As is the case so many times in television, the kitchen actually looks bigger in those shots than it really is. It really is close quarters both in the kitchen and on the floor. Adding equipment or personnel is simply not an option.

All of that discussion is pointless anyway. It's been pointed out here and elsewhere, Burt does business the way he wants to do business. He doesn't want a bigger store or to put out more product. Not to be snotty, but if that attitude doesn't sit well with you, there are plenty of other pizza joints in the area.

I remember the first time I met Doug Sohn and asked him why he didn't stay open until 6:00pm so it would be more convenient for me to pick up dinner from him. Doug, very politely, but very firmly, and with a pleasant smile frozen on his face, told me he works the hours he wants to work, and if I had some better ideas on how to run a Hot Dog stand, I should go ahead and open one up. Not quite the exact words he used, but not too far off either.

Funny how Doug and Burt have become the personification of two of our city's best known food icons. Instead of asking why they don't do business like all their competitors, maybe all those other places should start doing business like them.

Buddy

Hey BuddyRoadhouse are you part owner of Burt's? I'm out of the loop, and based on your comments, it seems like you are involved somehow with Burt's. Just curious!

razbry wrote:Hey BuddyRoadhouse are you part owner of Burt's? I'm out of the loop, and based on your comments, it seems like you are involved somehow with Burt's. Just curious!

HI,

Buddy is not an owner, though he was worked for Burt on weekends for many years. It was Buddy who called our attention to Burt some years ago.

Regards,

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:I remember the first time I met Doug Sohn and asked him why he didn't stay open until 6:00pm so it would be more convenient for me to pick up dinner from him. Doug, very politely, but very firmly, and with a pleasant smile frozen on his face, told me he works the hours he wants to work, and if I had some better ideas on how to run a Hot Dog stand, I should go ahead and open one up. Not quite the exact words he used, but not too far off either.

Funny how Doug and Burt have become the personification of two of our city's best known food icons. Instead of asking why they don't do business like all their competitors, maybe all those other places should start doing business like them.

Sometimes those places exist precisely because their owners wanted a way they could live their life the way they want. For example, as noted about our friend Eddie on the website for Edzo's, the burger restaurant in Evanston, "Eddie’s a culinary school graduate and a veteran Chicago line cook. After working in Barcelona, Bologna, and way too many fine-dining kitchens, he decided to try and create a situation where he could carve out a living and still make it home by 6:00 so he could eat dinner with his family every night." That's why Edzo's closes at 4:00 pm. I'm glad we have unique places like those among our eating choices!

Cathy2 wrote:Buddy is not an owner, though he was worked for Burt on weekends for many years. It was Buddy who called our attention to Burt some years ago.

And occasionally during the week, based on my availability. Just for the record, it would be 38 years.

Buddy

Cathy2 wrote:
Buddy is not an owner, though he was worked for Burt on weekends for many years. It was Buddy who called our attention to Burt some years ago.

And occasionally during the week, based on my availability. Just for the record, it would be 38 years.

Buddy

Ahhhh....and another piece of LTH history drops into place! Thanks, and someday I'm going to work out ordering some Burt's pizza (a day in advance), drive 60 miles and arrive on time to eat it! Someday.

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Buddy is not an owner, though he was worked for Burt on weekends for many years. It was Buddy who called our attention to Burt some years ago.

And occasionally during the week, based on my availability. Just for the record, it would be 38 years.

Buddy

Wow, must be darker in there than I thought because you sure don't look that old.

I was spawned, fully grown 38 years ago when Burt put a pizza in the oven that had a little too much yeast in the dough. I can't say I understand the chemistry of it all, but 23 minutes later I popped out, ready to go to work.

Buddy

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:I was spawned, fully grown 38 years ago when Burt put a pizza in the oven that had a little too much yeast in the dough. I can't say I understand the chemistry of it all, but 23 minutes later I popped out, ready to go to work.

Buddy

LMAO! I guess that explains your tender crustiness!

Thanks, for the laugh. That's one of the funniest things I've read here in quite some time.

=R=

"Tender crustiness".

I guess that's a polite way to put it...

Buddy

(cross-posting in the other Burt's thread)
I'm sure most of you know, the episode of Check, Please! with Burt's is airing this Friday at 8:00pm.

Make your reservations for the next year NOW.

The Burt's Check Please episode aired tonight. Too bad the guy who recommended it sounded like he had laryngitis.

...and the episode is up on the Check, Please website.

Pretty favorable review overall. The video of the pizza itself was ten times better than the Bourdain episode. In hi-def, it's perfectly representative of what Burt's pizza looks like to the naked eye. The colors on the uncooked pizzas in a queue ready for the oven were vibrant as well. Very yummy-looking. The cameraman for this show does a nice job, indeed.

I suppose the other two non-recommenders 'got' what Burt does, with the rules & such, and it should have come across to the viewer as well.

The "Check, Please Effect" after the showings this weekend should be a true test of the stability of the ordering system, and how far in advance folks will book in at Burt's. Will they have to pay in advance eventually, a la NeXT? Chime in, Buddy!

I suppose the other two non-recommenders 'got' what Burt does, with the rules & such, and it should have come across to the viewer as well.

Alpana mentioned that the other two were briefed in advance on the "rules" so that they would have a good experience.

jnm123 wrote:The "Check, Please Effect" after the showings this weekend should be a true test of the stability of the ordering system, and how far in advance folks will book in at Burt's. Will they have to pay in advance eventually, a la NeXT? Chime in, Buddy!

All I know is, tonight is the first day of the rest of my life...

Buddy

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:All I know is, tonight is the first day of the rest of my life...

Buddy

LOL. I'll see you in a few weeks once the rush is over.

stevez wrote:

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:All I know is, tonight is the first day of the rest of my life...

Buddy

LOL. I'll see you in a few weeks once the rush is over.

Until they re-run the episode...

Glad I made my reservations for next week yesterday.

My wife and I had a Burt's vs. Gulliver's deep dish-off a couple weeks ago. And there's so much love for Burt's on the forum, I'm wondering whether anyone else here agrees with our judgment: Burt's had delicious, high-quality (and huge!) toppings (we got sausage and bell peppers). But it had much less sauce, which exacerbated the main thing I've always had trouble finding a taste for: the crust. It's not the flavor I don't like -- it has a yeasty tang that clearly shows all the care Burt puts into making his doughs -- but the texture. This one was takeout, and we even cooked it a bit further in our oven (as we usually do with deep dish, precisely to crisp them up a bit further), but, just like when we dined in the restaurant itself a year or so earlier, it just tasted doughy and underdone, which in combination with the sparse sauce left the pizza tasting mainly of bread that needed more time to finish up in the oven (especially for bites with no toppings on them). Gulliver's, in contrast, while it didn't have quite as much airiness and tang, was much more buttery in the crust, had more sauce, lovely ingredients that gave Burt's some stiff competition (especially their obviously butter-sauteed onions!), and -- what to me puts Gulliver's ahead of much deep dish in the city -- had just the right amount of cheese: not so much that it's all you can taste and your intestines are glued shut for days, but enough to make for a gooey slice whose ingredients all end up blending together into a creamy consistency that matches perfectly to the crunch of the crust. So for us, Gulliver's came out on top. Burt's was truly great too, but I just can't figure out if I've just been unlucky with the doughs I've eaten from there, or if those here who think his pizzas are the best just prefer their crust that way.

i<3pizza wrote:My wife and I had a Burt's vs. Gulliver's deep dish-off a couple weeks ago. And there's so much love for Burt's on the forum, I'm wondering whether anyone else here agrees with our judgment: Burt's had delicious, high-quality (and huge!) toppings (we got sausage and bell peppers). But it had much less sauce, which exacerbated the main thing I've always had trouble finding a taste for: the crust. It's not the flavor I don't like -- it has a yeasty tang that clearly shows all the care Burt puts into making his doughs -- but the texture. This one was takeout, and we even cooked it a bit further in our oven (as we usually do with deep dish, precisely to crisp them up a bit further), but, just like when we dined in the restaurant itself a year or so earlier, it just tasted doughy and underdone, which in combination with the sparse sauce left the pizza tasting mainly of bread that needed more time to finish up in the oven (especially for bites with no toppings on them). Gulliver's, in contrast, while it didn't have quite as much airiness and tang, was much more buttery in the crust, had more sauce, lovely ingredients that gave Burt's some stiff competition (especially their obviously butter-sauteed onions!), and -- what to me puts Gulliver's ahead of much deep dish in the city -- had just the right amount of cheese: not so much that it's all you can taste and your intestines are glued shut for days, but enough to make for a gooey slice whose ingredients all end up blending together into a creamy consistency that matches perfectly to the crunch of the crust. So for us, Gulliver's came out on top. Burt's was truly great too, but I just can't figure out if I've just been unlucky with the doughs I've eaten from there, or if those here who think his pizzas are the best just prefer their crust that way.

As someone that's eaten both many times, I'll make a few comments on this.

First, I've had the opposite issue with Burt's at times, too much sauce. To the point that I usually order now easy on the sauce. OTOH I've never found Gullivers to have much sauce.

About the crust, personally I've gotten to the point that I don't order anything larger than a medium at Burt's. Past that point I find the crust starts to overwhelm. I don't seem to have that issue at Gullivers. I can get the large and it's still not too much.

Gullivers still makes a fine pizza, but if had to choose, I'd pick Burt's, easy sauce, medium with double sausage. If you're a sausage fan, this is really the deal breaker.

As far as Check, Please!, I guess it's good that they warned the folks to Burt's Rules. Still, it was funny to hear them talk about trying to order appetizers.

While I'm mourning the loss of the Glenview Gulliver's a little (Chicago pan pizza within two miles!), I in know way find anything about it superior to other pan varieties: it doesn't have the delicious, massive quantities of sausage that Gino's and Malnati's server, and it doesn't have the chewy, charred crust of Burt's. While Gulliver's crust has a buttery flavor not found in Burt's, it's a fraction of the butteriness of Malnati's, and Burt's to me tastes rich in olive oil (maybe it's my imagination, I don't imagine Burt or BuddyRoadHouse will let out their secrets). Gulliver's is sort of a mean of other pan varieties: none of the extremes of any of the other brands.

And, though it's been said before, Burt is also the originator of Gullivers pizza, so it all goes back to him no matter your preference.

stevez wrote:And, though it's been said before, Burt is also the originator of Gullivers pizza, so it all goes back to him no matter your preference.

Understood -- but that doesn't mean he hasn't learned a thing or two, or that Gulliver's hasn't changed things either (my childhood memory of Gullivers in Niles at Milwaukee and Dempster is of a cheesier pie).

I enjoyed the Check Please episode . They showed Burt at his curmudgeonly best, while showing the appetizing results of his dedication to the pizza art. One thing that is not mentioned is the reason for the "Burt Rules"-it is pretty much a small time, mostly one man operation. During the day, it is usually just Burt, while in the evening he is aided only by his wife. On the busier nights, Buddy is there. It is not an employee heavy operation, and people will hopefully understand that the "Burt Rules" are merely an attempt to make the situation work for all involved.

I want to know why we didn't see Buddy in that episode of Check Please!

Because I don't exist. I am merely a figment of your collective imagination.

Buddy (or am I?)

JoelF wrote:While I'm mourning the loss of the Glenview Gulliver's a little (Chicago pan pizza within two miles!), I in know way find anything about it superior to other pan varieties: it doesn't have the delicious, massive quantities of sausage that Gino's and Malnati's server, and it doesn't have the chewy, charred crust of Burt's. While Gulliver's crust has a buttery flavor not found in Burt's, it's a fraction of the butteriness of Malnati's, and Burt's to me tastes rich in olive oil (maybe it's my imagination, I don't imagine Burt or BuddyRoadHouse will let out their secrets). Gulliver's is sort of a mean of other pan varieties: none of the extremes of any of the other brands.

That makes sense. I get overwhelmed by the amount of sausage on Lou Malnati's pizza and feel a little queasy by the end, like I ate a roll of meat instead of a pizza proper. The same goes for the butter crust -- I like the balance of a lot, but not too much, that Gulliver's has. Not that I would turn down a Pizano's buttercrust! It's just my taste, I guess, that the 'mean' of Gulliver's is the perfect balance of everything I want in a deep dish.

And I agree about the olive oil flavor, which I really like in pizza crust.

midas wrote:As someone that's eaten both many times, I'll make a few comments on this.
About the crust, personally I've gotten to the point that I don't order anything larger than a medium at Burt's. Past that point I find the crust starts to overwhelm. I don't seem to have that issue at Gullivers. I can get the large and it's still not too much.

The Burt's that we faced off against Gulliver's was extra large (because we wanted a lot to enjoy in later weeks), so I'll have to try a smaller one sometime to see how the dough comes out overall. Thanks for the tip! (Which, I suppose, goes back in part to the OP that started this thread.)

And yes -- it all goes back to Burt, which is why I got mad respect for him!

i<3pizza wrote:That makes sense. I get overwhelmed by the amount of sausage on Lou Malnati's pizza and feel a little queasy by the end, like I ate a roll of meat instead of a pizza proper.

I feel the same way and have ordered my pizzas at Lou's with 'sausage crumbles' for years. Not only do I feel better afterwards but I think it makes for a better pizza. I can't believe I'm saying this but even with deep dish pizza, sometimes less is more.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

i<3pizza wrote:That makes sense. I get overwhelmed by the amount of sausage on Lou Malnati's pizza and feel a little queasy by the end, like I ate a roll of meat instead of a pizza proper.

I feel the same way and have ordered my pizzas at Lou's with 'sausage crumbles' for years. Not only do I feel better afterwards but I think it makes for a better pizza. I can't believe I'm saying this but even with deep dish pizza, sometimes less is more.
=R=

Yep...going on 20 years of 'sausage crumbles' or when my wife orders 'crumbled sausage' also. Love Burt's too but Lou's just more geographically convienent for the majority of our deep dish.

i<3pizza wrote:The Burt's that we faced off against Gulliver's was extra large (because we wanted a lot to enjoy in later weeks), so I'll have to try a smaller one sometime to see how the dough comes out overall. Thanks for the tip! (Which, I suppose, goes back in part to the OP that started this thread.)

Funny, I completely forgot about the original title of this thread.

Unfortunately, I get to Burt's so seldom, I also was one to order the large so I could freeze a bunch of it. Now I just get 2 mediums.

I just read that Burt's was closed due to an illness. Can anyone confirm?