Bub City

Has anyone tried Bub City yet? The new Lettuce restaurant on Clark Street?

Bub City
435 North Clark Street
(312) 610-4200

CVittorio wrote:Has anyone tried Bub City yet? The new Lettuce restaurant on Clark Street?

Bub City
435 North Clark Street
(312) 610-4200

I wouldn't have made a visit here a priority. However, I was invited there Friday night by two friends who had very fond memories from their childhood of the original Bub City. I think they've done a good job cultivating a Nashville/Austin live music venue experience (though inexplicably they only have live music 3 nights a week).

The tables are packed in and the country music is loud, but it was fun (if you can live with those two things). I enjoyed the ribs (good dry rub, nice stick to the bone chew, no meat jelly concerns), the pulled pork and the burnt ends. The mac and cheese was solid as well.

I wouldn't go to Bub City and compare it to your local hole-in-the-wall or your regional favorites, but it can be a fun experience if that is what you are looking for.

CVittorio wrote:Has anyone tried Bub City yet? The new Lettuce restaurant on Clark Street?

Bub City
435 North Clark Street
(312) 610-4200

I went a couple weeks ago on a Saturday. 3rd or 4th stop so its kind of foggy, especially after the Old Fashioned I had here, packed a tasty punch.

Had the pulled pork sandwich - pork had some flavor(but the texture was mush), decent slaw. Also did the shrimp boil - not bad.

Overall a big, loud, bustling place, id go back for a drink.

I did like these:



I remember the old location..... Back in my early 20's a b-day dinner combo of crab legs and ribs at the original Weed Street location was living the High Life

The original Bub City was a favorite of mine when I was in high school, so many a teenage birthday dinner were spent there with the family. So what better place to celebrate this year's birthday with my family (my wife had taken me to Goosefoot the night before, just the two of us)? My wife and I joined my parents, brother, sister-in-law, a cousin and his girlfriend to celebrate my 36th b-day.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. The choice was based as much on nostalgia more than high expectations on the food, but everything we had was pretty good, and given the size of our group we got to sample quite a bit. We ordered the mess o' shrimp cocktail, which was about 15 decent sized shrimp on a bed of ice with cocktail sauce (that included a dollop of grated horseradish to stir in to taste) and tarter sauce. The shrimp were medium sized and dusted with smoked paprika(?) or something to give them a hint of smokiness. For dinner, my wife and I split the snow crab legs and the rack of baby back ribs (the waiter recommended them over the St. Louis). Others ordered the brisket, the rib/chicken combo, the lamb ribs and the crab legs and everybody seemed happy with their choices. The ribs had a nice rub, decent smokiness and were the perfect middle ground between chewy and fall off the bone. On the table were a spicy Memphis sauce and a sweeter KC sauce. The crab legs were generously sized and simply steamed. Perhaps my biggest disappointment of the evening is the lack of the "mess o' crab" from the original iteration, which included snow crab legs, dungeness and crab claws and the option of plain, garlic or cajun seasoning.

The entrees were ala carte (except for the combo platter) so we also ordered a bunch of sides, from fried collard greens, buffalo tots, waffle fries, spoonbread, etc. Both types of fried potatoes were standard food service variety, but delivered piping hot and crispy. Personally, I prefer crispy food service fries to limp hand cut any day (though of course, crispy hand cut are the holy grail). For desert, we had three types of pie. I had the apple, which was a fried hand pie. The peanut butter and banana cream were traditional slices. I only had my apple, but others seemed to enjoy the others.

The room itself was pretty large, and I was surprised how "sceney" the crowd was. Sure it was a Sat. night, but I didn't expect to see so many women in stilettos and shiny leggings, etc. It was on the loud side, so it was hard to talk to the other end of the table. But it was River North and it was Saturday night... service was OK in general, although a little slow at the start. The computer system crashed, which may have slowed things. We saw the Mehlman brothers and some others staring at an ordering kiosk which clearly had some sort of error message they couldn't clear. So I'll assume that's why it took 20 min. to get a chilled appetizer. But the rest of the food and drinks came in a timely manner.

So is it the best BBQ in town? No. Is it a fun place with good BBQ and sea food, fair prices, that is likely to please a crowd? Absolutely. Now if they'd just bring back the Mess O' Crab...

The missus and I went on a Sunday afternoon around 3ish. We didn't have the loudness problem until a couple hours later when it started filling up (we had a few more drinks after dinner). Drinks were pretty good. Whiskey list is HUGE. Not sure how many people will be ordering an $85 pour of Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr. but hey, why not have it on the menu. Started with fried pickles that were really good. Breading was crunchy and stuck to the small slices really well. Which is sometimes a problem at places. I got burnt ends, which were good but not mind blowing. I've never had burnt ends before but I'm assuming they are supposed to be a little 'tougher' with more pull? These were very tender, like soft? Had a good flavor though. Missus got the fried chicken which was really quite good. A nicely spiced, super thick crispy batter revealed very juicy tender chicken inside. She got it 'spicy' which we were thinking would be a spicy batter. It turned out to be a spicy buffalo-ish sauce poured on top. I wish they would've mentioned this and we would have gotten it on the side. Regardless of the sauce on top, the chicken still stayed extremely crunchy. Which was surprising and made us happy. Mac n cheese side was good and the 'Elote' corn side was bland.

All in all not a bad choice but like others have stated I wouldn't compare it to your fav BBQ joints and the like. The River North prices also don't make it a destination. But if you live in the loop like us, don't have a car and it's extremely nasty outside like it was. It's a good choice for a some pretty decent food.

thepld wrote:Not sure how many people will be ordering an $85 pour of Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr. but hey, why not have it on the menu.

Here's a measure of the Loop mark-up effect: Big Jones has this for $50 (and the 15 year at $20). Maybe Bib City gives a larger pour.

$85 pour of Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr.

Darren72 wrote:

thepld wrote:Not sure how many people will be ordering an $85 pour of Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr. but hey, why not have it on the menu.

Here's a measure of the Loop mark-up effect: Big Jones has this for $50 (and the 15 year at $20). Maybe Bib City gives a larger pour.

I'd say it's more of a Melman mark-up effect than the Loop. The Florentine, squarely within the Loop. was pouring Pappy 23 for $50 last time I was there.

$85 pour of Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr.

Or for $90 you can get three PINTS of Early Times.

Darren72 wrote:Here's a measure of the Loop mark-up effect: Big Jones has this for $50 (and the 15 year at $20).

Kman wrote:I'd say it's more of a Melman mark-up effect than the Loop. The Florentine, squarely within the Loop. was pouring Pappy 23 for $50 last time I was there.

Maybe it's the River North mark-up.

Darren72 wrote:Maybe Bib City gives a larger pour.

Bib City - isn't that a place where you have to be under age to eat?

To be fair. They don't say what a pour is. And I didn't ask. All it says is:

Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr -. $85. So maybe the pour is bigger as Darren72 said. There is also one for $50. So maybe I misread and it's actually a reserve or something??

nsxtasy wrote:

Darren72 wrote:Here's a measure of the Loop mark-up effect: Big Jones has this for $50 (and the 15 year at $20).

Kman wrote:I'd say it's more of a Melman mark-up effect than the Loop. The Florentine, squarely within the Loop. was pouring Pappy 23 for $50 last time I was there.

Maybe it's the River North mark-up.

I'm pretty sure Sable have the 23 at around the $50 mark.