Matt, the Gourmet Hamburger Guy

We were walking down Addison Street near Wrigley Field last Thursday night when we were approached by a drunk guy. There are a lot of drunk guys in our neighborhood, especially after Cubs games. But this drunk handed us a flier. It was for $5 gourmet hamburgers outside Archie’s Bar at Iowa & Rockwell, which is about 5 miles away. It turns out, Matt was a gourmet cook and a graduate of Kendall College of Culinary Arts.
He seemed sincere, so we took his flyer and told him we’d show up the following Monday. When we got there, he was cooking away surrounded by several girls who were all quite taken with him. He was flabbergasted that we were there. He introduced us to the girls and the other patrons as the people he met when he was drunk in Lakeview the other night. They were all amazed we had come so far, when there are great burger places every other block around here.
He seemed like a nice young guy who was just trying to make it in a tough economy. We know how that goes. So, we thought we’d go and lend him some moral support.
He didn’t let us down, the burgers were really, really good! They were Angus beef and they were huge and he liberally sprinkled salt and pepper on them with the kind of flourish they must teach you at cooking school. Then it was served on pretzel bread rolls that were lightly toasted with melted butter. He even made 2 different types of mayo.
There was no place to sit out in front of Archie’s, so we crossed the street and sat on the tailgate of our station wagon.
Matt said it was a big success for him, so he’s going to do it again next Monday, August 29, 2001. So, if you are near Iowa and Rockwell in Chicago’s colorful East Humboldt Park neighborhood and you have a spare $5 for a “strongly recommended donation”, you will get an excellent burger and get to meet some nice people.