moon's sandwich shop

'serving the west side since 1933', says the menu at moon's. unfortunately, the current clientele, mostly black, would have been banned back then, as the owner and the neighborhood were then white. (this isnt speculation, i've asked). this tiny diner/grill hasnt physically changed much since the 30's, which is partly why i like it so much. though it could use some repair (the ceiling is draped with plastic this week- the roof must be leaking), i have my fingers crossed that it can survive the new construction going up around it. (blink, as you drive down western and you'll miss it.) the main reason i eat here is the good food. i'm a grits lover, and here you'll find the best in town (excluding the cheese grits at the wishbone), IMO. anyone can make an omelet or scramble some eggs, you'd think, but here years of experience and a little love give the ones here an edge. and the sausage is terrific. ask one of the long time grill men what's popular and you'll be told that moon's is 'famous' for its corned beef. if not famous yet in the larger community, it should be. its very lean, yet amazingly flavorful, salty and moist. even early in the morning, i've seen take out orders of corned beef, mashed potatoes and corn, covered with gravy heading out the door. i prefer mine piled high on rye. this is a mostly working class, breakfast and lunch place (they close at 3, 2 on sundays). counter and stools only, no tables. i've never found anyone there less than welcoming.

Moon's Sandwich Shop
16 S Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60612
312-226-5094

This is an institution in Chicago, surprising it hasn't been discussed more. I haven't eaten there in a few years, but used to stop by when I lived off Polk and Ashland in the 1980's.The meatloaf and corned beef sandwiches were always very good as were the soups, and of course the breakfasts. Excellent place, thanks for reminding me...I'll need to stop back soon.

I first found out about Moon's from Misty's website, there is a nice article on it about the place and it includes a nice picture of the corned beef sammy, which is above average and theyre meatloaf is also really good as mentioned above. If you havent been this place is something new (even though its been around) to try.

DaBeef....

I'm curious, but uninformed......
What's "Misty's website"?

Sorry about that. Heres the link for a damn good food site on Chicago (no need to worry LTH its a different setup than the wonderful site you got going here)

http://www.bigsweettooth.com

Joan,

What an odd coincidence, I'm about to go into full-on hyperbole mode about the breakfast I had, perfect bacon, terrific grits, drop-dead gorgeous over easy eggs and one side pancake that was a like a poem in my mouth, and see that JustJoan just posted about Moon.

I agree 100% with Joan, Moon takes basic ingredients and, through experience combined with a genuine love for what they are doing, elevates them to a higher plane. Moon's has the details down, for my one side pancake, the grill man put flipped it on a plate, the waitress set a couple of pats of butter on then put it in a drawer for 10-15 seconds. When I asked why, she said it was a steamer drawer and that way the butter starts to melt, "tastes better that way" Reminds me of the saying, god is in the details.

I also saw the corned beef being sliced and served, it looked excellent. Next time at Moon's I might just have corned beef. Also, that is the dish that Bryant, Robert Adam's of Honey One's nephew, recommended when I ran into him at Tommy's for biscuits and gravy.

Lot's of good nature banter going on, low prices, very good food, and a bit of a step out of time feel to the place. Great post Joan, thanks for bringing the place up to LTHForum.

Enjoy,
Gary

Moon's Sandwich Shop
16 S Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60612
312-226-5094

Da Beef wrote:Sorry about that. Heres the link for a damn good food site on Chicago (no need to worry LTH its a different setup than the wonderful site you got going here)

http://www.bigsweettooth.com

Of course no worries. Misty posts here as MST.

gary, what's NOT a coincidence, is that we both recognize a good breakfast spot when we see one. the difference between us, is i was trying to keep it to myself. but when i saw a reference to moon's in your tommy's grill post, i figured it was time to share. joan

the difference between us, is i was trying to keep it to myself.

Joan,

You are good at keeping things under wrap. I remember when I read the 24-hour-athon article by Monica Eng in the Chicago Tribune, I guestimated you were Joan in the article. We knew each other for years via Culinary Historians, though there was no mention of chowhound.com at any meeting. The very next Culinary Historians meeting, I beelined to you with a copy of the article, which you immediately affirmed. You were the only person I knew pre-chowhound when I finally joined this community.

I remember after I found chowhound.com, I couldn't wait to tell anyone who cared to listen.

Oh Joan, I do hope you will consider sharing your good finds a bit more often. I have a feeling you have a lot of good sources!

germuska wrote:

Da Beef wrote:Sorry about that. Heres the link for a damn good food site on Chicago (no need to worry LTH its a different setup than the wonderful site you got going here)

http://www.bigsweettooth.com

Of course no worries. Misty posts here as MST.

Hi,

Despite whatever experiences you may have had elsewhere, LTHforum welcomes links to quality food sources and websites.

Best regards,

Caution! Sweeping Generalizations

LTH,

After only two visits to Moon Sandwich Shop I'm prepared to say:*

1) The grits are in the top couple in Chicago.

2) The corned beef is the best, other than a few Jewish delis, in the Greater Chicago area.**

The memory of perfect grits, over easy eggs and a stack of steaming, flavorful corned beef, surprisingly perfect dunked unadorned into liquid gold egg yoke, lingers.

Enjoy,
Gary

* With the usual boilerplate qualification, reservation, loopholes and room for backpedaling

** I'm not all that familiar with the various Irish style corned beef and cabbage offerings

Don't forget they are on the web:

http://www.moons.homestead.com/

Excellent. The archived ephemera calls Moon's a BBQ. I point this out because a similar ancient Italian-Americanish West Side sandwich shop, Boston's, always called itself a "BBQ." ReneG, history buffs and beef stand old-timers, did BBQ mean something specific back then that has nothing to do with smoke or even oven-baked ribs? Is BBQ referring to live charcoal for dogs, Polish, Italian, and even beef, which possibly was seared before braising? Rank speculation, I know.

JeffB wrote:Excellent. The archived ephemera calls Moon's a BBQ. I point this out because a similar ancient Italian-Americanish West Side sandwich shop, Boston's, always called itself a "BBQ." ReneG, history buffs and beef stand old-timers, did BBQ mean something specific back then that has nothing to do with smoke or even oven-baked ribs? Is BBQ referring to live charcoal for dogs, Polish, Italian, and even beef, which possibly was seared before braising? Rank speculation, I know.

I was thinking about this too and will try to consult with my old-timer friends here in the neighbourhood. That area up there was at least in part Italian back in the mid 20th century and from what I understand, it was tied closely to the area where I live, Tri-Tailor. Western Avenue in this general neck of the woods had a number of Italian fast food places, including one where the Hawks used to hang out after games.

Incidentally, the nickname 'Moon' is still in use in Italo-Tri-Tailor...

Antonius

How about Russell's BBQ at North and Thatcher in Elmwood Park? They've called themselves BBQ since the 1930's and as a lifelong customer, I can tell you that the only smoke in Russell's is cigarette,

JeffB wrote:Is BBQ referring to live charcoal for dogs, Polish, Italian. . .

That’s the way I understand it. Old timers still refer to the place on Taylor as Al’s Bar-B-Q, its original name. I recall specifically asking Pat Scala about that at his Culinary Historians of Chicago talk a couple years ago. You can read George R’s excellent summary of the lecture here.

Here’s an ad for Scala’s from the mid-1950s I find interesting. Despite Scala’s long association with roast beef it isn’t mentioned anywhere. Back then much of their business probably was supplying “BBQs” with Italian sausage and burgers. Of course this was also the time when pizzerias were proliferating in Chicago like Starbucks so pizza sausage was becoming much more important. Roast beef must have become their primary product only in later years.

When I first came up here I was given "Al's Bar-B-Q" and "Mario's Italian Ice" as two places to seek out by my boss who had worked in Chicago for a few years in the 70s. (I actually ran across the note on his stationery a while back-- the ur-document of my Chicago food obsession.) Even as late as my 1983 Chicago Magazine Guide to Chicago, it's still called Al's Bar-B-Q; I suspect the name change came with the opening of additional restaurants, whenever that happened.

Moon's hours

M-Sat - 5:30 am - 3:00 pm
Sun - 7:00 am - 2:00 pm

http://www.moons.homestead.com/

Mike G wrote:When I first came up here I was given "Al's Bar-B-Q" and "Mario's Italian Ice" as two places to seek out by my boss who had worked in Chicago for a few years in the 70s. (I actually ran across the note on his stationery a while back-- the ur-document of my Chicago food obsession.) Even as late as my 1983 Chicago Magazine Guide to Chicago, it's still called Al's Bar-B-Q; I suspect the name change came with the opening of additional restaurants, whenever that happened.

I believe the awning on Taylor Street still says Al's BBQ.

G Wiv wrote:Caution! Sweeping Generalizations

LTH,

After only two visits to Moon Sandwich Shop I'm prepared to say:*

1) The grits are in the top couple in Chicago.

2) The corned beef is the best, other than a few Jewish delis, in the Greater Chicago area.**

The memory of perfect grits, over easy eggs and a stack of steaming, flavorful corned beef, surprisingly perfect dunked unadorned into liquid gold egg yoke, lingers.

Enjoy,
Gary

* With the usual boilerplate qualification, reservation, loopholes and room for backpedaling

** I'm not all that familiar with the various Irish style corned beef and cabbage offerings

Mrs. JiLS and I enjoyed breakfast today at Moon's, and I concur on both these points. The grits was* top-notch, even though we got there at almost 10:00 a.m. and they'd been serving since 5:30. Clearly, they were making fresh batches throughout the morning; this wasn't 4-hour old grits. I might give the grits at Harry's Hot Dogs a slight edge, if only for presentation -- it comes a bit richer, with more butter already stirred in; however, once the generous pat of butter had melted into the grits I was served today at Moon's, I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. I also enjoyed a corned beef and cheese omelette and, yes, that's some mighty good corned beef. And it's also apparently quite popular; huge quantities were pulled out of the steamer and sliced up for the oncoming lunch hour while we enjoyed our breakfast. Couldn't have asked for friendlier service, and the place oozes history from its pores. We followed this great breakfast with a run to Old Fashioned for fresh from the grease donuts, coffee and an apple fritter, then a couple of hours strolling through Washington Park, pursuing blue herons in the lagoons on a perfect fall day; despite an ongoing head cold that exempted me from the Smith & Wollensky debauch on Friday, life was very good, indeed.

* Although it ends in an "S," the word "grits" is a singular word -- like "oatmeal." Thus, I write not that "grits were good," but "grits was good." Like "oatmeal was good." Or at least that's the way I was taught it by my dad, who ate a lot of grits growing up there in Kentucky 80 years ago.

Doesn't anybody like meatloaf? Moons makes a great one. This is not an easy thing to do (witness all the places that can't) and is an achievement not to be ignored.

kuhdo wrote:Doesn't anybody like meatloaf? Moons makes a great one. This is not an easy thing to do (witness all the places that can't) and is an achievement not to be ignored.

Yes, that would be Mrs. JiLS, whose eyes were drawn to the mention of meatloaf on the menu. She indicated that would be her first choice, if we were at Moon's at the lunch hour. And so, all the more reason to go back!

JimInLoganSquare wrote:* Although it ends in an "S," the word "grits" is a singular word -- like "oatmeal." Thus, I write not that "grits were good," but "grits was good." Like "oatmeal was good." Or at least that's the way I was taught it by my dad, who ate a lot of grits growing up there in Kentucky 80 years ago.

Jim,

I readily accept your grammatical judgement on the singular nature of grits as being correct, especially since you have direct ties to a primary grits-consuming speech community. That said, I would, however, also suggest that treatment of the form grits as a plural is and has been widespread in the broader English-speaking world and can also be regarded as correct. Indeed, from an historical standpoint, this form is, in fact, a plural; the original inherited Germanic form, with cognates attested (and in several cases still current) in all the major West Germanic dialects was used as a collective (OE «grytt») and as a plural (OE «grytta», in lOE and ME reformed with more productive plural markers, especially ultimately the most productive one, the -s form, thus ME «gritts, grits», etc.).

Usage with collectives and plurals in such cases often tends to inspire reanalysis in one way or another and to give rise to variation dialectally and over time (cf. pea/pease and the related and more directly parallel groat/groats). In any event, I think both «the grits are» and the «the grits is» can both be considered correct, though the latter seems to me to be a geographically more restricted usage, which maintains its legitimacy by being used in areas where the substance in question is habitually consumed. To most English ears, however, the form sounds like a plural and is thus treated; we Yankees, Tommies, and other folks who do not habitually consume hominy grits must console ourselves with the knowledge that from an historical linguistic standpoint, we are correct too.*


I hope to post soon on a dish with an etymologically connected name that I recently enjoyed in Germany.


Salut,
A

* Of course, one must also take into account here the general agreement patterns of the dialercts in question. In parts of the south of the United States, as in parts of England and Scotland, plural nouns as subjects are generally accompanied by the third singular of the verb. The history of this usage has been treated in a series of conference papers (forthcoming) by this writer and also in a joint paper by this writer and Amata. Of course, in such dialects, one can still test whether a noun such as grits is a plural or singular collective by the choice of pronouns; that is, is it:
the grits is good, yes, it sure is good, this grits is damned good...
or is it:
the grits is good, yes, they sure are good, those grits is damned good
Considered from this perspective, I suspect the noun is felt to be a plural even by most speakers of southern American English (dialects). How would you and your father treat it in the above sentence?

Antonius wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:* Although it ends in an "S," the word "grits" is a singular word -- like "oatmeal." Thus, I write not that "grits were good," but "grits was good." Like "oatmeal was good." Or at least that's the way I was taught it by my dad, who ate a lot of grits growing up there in Kentucky 80 years ago.

Jim,

I readily accept your grammatical judgement on the singular nature of grits as being correct, especially since you have direct ties to a primary grits-consuming speech community. That said, I would, however, also suggest that treatment of the form grits as a plural is and has been widespread in the broader English-speaking world and can also be regarded as correct. Indeed, from an historical standpoint, this form is, in fact, a plural; the original inherited Germanic form, with cognates attested (and in several cases still current) in all the major West Germanic dialects was used as a collective (OE «grytt») and as a plural (OE «grytta», in lOE and ME reformed with more productive plural markers, especially ultimately the most productive one, the -s form, thus ME «gritts, grits», etc.).

Usage with collectives and plurals in such cases often tends to inspire reanalysis in one way or another and to give rise to variation dialectally and over time (cf. pea/pease and the related and more directly parallel groat/groats). In any event, I think both «the grits are» and the «the grits is» can both be considered correct, though the latter seems to me to be a geographically more restricted usage, which maintains its legitimacy by being used in areas where the substance in question is habitually consumed. To most English ears, however, the form sounds like a plural and is thus treated; we Yankees, Tommies, and other folks who do not habitually consume hominy grits must console ourselves with the knowledge that from an historical linguistic standpoint, we are correct too.


I hope to post soon on a dish with an etymologically connected name that I recently enjoyed in Germany.


Salut,
A

Going forward, I will restrict all my comments to portion sizes.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:Going forward, I will restrict all my comments to portion sizes.

Jim,

Sorry, I added a long footnote to the above which you didn't see before your response... my bad.

A response is requested (for research purposes only):

Antonius wrote:* Of course, one must also take into account here the general agreement patterns of the dialercts in question. In parts of the south of the United States, as in parts of England and Scotland, plural nouns as subjects are generally accompanied by the third singular of the verb. The history of this usage has been treated in a series of conference papers (forthcoming) by this writer and also in a joint paper by this writer and Amata. Of course, in such dialects, one can still test whether a noun such as grits is a plural or singular collective by the choice of pronouns; that is, is it:
the grits is good, yes, it sure is good, this grits is damned good...
or is it:
the grits is good, yes, they sure are good, those grits is damned good
Considered from this perspective, I suspect the noun is felt to be a plural even by most speakers of southern American English (dialects). How would you and your father treat it in the above sentence?

Antonius wrote:* Of course, one must also take into account here the general agreement patterns of the dialercts in question. In parts of the south of the United States, as in parts of England and Scotland, plural nouns as subjects are generally accompanied by the third singular of the verb. The history of this usage has been treated in a series of conference papers (forthcoming) by this writer and also in a joint paper by this writer and Amata. Of course, in such dialects, one can still test whether a noun such as grits is a plural or singular collective by the choice of pronouns; that is, is it:
the grits is good, yes, it sure is good, this grits is damned good...
or is it:
the grits is good, yes, they sure are good, those grits is damned good
Considered from this perspective, I suspect the noun is felt to be a plural even by most speakers of southern American English (dialects). How would you and your father treat it in the above sentence?
[/size]

I can assure you that the quoted sentences are (or "is") a conversation my father and I would never, ever have -- even on the dullest day of our lives. Although, yes, using the word "grits" as a singular rather than a plural is not a consistent part of my speech, and it doesn't feel natural to use it as a singular. I have to "correct" myself all the time, such that I probably should stop bothering!

JimInLoganSquare wrote:Although, yes, using the word "grits" as a singular rather than a plural is not a consistent part of my speech, and it doesn't feel natural to use it as a singular. I have to "correct" myself all the time, such that I probably should stop bothering!

I don't know, I like the sound of "the grits was good"... Anyway, I will heed the positive judgement of Moon's grits and give them a try. Though I am a Yankee, I've been a big fan of grits since I first had them as a little kid on a visit to Virginia, just a little after the Civil War...



A

Antonius wrote:... I've been a big fan of grits since I first had them ...

Or "it..."

JimInLoganSquare wrote:

Antonius wrote:... I've been a big fan of grits since I first had them ...

Or "it..."

Maybe I was referring to a plurality of different styles of grits... shrimp 'n grits, grits alla carbonara, grits with tofu, Israeli grits, blue-corn grits estilo Oaxaca, Tuscan style spelt grits, Baltic style buckwheat grits, Moroccan style millet grits ... then, again, maybe not!

OK, now that we've EXTENSIVELY experienced--and hopefully outlived--the Scylla and Charybdis of the language of grits, I'll pull the focus back to include another bright star in the constellation of a Moon's breakfast, namely corned beef.

justjoan and I met for a Sunday morning breakfast at Moon's at 9am. It was a busy place for takeout with people standing around up front, but we found two stools at the back end of the counter and bathed in the atmosphere (which included a partial shower: there was a small overhead drip from the ceiling under repair.)

Joan had scrambled eggs with sausage patties and grits. I asked for two eggs over medium with grits, plus a side of corned beef. Turns out there's a "corned beef breakfast" that's not printed on the menu, which I ended up officially ordering. Our eggs arrived a bit underdone, possibly due to the concurrent crush of takeout orders. Grits were delicious after they received their dressing of butter pats, salt, and pepper. Joan's sausage was fine; the accompanying wheat toast and coffee were unremarkable. The freshly sliced corned beef, though, arrived in a big pile on its own side plate and was exceptional: lean, but with good moistness and flavor.

After eating enough corned beef for a respectable "breakfast meat portion" there was still enough left on the plate for another smallish sandwich. When I requested a takeout container for it, the counterman took the plate and of his own accord asked if I wanted to make it into a sandwich. He then not only couched it between two slices of rye with mustard, he actually added several more pieces of corned beef to, um, beef-up the sandwich, then refused to accept any additional payment! Major bonus points there.

Solid, affable blue-collarish atmosphere, good prices, and some better than expected food. I'm looking forward to trying the meatloaf, too. (FWIW, I could easily imagine their menu including biscuits & gravy, but apparently it doesn't...maybe it's another "secret" item? Just a thought....)

--Matt