-thread started with comments about how establishments run themselves. Kuma's tends to run itself, IMO, more like a bar that serves food than a restaurant. The original post was in reference to why they chose not to quote wait times over the phone, I believe this is because of their business model: it is just too hard to do accurately, and doing it inaccurately would just cause more issues. So many of the problems, again IMO, are because customers expect one thing and get another.

If someone wants restaurant quality food and service, go to a restaurant not a bar.

SSDD

I agree about quoting the wait times, but I don't agree that Kuma's would qualify more as a bar than a restaurant anymore. If the smoking ban was still only held to restaurants and not bars, I would venture a guess that Kuma's would've been banned as a restaurant since I think more than 60% of their gross is probably food. That's just a guess and I might be wrong, but it's definitely not too much of a stretch.

Hop Leaf won't quote wait times over the phone. My recent experiences at Hop Leaf indicate that the wait times are generally about half of what they quote you (though I generally go on weekdays, not weekends).

I think the reason places don't want quote wait times over the phone is that the wait time can change quickly and they don't want someone to be told there is a 15 min wait and then show up and find a one-hour wait. Maybe there are other reasons. To me, why not just say that the current wait is 15 minutes but this is an estimate and it could be wrong. In addition, by the time you show up, the estimate could be an hour. That too could be wrong.

agreed. At least give a ballpark. 15 min or 2 hours is a huge difference.

I think the problem is that customers often tune out the "it could be wrong/longer" portion.

Panther in the Den wrote:I was watching Unwrapped last night and they had a feature on a burger place in New York that was no stranger to lines.

They set up a live webcam so you could check out the length of the line on the Internet and make your decision.

Pretty cool.

Found the feed

shake shack - sounds like it's out of Grease.

Finally made it to Kuma's last night with my brother and cousin. We got there around 9:00 and were seated in about 15 minutes, which was a nice surprise. I took a glance at the grill and saw a dozen or more thick burgers sitting cooking. They looked amazing. My brother and cousin ordered the BBQ Pork Fries. I wasn't super hungry so I only tasted it. The pulled pork was excellent, I almost wanted to order a Pig Destroyer right there. Anyway, my cousin and I went with the Original Kuma Burger while my brother had a Pantera. The burger itself was amazing, cooked perfectly, tender, juicy, and a little on the fatty tasting side. Not that this was a bad thing, but at the end of the meal, I was in a fat coma! I wouldn't be surprised if this meat was around a 70/30 ratio. I loved the pretzel bun and the bacon was great (I didn't get cheese on it). The egg was not my favorite. I normally don't order eggs cooked sunny-side up and the runny yolk combined with the overall fatty taste overwhelmed me a bit - in fact I think had I skipped the egg, it would have been better for me. My brother (who had been to Kumas a few times) loved his Pantera burger. I thought the waffle fries were fair at best and the homemade chips were awful. I was shocked at how bad the chips were. A bag of Lays would have been better.

All in all, we were very pleased and will defintely be back. Next time I'd like to sit on the patio, the grill was a bit smoky. I have my eye on the Mastodon for next time, although that pulled pork was making me think of a Led Zeppelin or Pig Destroyer. Great place, though I am glad I didn't have to wait an hour or two to sit!

Anyone know when the outdoor deck closes? They told me they don't do carryout orders until the outdoor deck closes. Thanks.

FoodSnob77 wrote:Anyone know when the outdoor deck closes? They told me they don't do carryout orders until the outdoor deck closes. Thanks.

I do believe it's open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but it may also depend on the weather. Do a search specifically in this thread, I'm pretty sure it was discussed somewhere in here.

September burger of the month -- The Black Oak Arkansas: 10oz patty on our pretzel roll topped with feral wild boar bacon, red wine bbq/steak sauce, aged white cheddar cheese and three floyds alpha king beer battered deep fried shallot rings.


Sounds darn good. (I prefer my bacon feral.) Anyone tried this yet? I'll be braving the crowds tomorrow night.

I heard the Black Oak Arkansas is now on the menu, Insect Warfare is off. There is another burger that supposedly has been added to the menu, named after one of my favorite bands - Thin Lizzy. Not sure what's on it.

Ram4 wrote:I heard the Black Oak Arkansas is now on the menu, Insect Warfare is off.

I had both of those the last time I was there. The former was phenomenal, in large part due to the red wine sauce. I was really disappointing with the Insect Warfare though. It was supposed to be the closest option to the recently removed Dark Throne (RIP), but was just boring. I supposed I might have had a bad batch, as the green chiles weren't even perceptible. It just had a cake of nothingness stacked on top though. Regardless, adding the Black Oak Arkansas is a great call.

FoodSnob77 wrote:Anyone know when the outdoor deck closes? They told me they don't do carryout orders until the outdoor deck closes. Thanks.

I was just there yesterday, and I believe the date they wrote on the chalkboard was Oct 18th.

I ordered the Brujeria, and thought it was delicious. I was disappointed the insect warfare was off the menu. I loved that goat cheese puff of goodness.

Visited Kuma's on Monday afternoon around 2:45. The place was hopping with about 3 or 4 groups of people waiting for a table. Since I was rolling solo, I was able to grab the last open seat at the bar. The beer list was decent enough without anything to get really excited about. I decided to go with the Plague Bringer and chips. Burger was cooked perfectly. Juicy and full of beef flavor. I liked the combo of spice from the hot sauce and jalapenos and the onslaught of garlic.

So, I've been eating vegan for 2 months now (for the health benefit for me mostly, not for ethical animal reasons) and I'll have the first week of January off while I switch jobs. The first thing that I thought of to do with that time off was to hit Kuma's on a Tuesday at about 3pm for a burger. My future hubby immediately got jealous and said he was going to take a day off work and come with me. I am REALLY looking forward to it. I also fear for our future children.

great pics! though I never understand people getting burgers so rare - it's not the same as steak, it mixes all the stuff on the outside to the inside....... just makes me think germs

the wimperoo wrote: Visited Kuma's on Monday afternoon around 2:45. The place was hopping with about 3 or 4 groups of people waiting for a table. Since I was rolling solo, I was able to grab the last open seat at the bar. The beer list was decent enough without anything to get really excited about.
(edit)

The beer list at Kuma's is spectacular! Because (if you had read the entire menu, you would have noted a quote at the bottom of one page) it will not serve any beer brewed for Anheuser-BuschinBev or MillerCoors. It has very strong invective against those two conglomerates (who are almost certainly behind the 'pay-to-play' situation affecting craft brewers like Metropolitan Brwg.).

Chitown B wrote:great pics! though I never understand people getting burgers so rare - it's not the same as steak, it mixes all the stuff on the outside to the inside....... just makes me think germs

Ok, I'll bite. Because overcooked beef doesn't taste good, whether it's ground or in steak form.

Besides, places like Kuma's don't deal in mass produced ground beef so there is very little likelihood of germie badness being present in the final product. I don't know if they grind their own beef like Edzo's does, but if they do it should further decrease the potential for contamination in the beef.

Great, now I'm craving a bloody red burger and it's not even 8am!

pudgym29 wrote:It has very strong invective against those two conglomerates (who are almost certainly behind the 'pay-to-play' situation affecting craft brewers like Metropolitan Brwg.).

The full story of pay to play, and Metropolitan's role opposing it, is here.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... tion-finds

nr706 wrote:The full story of pay to play, and Metropolitan's role opposing it, is here.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... tion-finds

Great article by Crain's. Thanks for pointing it out.

SMT wrote:

Chitown B wrote:great pics! though I never understand people getting burgers so rare - it's not the same as steak, it mixes all the stuff on the outside to the inside....... just makes me think germs

Ok, I'll bite. Because overcooked beef doesn't taste good, whether it's ground or in steak form.

Besides, places like Kuma's don't deal in mass produced ground beef so there is very little likelihood of germie badness being present in the final product. I don't know if they grind their own beef like Edzo's does, but if they do it should further decrease the potential for contamination in the beef.

Great, now I'm craving a bloody red burger and it's not even 8am!

I'm not saying overcooked, just cooked enough. I like mine medium to medium well - maybe a little more rare on steaks, where there is a grain to it - ground beef is just soft.

Anyway, went and got the Sleep burger yesterday for one of the last days it's offered Sorry for the quality, they're iPhone pics and it's dark in there:

Chitown B wrote:great pics! though I never understand people getting burgers so rare - it's not the same as steak, it mixes all the stuff on the outside to the inside....... just makes me think germs

It's for that big raw beefy taste you just don't get with beef cooked to firmness. I don't mind the well done thin (1/6 pound or so) patties you get at a place that serves fast-food style burgers, but for something like this (which is already way too big a burger for my tastes), it needs to be medium-rare to rare for me to be palatable at all, otherwise, it's a homogeneously textured puck of meat. With medium rare, I get a little firmness on the outside, squishiness on the inside, as well as a mix of caramelized beef juices and those raw beefy flavors. Of course, I also love raw beef and eat steak tartare at any opportunity I get, so my tastes skew raw.

What's your preference with steak tartare? I had it once with fine ground meat, and another with larger pieces...I like the larger better.

Chitown B wrote: I'm not saying overcooked, just cooked enough. I like mine medium to medium well - maybe a little more rare on steaks, where there is a grain to it - ground beef is just soft.

You say cooked enough, I say overcooked

I know this point has already been debated ad nauseum on LTH, but I'm definitely of the school of thought that medium or medium well cooking destroys the good beefy flavor of a steak. And as far as well done is concerned, I say why bother at all.

Binko wrote:It's for that big raw beefy taste you just don't get with beef cooked to firmness. I don't mind the well done thin (1/6 pound or so) patties you get at a place that serves fast-food style burgers, but for something like this (which is already way too big a burger for my tastes), it needs to be medium-rare to rare for me to be palatable at all, otherwise, it's a homogeneously textured puck of meat. With medium rare, I get a little firmness on the outside, squishiness on the inside, as well as a mix of caramelized beef juices and those raw beefy flavors. Of course, I also love raw beef and eat steak tartare at any opportunity I get, so my tastes skew raw.

Ita with Binko. When it comes to thicker burgers like those served at Kuma's or the char burger at Edzo's, bloody is the (only, best?) way to go. Anything else just tastes like meatloaf to me, which is something of which I am definitely not a fan. In theory I agree that thinner burgers don't suffer quite as much of an insult by being cooked to well done, but then again I'm not generally an enthusiast of that type of burger either (save for a once in a blue moon trip through Culver's.) Then again, steak tartare served with a raw egg on top makes me a supremely happy girl!