Courtland's Garage - Bar Burger

LTH,

I was a judge in the Roscoe Village Burger Fest a few weeks ago and Courtland's Garage was critic's choice winner, Butcher & Burger and Goose Island tied for second. I've been to Courtland's Garage for the winning burger a few times since, like it better each time. Plus they have tater tots, I love tater tots!

Courtland Street Burger sounds like, and looks like, a sloppy ill thought out mess, actually its a perfect modulation of burger, bun and toppings. It is one of the few burgers I have eaten out of hand in recent years where I did not get burger guano all over my shirt.

Courtland Street, with added fresh jalapeno



Courtland's Garage, count me a fan!

Courtland's Garage
1645 W. CORTLAND ST.
Chicago, IL
773-862-7877

Regards,
Gary

My first visit to Cortland's Garage was a big disappointment given the praise their burgers have drawn. I was there with friends Monday of last week for trivia, and I think everyone in the group ordered burgers. Half of them were given to the wrong people by the server, with the mistakes only being discovered after a bite had been taken due to the similarities between orders. A number of people did not receive theirs at the desired doneness ( always over cooked). Even once burgers had been redistributed some toppings were incorrect. Add to that rather slow and inattentive service on an evening of decent business but not crazy crowds, and I don't see myself going back.

The burgers were good, but nowhere near expectations. Not even in my top 15-20 for Chicago based on that evening. Likely an outlier given all of the other praise, but enough of one to keep me from returning on visits back to Chicago.

Well, Monday is $5 burger night. Perhaps try it again on "charge usual amount" night?

Not really worth my time to try a different night, nor is that an acceptable reason for so many errors and subpar service. The place wasn't anywhere near capacity, it was moderately busy. If a place that specializes in burgers can't keep the burgers straight on a night they choose to make them a special, maybe they need to re-think something.rr

ucjames wrote:My first visit to Cortland's Garage was a big disappointment given the praise their burgers have drawn. I was there with friends Monday of last week for trivia

The real question is: how is their trivia?

ucjames wrote:Not really worth my time to try a different night, nor is that an acceptable reason for so many errors and subpar service.

In two visits I encountered a friendly interactive bartenderess, smooth accurate service and a med-rare burger exactly the way I ordered it, with fresh jalapeno added. We've had very different experiences at Courtland's Garage, I will be back, and soon.

Regards,
Gary

gleam wrote:

ucjames wrote:My first visit to Cortland's Garage was a big disappointment given the praise their burgers have drawn. I was there with friends Monday of last week for trivia

The real question is: how is their trivia?

Not so hot, and we actually won the first game before taking off that night It was supposed to start at 7 and ended up starting around 8:15. All questions were from Trivial Pursuit cards, which are less than accurate at times. I had to explain to the host why an error in the last question made it impossible to answer, and what needed to change to get the answer they wanted. First place was $25 off our tab.

Anyway, again, I hope my experience was a true outlier. The servers we interacted with were very nice, but our server was fairly inattentive and made a ton of mistakes. Maybe it was just a bad night for her. It happens. I just didn't think the food was up to expectations regardless.

Gary,

Did you happen to find out what kind of burger mix they're using or rough fat ratio? Lack of an answer might not make a difference . . . tater tots . . . . mmmmmm.

The Standard Bar & Grill has the same ownership and serves the same burger.

Standard Bar & Grill
1332 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60622
(773) 904-8615
www.standardbarandgrill.com

BR wrote:Did you happen to find out what kind of burger mix they're using or rough fat ratio? Lack of an answer might not make a difference . . . tater tots . . . . mmmmmm.

Beef

Never inquired as to provenance, fat ratio or die size on grinder, but I think they grind the meat in-house. What I can comment on is they don't overwork and/or over compress the meat resulting in a juicy texturally pleasing burger patty.

Next time I'll inquire as to the makeup of the burger mix.

ucjames wrote:

gleam wrote:

ucjames wrote:My first visit to Cortland's Garage was a big disappointment given the praise their burgers have drawn. I was there with friends Monday of last week for trivia

The real question is: how is their trivia?

Not so hot, and we actually won the first game before taking off that night It was supposed to start at 7 and ended up starting around 8:15. All questions were from Trivial Pursuit cards, which are less than accurate at times. I had to explain to the host why an error in the last question made it impossible to answer, and what needed to change to get the answer they wanted. First place was $25 off our tab.

Anyway, again, I hope my experience was a true outlier. The servers we interacted with were very nice, but our server was fairly inattentive and made a ton of mistakes. Maybe it was just a bad night for her. It happens. I just didn't think the food was up to expectations regardless.

Ouch. Come to the Globe some Tuesday at 8. Awesome trivia and very good bar food. First three teams get $75/$50/$25 gift certs. $5 donation required per player on the team, which usually goes to the MS society of Illinois.