In case anyone is having difficulty, it's zah-pyeh-KAHN-kah and the plural is zah-pyeh-KAHN-kee.

Oh, better yet, and audio link.

Does one ever eat a zapiekanka in the daylight, or is strictly a nighttime drinking food?

stevez wrote:Does one ever eat a zapiekanka in the daylight, or is strictly a nighttime drinking food?

It's street food, fair food, bar food, all of that. I've typically eaten them in the day, while running around the Rynek (central square) of Krakow.

ETA: It's also worth noting that "zapiekanka" has another meaning in Polish, roughly analagous to a casserole. "Zapiekanka" comes from the word "zapiekać," which is a form of the verb "to bake." For example, a shepherd's pie is a type of zapiekanka.

ETA2: According to Polish Wikipedia, the fast food toasted bread version of zapiekanka which we are discussing here is a relatively recent invention, for certain values of "relatively." It says that it was developed in the 1970s in Poland.

Great post. Wanna try that pizza with the pickles on it.

Re: the raspberry syrup for beer. My dad grew up near Krakow and he said they use to put that syrup in the beer when they were younger because the beer was so bitter. The syrup sweetens it up. He still drinks it like that sometimes.

Interesting info Binko, thanks for sharing. I hope to have round 2 up today, very soon.

Day 2: Milano’s, Bristol Lounge,Cafe Prague

Milano’s
Milano’s was a quite charming mix of family restaurant and bar tucked away just off of Milwaukee Avenue in the Avondale neighborhood. It is split into a very cozy bar area and a separate dining room for seating. The bar itself was nearly full of regulars with eyes glued to whatever game was flashing on the flat screen, so we grabbed a table in the otherwise unoccupied dining room. The six of us ordered a couple of bowls of soup and an order of pierogi, in addition to the zapiekanka, all to share among us. The server was a bit bewildered at our desire to share just a few snacks, but incredibly friendly and accommodating (and drop dead gorgeous, of course), especially when we informed her of the exploratory nature of our outing.

Maybe it was a soup kind of day, or maybe the cozy atmosphere clued us in. Either way, the zurek (sour rye soup) was the best version I can remember having: very rich, quite sour, and assertively spiced, with slices of really good sausage interspersed throughout. The other soup, goulash, was also great, with big hunks of tender meat and a really strong paprika flavor. I would order both again in a heartbeat. The pierogi were a bit thick skinned but homemade and prepared to my liking, i.e., with lots of bacon and onions on top. The zapiekanka (this one with ham on it) was unremarkable compared to the first day’s hit at Retro Cafe, and the cheese was not as good. It wasn’t bad, but I had already become a little jaded when it came to zapiekanka. Just to keep tabs, the ketchup was again given as a side option.


Zapiekanka with ham.


Pierogi


Goulash


Zurek


The bar area





Bristol Lounge:
Bristol Lounge, just down Milwaukee from Milano’s, was one of our wild card picks, a “slashie”. It is part bar, part liquor store, part deli. As it appears from the outside, it was quite a dive, but the charm of a former time was remarkably well preserved, with an original 60’s-era melamine back bar and that nostalgic smell of stale (or perhaps not-so-stale) cigarette smoke. One tipsy barfly took a special interest in our group and played an assortment of 70’s hits and Mexican ballads on the jukebox in an apparent effort to welcome us and curry our favor. In other words, the bar has a ton of character and some interesting characters.

The menu consisted of a giant poster mounted behind the bar next to a trio of Franzia boxes. Unfortunately less than half of the items were actually available. I was holding out hope that the pizza listed on the menu was a zapiekanka, but unfortunately it was just some frozen grocery store pizza. We tried to order the sandwich to find it was not available. We settled for a few bowls of soup. We were informed that they had bigos, but it was “not from today” and with some persistence we were allowed to order it. We probably shouldn’t have; it definitely didn’t taste fresh, and we had to have the bartender nuke it a bit longer to get it to an edible temperature. The other three soups, however, were pretty damn satisfying. My favorite was the barley, which was rich and buttery, but the fava bean soup was a close second. We also had a tripe soup which was nothing special, but considering the dive we were in, at least wasn’t repulsive. The beers were cold, fresh, and properly carbonated. Not surprisingly, the beers were the cheapest of the tour, and as is standard at all of these bars, a sizeable pour (0.5 liter). Despite its seediness, I enjoyed the Bristol because it reminded me of the nearly-bygone working class bars where at the end of a long day a guy can sit down to simple meal of beer, a nourishing bowl of soup, and bread for pennies on the dollar.


The Menu. Note the bottles under, prices marked with magic marker.


Trio of Franzia


"lima" bean soup (actually it was fava)


Barley soup


Tripe soup


Bigos




My new best friend.





Cafe Prague:
The last stop of the day was Cafe Prague on the far northwest side (but still accessible by the Belmont bus). As is obvious by the name, this was actually a Czech place, but had mixed Polish and Czech food and beer menus, so we thought it fit our already-loose criteria to be on the tour. Cafe Prague was another head-scratcher, in that it appeared to be set up like three types of establishments in one: a cafe, a family friendly restaurant, and a bar (with a bonus dance club on weekends). The atmosphere could be described as clean and modern European. We were served by who we assumed is one of the owners and a bartender (gorgeous as expected), both of whom couldn’t have been more friendly and welcoming, despite our perplexing desire to order the only Polish food from an extensive Czech menu.

The owner is second-generation Czech and also happens to be a lifelong vegan. He was incredibly eager to help us order drinks, offering samples of various Czech wines he imported specially for the bar. Though wine is not my strong suit, I enjoyed both the reds and whites immensely, and Teresa, who studied abroad in Central Europe for a short while, said they brought back a lot of memories of what she commonly had there but, other than Gruner Veltliner, has not encountered back in the states. The owner was also very proud of the beer selection, which was the most vast and varied of the tour. Being vegan, he was better at talking about the drinks than the food, so for that we were helped by the first-generation Czech bartender.

The Zapiekanka was lackluster, just passable, but in all fairness the bartender warned us against it. "this is not a polish bar!" It seems that a fondness for ketchup-laden pizza bread is culturally limited. After explaining that this was actually our third food stop for the night, we asked the bartender to help pick some other dishes for us to share. We ended up getting the fried brie (which she assured was an authentic Czech bar food) and the country style pork entree with bread dumplings and sauerkraut. Both were excellent and got me very excited about coming back to have a full dinner. If I had to compare it to Klas, Cafe Prague appeared to offer all of the old Bohemian favorites, but imbibed them with a more modern, and less old-school, sensibility and attention to quality.

My memories of the end of the night are a bit more foggy, possibly due to the absinthe service (complete with flashing green LED fake ice cubes) followed by flaming absinthe shots. Though I’m proud I did the flaming shot, after experiencing the smell of my own singed mustache and watching a couple youtube videos of people lighting their faces on fire, I don’t think I’ll press my luck and try it again.

Overall, Cafe Prague was hands-down our favorite (albeit non-Polish) overall experience, it was just fun and the czech food was great. With all there was to explore here, it is probably the most deserving of some LTH attention and further documentation, with Retro Cafe being a very close 2nd. It is a comfortable neighborhood restaurant and their hospitality cannot be beat.


Zapiekanka


Czech country style pork


fropones and his devilish grin


Absinthe fairy with absinthe spoons as wings


Absinthe service with flashing green ice cubes


Absinthe service and FIRE!



Milano's Cafe
3930 W School St
Chicago, IL 60618

Bristol Deli and Liquors
3086 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

Cafe Prague
6710 W Belmont Ave
Chicago, IL 60634

Is that supposed to be a picture of fropones or the bartender?

TCK wrote:Is that supposed to be a picture of fropones or the bartender?

Hmm. Now that you mention it, I can't remember...

TCK wrote:Is that supposed to be a picture of fropones or the bartender?

I think fropones photo-bombed the shot of the bartender.

laikom wrote:Though I’m proud I did the flaming shot, after experiencing the smell of my own singed mustache and watching a couple youtube videos of people lighting their faces on fire, I don’t think I’ll press my luck and try it again.

laikom-

I'm happy to report that after reading this line, I did not spit coffee on my keyboard and monitor.

Thanks for taking us on this adventure. Great stuff.

My sister Evelyn, who joined us for part of this tour, messaged me that she just saw a WGN segment on how to make Zapiekanka and other bar food. Sad I missed that!

laikom wrote:My sister Evelyn, who joined us for part of this tour, messaged me that she just saw a WGN segment on how to make Zapiekanka and other bar food. Sad I missed that!

This link includes a link to Poland on a Plate with links to recipes. I thought you could find streaming video, but I couldn't find it.

Regards,

As a downstater, I so enjoy living in Chicago vicariously through wonderful posts like these - and aspire to actually try the places when I do make it to the city.

Love, love, love LTH!

Davooda

Cafe Prague really did have great charm and great Czech food. It was a welcome change of pace after Bristol Lounge, which I think I enjoyed the least. I personally didn't enjoy anything besides the beer there. I'm guessing the lukewarm, old bigos spoiled my appetite.

Could have also been that Bristol Lounge was the only place lacking a cute waitress...

And then there was this cute gal--note the matching outfits!!

Years ago (!) I posted here about a hip, modern, young-people Polish restaurant pretty far west on Belmont called Ferajna. I liked it. Just looked it up on Yelp and it appears to still be there.

Sounds like a perfect fit! Who wants to volunteer to head over there and try out their Zapiekanki?

Pizza Bread with Mushrooms & Cheese (Zapiekanka z Grzybami i Serem)
Pizza Bread Supreme (Zapiekanka Supreme)
Mushrooms, Ham, Tomatoes, Red Peppers, Onions

thepld wrote:Great post. Wanna try that pizza with the pickles on it.

Re: the raspberry syrup for beer. My dad grew up near Krakow and he said they use to put that syrup in the beer when they were younger because the beer was so bitter. The syrup sweetens it up. He still drinks it like that sometimes.

You'll also find syrup-in-beer around Central Europe. One particular type of beer it's associated with is the Berliner Weisse. You don't see this style too much in the States (although with the new interest in sours, you'll be seeing it more and more), but it's a type of sour wheat beer, with wild fermentation, closer to an unflavored lambic than the wheat beers you usually associate with Germany/Bavaria. Woodruff and raspberry syrups are the usual sweeteners used by those who want to neutralize some of the sourness. I know I've seen the woodruff syrup here next to the bottles of Berliner Weisse at some Chicago liquor stores.

At any rate, I haven't seen my parents do it for ages, but I do have a fleeting memory of my mom mixing her beer with a bit of sour cherry syrup or raspberry syrup when I was a kid.

JeffB wrote:Great topic and pictures! Long ago I used to visit Polish night clubs off and on with some regularity: a newly-single close friend from Florida was fascinated by these over-the-top decorated bars with thumping beats, good, weird, and budget scratch food, crisp cheap beer, and - the only really relevant part for my pal then - beautiful female bartenders, servers and staff, never mind the table of surly Adidas track suit dudes smoking in the corner keeping watch. For a time, the F1 racing-themed bar Player's Club was an especially excellent example, plopped onto Ashland near Fullerton. The overlap between skilled construction trade labor and Polish bar ownership leads to some serious lily-gilding at these places.

I truly enjoy the not-quite-right awkward otherness that is so typically Eastern/Central European. Nothing like sitting at a mahogany bar with a neon-lighted waterfall behind it, eating steak tartar and pizza with corn and hardboiled eggs while Eurotrash house thumps endlessly, sipping an icy Zywiec and talking to Paulina serving drinks while working on her chemistry PhD.

I loved the Players Club!!! The girls were Czech, not Polish. When friends came in from out of town I always made it part of the bar tour, it was funny watching their jaws drop looking at these gorgeous women working this nondescript corner bar, "Wtf is this place???"

...This thread reminds me of an excursion down Milwaukee avenue years ago. Went to Rosemont with a buddy to collect his winnings during a Jordan-era Bulls playoff run, and decided to have some fun and take the long way home down Millvowki Avenue. We were looking for a likely spot to stop for a beer, but the couple places we went were pretty dead for 9:00 on a Friday. We accosted some tweedy academic type with a Greek fisherman's cap and a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache who was minding his business walking down the street smoking a pipe, "Hey, where's the action around here man?" Somewhat befuddled by our question, he finally got the gist of our request, "Oh, then you vant to go to a the One-a, Two-a, Three-a, is right down there"

123 was a trip. All black lacquer and disco balls, mirrors everywhere, techno blaring. Most memorable thing was the waitress, she was a 200 pounder in supershort black leather miniskirt and fishnets with her ample boobs spilling out of her bustier. Yeah baby!!! Not much going on there either though, I suspect they don't start partying till midnight Euro style

I have the final installment of the 3 part series written up and just about ready to post, I just need a little bit of time to get the pictures ready. In the meantime, I have some sad news to report. I returned to a couple of our favorites, Retro Cafe and Cafe Prague. To our dismay both places fell way short on the food front.

At Retro cafe the Zapiekanka was a pathetic approximation of the one we had the first time. The cheese was room temp and solidifying. The ketchup was not the unique tangy spicy ketchup we had the first time, but instead it was clearly just some Heinz. The bread was not crusty or all that fresh or hot. We were there on a busier night, so I guess I could chalk it up to that, but that is still no excuse. My Zywiec was served with raspberry syrup and a straw without my requesting, which I found amusing until half way through the glass when I just wanted a real beer. Despite the bad food, we had a great time. There was some great polish Karaoke, and some quite outrageous outfits to observe. It was a real Polish Chicago experience, all the way down to the "outdoor" smoking area which was not at all outdoors, but instead a fully enclosed tent in the back of the bar.

The food at Cafe Prague was equally disappointing, my only guess being that on the first time we must have hit on the best dish by chance. Everything we ordered this time was bland and seemed old and reheated. The bread dumplings were some of the worst I have had (they were much fresher on our first visit), and the meat in the goulash was stringy and dry, and the flavor generally bland.

I guess there is a lesson to be learned, that perhaps consistency in the polish bar scene may not be the primary concern. I intend to head back to a few of these spots, hopefully with better luck. My enthusiasm has been a bit curbed, but definitely not killed.

Coming in the next post: a Polish nightclub with sushi, a Ukrainian/Italian cafe which may be a mobster hangout, and a punk rock dive bar. Stay tuned!

Came here to look for Post #3. I'm imagining someone eating pizza bread at a Polish version of the Mutiny. Don't let me down.

this is the greatest thread i have ever seen! I am eagerly awaiting the next part!

laikom wrote:
Coming in the next post: a Polish nightclub with sushi, a Ukrainian/Italian cafe which may be a mobster hangout, and a punk rock dive bar . Stay tuned!

Bimbom room?

Alright! Sorry for the delays, I got caught up with some other stuff and time just flew by. So here is the last round from this trip.

Krokodile:

Not to be confused with the drug krokodil (warning, don’t google image search), Krokodile is a Polish bar which serves both Polish food and sushi in a dimly lit clubby atmosphere. There were “sexy” European music videos on the TV. The layout was pretty unique, they really made use of the small storefront space with some balconies overlooking the bar. We sat at the bar, but all other patrons opted for the balcony area. When we first walked in, I had really low hopes for the food, and when I saw there were no beer taps but copious bottles of Mustang vodka and crappy mixers behind the counter, I lost all hope for drinks too. The bar was churning out mojito after mojito, so in retrospect, we probably should have at least gone that route - maybe they’re great!

It turns out I was wrong, at least on the food front. This Zapiekanka ended up being right up there with [the first one] at Retro Cafe. Very fresh bread, great quality toppings, and loads of gooey mozzarella cheese. It was so satisfying that I didn’t mind the lack of beer taps, and in the end, a bottle of Zywiec isn’t all that bad. The only thing that perhaps demotes this Zapiekanka to second after Retro is that it had regular old Heinz ketchup, although it is served on the side and using it is optional, so in some people's eyes, this is probably a plus.

Let’s not forget why this restaurant made our list: the sushi bar. I had dreams of ordering a spicy tuna and pickle roll, or a kielbasa sauerkraut roll, but sadly those did not come to fruition. But my search for the strangest thing on the menu was still fruitful. I quickly spotted the “spicy tuna chips” which was a tuna tartar with cream cheese, avocado, spicy mayo, and unagi sauce spread across four (only four) tortilla chips with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and green onion. I was snickering about this dish from the moment I ordered it until we finished the last bite. It was not delicious, but not bad, but way overpriced at $15. It was almost worth it for the entertainment value.



One of the best Zapiekanka's you can get in the city. Served with surprisingly well made fries, and I just loved the watermelon slice.


Some of the strangest sushi you can get in the city.









Cafe Europa:

I’m afraid to talk about Cafe Europa publicly; I don’t want anyone to put a hit out on me. Cafe Europa is an Italian owned bar with a Russian and Ukrainian staff and clientele. It was both the farthest locale and furthest “out there” place we went to. I don’t know who was more intimidating, the short pudgy Italian guys storming in the door handing out stacks of $20’s like they owned the place (they probably did), or the rough looking Russian guys at the bar putting back 3 times the beers I ever could without showing any effect.

But at the heart of the place, it was very charming, and had some promising food. The Zapiekanka, however, was the worst one we had on the trip. The bread was stale and the cheese was lumpy. The only topping i remember other than cheese was sausage, and the ketchup was served in a container on the side for dipping. It just seemed all wrong. Again, we weren’t in a Polish restaurant, so I think we learned a simple but profound lesson here: don’t order the Zapiekanka at a non-Polish establishment. We turned to the Russian section of the menu and ordered a couple types of their hand-made dumplings, both of which were excellent. The texture of the pasta was at once delicate and al dente, and the filling was dense and meaty, but not at all dry like the Polish meat dumplings can be. If I recall correctly there were about 5 options for handmade dumplings on the menu, so I'd be interested in returning to try more.

Their Russian beers (bottles only) were pretty terrible, but perhaps I could have found one I liked if I had enough time. I know nothing about Russian beers. Teresa thought it seemed appropriate to order a “cocktail” consisting of Godiva flavored vodka, Baileys, and Chambord, which she declared was perfect, all things considered. Worth a trek out there? I’d have to try more of the Russian food to truly say so, but definitely worth checking out if you happen to be in the area. I’m guessing it has a completely different vibe during daytime hours, as it appears to be set up as a real coffee type cafe during the day time. I can imagine that the old Russian ladies take over for breakfast and lunch. If anyone happens to live out this direction, please give more of the food a try for the sake of research!


Not a good Zapiekanka, cheese was dry enough that I actually WANTED the ketchup on it.


Great handmade Russian dumplings.







Bim Bom:

Our final stop was Bim Bom, which is one of two Polish punk bars I found during my research. Being of a “punk rock” background myself, these bars were of particular interest to me.


My band's 20th year reunion show at The Mutiny, that's me "singing".

Bim Bom does not serve food, which I wasn’t sure of until I got there because it doesn’t have a website. It has a few beers on tap, including Zywiec, which I happily partook. The place has a lot of character, from the incongruous sheet metal exterior to the BIM BOM logo burnt into the wood floor and tables. I came in with high hopes for the place, expecting it to be lively and raucous, much like this video I found of the place:



Unfortunately, there was no Polish oi band playing, and in fact it was pretty lamely empty for a Friday night. There was more metal playing from the jukebox than punk. Also the place was brightly lit for a bar. However, my biggest complaint is that the jukebox provided the only music, with no house music in between songs, so our time there was spent in silence unless we ponied up. Not exactly the vibe I expected on a Friday night. I definitely plan a return trip someday to see some local Polish punk rock bands perform live, but I have yet to find a schedule online, if there is one at all.









Krokodile
6004 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL
(773) 777-7277

Cafe Europa
7401 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL
(773) 625-0033

Bim Bom Lounge
5226 W Belmont Ave Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 777-2120

Just outstanding research & writing again!

(BTW if you go back, according to yelp the bathroom wallpaper at Bim Bom is worth checking out.)

Roger Ramjet wrote:Just outstanding research & writing again!

I agree. I eagerly await your review of Ferajna! (Not because I think it will necessarily beat the places you've been--although it might--just because it's my one point of reference and I want to see how it compares.)

Roger Ramjet wrote:Just outstanding research & writing again!

(BTW if you go back, according to yelp the bathroom wallpaper at Bim Bom is worth checking out.)

Yes, we were made quite aware of the bathroom decor. Here's the most P.C. sample I have on my phone:

riddlemay wrote:

Roger Ramjet wrote:Just outstanding research & writing again!

I agree. I eagerly await your review of Ferajna! (Not because I think it will necessarily beat the places you've been--although it might--just because it's my one point of reference and I want to see how it compares.)

Well, we actually tried to get to Ferajna after Cafe Prague on a friday, but it was closed. I peeked in and looked at the menu before going into Cafe Prague around 8pm, and they were open but completely empty. According to the internet it is supposed to be open until 2am.

Roger Ramjet wrote:Just outstanding research & writing again!

(BTW if you go back, according to yelp the bathroom wallpaper at Bim Bom is worth checking out.)

I also got a pic on my phone from the bathroom. There was no PG rated version of the men's room, so I had to censor it in photoshop.

I think Cafe Europa has been there a while and might have been on VI's itinerary when he attempted to drink a shot of espresso at each Italian coffee bar on Harlem. It is a scene out of Blue Velvet from what I remember.

laikom wrote:

riddlemay wrote:

Roger Ramjet wrote:Just outstanding research & writing again!

I agree. I eagerly await your review of Ferajna! (Not because I think it will necessarily beat the places you've been--although it might--just because it's my one point of reference and I want to see how it compares.)

Well, we actually tried to get to Ferajna after Cafe Prague on a friday, but it was closed. I peeked in and looked at the menu before going into Cafe Prague around 8pm, and they were open but completely empty. According to the internet it is supposed to be open until 2am.

Oh. Sorry to hear about this. Thanks for giving it a shot.