Davooda wrote:Inspired by the thread I fashioned a homemade olive burger last night and it was awesome. I sacrificed future martinis by using the last six jalapeno-stuffed Queen olives I had left in the jar and rough chopped them. They looked wonderful atop my 8 oz burger of high-quality ground beef as it cooked on the grill, and the double layer of swiss cheese and dollop of Sweet Baby Rays completed the umami-bomb I devoured thereafter. The other Davoodas at table were mortified. So be it - all the more for me!

Thank you Mr. Hammond for prompting me to reprise a childhood fave that had been lost to my memory.

Davooda

You really gave your olive burger star treatment. I'm sure some hot chef is now ramping up his ideas for his olive burger.

Regards,

Yum. Lets hope somebody gets some inspiration and puts these on more menus. They are too good.

Marshall K wrote:I truly miss the corner Greek diner. As a teen my go to was across from the train station
on the south west corner of York road in Elmhurst. I believe the name was Paradise. Always
had the Olive Burger except when I had the Francheezie, always a tough decision.

The Wife worked at the Paradise and I ate there many times over the years. During my senior year at York, for breakfast, I'd meet fellow adolescent communists (as well as future porn star Yana Nirvana) there to drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and prepare for a day of rallying against the state in English class.

Davooda wrote:Inspired by the thread I fashioned a homemade olive burger last night and it was awesome. I sacrificed future martinis by using the last six jalapeno-stuffed Queen olives I had left in the jar and rough chopped them. They looked wonderful atop my 8 oz burger of high-quality ground beef as it cooked on the grill, and the double layer of swiss cheese and dollop of Sweet Baby Rays completed the umami-bomb I devoured thereafter. The other Davoodas at table were mortified. So be it - all the more for me!

Thank you Mr. Hammond for prompting me to reprise a childhood fave that had been lost to my memory.

Davooda

Davooda, you have created what sounds like an awesome mouthful, and your reference to martini started me thinking that the drink would be an excellent accompaniment to the olive burger, the vodka (which I'd use for this application) slicing through the richness of the meat and the olive-y notes resonating against one another harmoniously.

In the Chicago forum, LTH'er Dave148 inquired about places to eat in Cary and was told to go to The Tracks for a good lunch. Looking at their menu, they have an olive burger that is blue cheese and green olives for 8.99

Long-time Loop fixture/dive Monk's Pub on Lake St. at Wells St. has a stealth olive burger:

The Mediterranean Burger 10
Monk's Burger topped with imported feta cheese and olives

It's a half-pounder, and comes with either a salad or fries, too. Good eats.

205 W. Lake Street
(Lake & Wells)
Chicago, IL 60606

An olive burger used to be on the menu at Boston Blackies in Deerfield.
It was pretty good but they had problems getting the meat done the way I like it.
I just looked at thier menu and it is no longer a regular choice but green
olives can be added as a topping.

Boston Blackies
405 Lake Cook Road
Deerfield, IL 60015
(847) 418-3400

I also grew up in Elmhurst. I have loved Hamburger Heaven all my life but I realize that it is a nostalgia thing for most folks.

In the fullness of time I met Mrs. AS and one day we drove back to Elmhurst so she could revel in HH. We walk up and she has to examine the menu in full. I explain to her as one might to a child of three that there is no need to examine the other offerings because the only thing to order is the double decker hamburger. But no, she ordered...the olive burger. And that is what she always orders there.

You think you know a person.

(BTW, my memories of Paradise was going to 7:30 mass with the grade school football team then heading to Paradise to eat a bunch of pancakes and then go whip Visitation's ass.)

Ditto for Boston Blackie's in Deerfield - love their olive burger.

AngrySarah wrote:(BTW, my memories of Paradise was going to 7:30 mass with the grade school football team then heading to Paradise to eat a bunch of pancakes and then go whip Visitation's ass.)

Ah, the good old Parasite.The longest menu in the world, and all of it bad. Remember there was a diner across the street next to the bank? What was that? I barely have recollections of drinking phosphates at the counter there.

David Hammond wrote:

Marshall K wrote:I truly miss the corner Greek diner. As a teen my go to was across from the train station
on the south west corner of York road in Elmhurst. I believe the name was Paradise. Always
had the Olive Burger except when I had the Francheezie, always a tough decision.

The Wife worked at the Paradise and I ate there many times over the years. During my senior year at York, for breakfast, I'd meet fellow adolescent communists (as well as future porn star Yana Nirvana) there to drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and prepare for a day of rallying against the state in English class.

Davooda wrote:Inspired by the thread I fashioned a homemade olive burger last night and it was awesome. I sacrificed future martinis by using the last six jalapeno-stuffed Queen olives I had left in the jar and rough chopped them. They looked wonderful atop my 8 oz burger of high-quality ground beef as it cooked on the grill, and the double layer of swiss cheese and dollop of Sweet Baby Rays completed the umami-bomb I devoured thereafter. The other Davoodas at table were mortified. So be it - all the more for me!

Thank you Mr. Hammond for prompting me to reprise a childhood fave that had been lost to my memory.

Davooda

Davooda, you have created what sounds like an awesome mouthful, and your reference to martini started me thinking that the drink would be an excellent accompaniment to the olive burger, the vodka (which I'd use for this application) slicing through the richness of the meat and the olive-y notes resonating against one another harmoniously.

I Believe the owner of Paradise was a greek named Spiro. I seem to remember him always yelling at the staff.

I remember the owner of the Paradise yelling at everybody, customers and staff. Come to think of it, though, that is probably the last place I ate an Olive Burger. When I was a teen that was the thing to eat for a while. Remember that place had the bathroom out in the hallway of the adjacent office building? It made it a perfect location for the dine and dash.

d4v3 wrote:I remember the owner of the Paradise yelling at everybody, customers and staff. Come to think of it, though, that is probably the last place I ate an Olive Burger. When I was a teen that was the thing to eat for a while. Remember that place had the bathroom out in the hallway of the adjacent office building? It made it a perfect location for the dine and dash.

I do clearly remember that bathroom and that door.

The Melrose Restaurant at Melrose (!) and Broadway do a good olive burger. A friend of mine
and I used to meet there for a green olive burger with American cheese and mayo: delish

Now I'm feeling the need to make one.