Hunter's Club in Rock Island has been around since 1931 and is a historic icon in the Quad Cities. They have been under new ownership for a little over a year now, but we hadn't been in since the old owners were in charge. We decided to go over for lunch on a Saturday a while back and see what it was like.
Hunter's Club is famous for their hamburgers, garnering "Best of the Quad Cities" for a number of years in a row back in the 90's. They would charbroil them on a grill just behind the bar and the smell of the burgers would just hit you when you walked in the door. But the new owners did extensive remodeling on the place and the grill is now back in the kitchen area opening up more room behind the bar.
Bill Hunter, Sr., founded Hunter's in downtown Rock Island (see map) as a speakeasy toward the end of Prohibition. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Hunter's Club became the second establishment to receive an Illinois state liquor license. The first bar was in Chicago, but it has long since gone out of business. Hunter's now holds the oldest state liquor license in Illinois.
(As an aside - if you saw my post on the old Berghoff restaurant and bar here, they were the holder of Chicago liquor license numbers one and two, but not the first two State of Illinois licenses.)
Bill Hunter, Sr., put the charbroiler in the restaurant in 1956 after visiting a restaurant in downtown Chicago that featured burgers cooked over an open flame. It was the first flame-broiled burger in the Quad Cities.
Hunter's son, Bill, Jr., took over the operation and ran it until the mid-80's when it was bought by Todd and Debbie Mosenfelder. The Mosenfelder's continued the legacy of the great charbroiled burgers and added other items to the menu including full dinners and new sandwiches. They also started having live jazz music on the weekends featuring a number of local jazz musicians.
In 2002, the Mosenfelder's sold the business to Alan Mosley who ran the business for four years, slowly running it into the ground. He eventually closed the doors of Hunter's Club in August of 2006, but the place was almost immediately bought by two Quad City men - Mark Polaschek and Ray McDevitt, who used to own Dalton's in downtown Davenport.
Polaschek and McDevitt spent over $500,000 dollars in renovating Hunter's Club and it really needed it. They cleaned the place up, replacing the old ceiling, putting in new windows and a better ventilation system. They upgraded the entraces in front and on the side where the parking lot is. And they revamped the kitchen offering more space in which to work.
The one thing they didn't want to do was to screw with the success of the burgers, something that suffered with the previous owner. I have to say that I was disappointed the last couple times I went to Hunter's to get a burger. It was generally over-cooked and lifeless. And I hadn't been back for nearly two years.
We tried to go there one time last summer on a Sunday as they used to have burger basket specials on Sunday. But the new owners decided to close on Sundays, so they're open from Monday thru Saturday. I don't believe they do the live jazz music on weekends either as the area where the musicians would play is now full of coolers.
Cindy and I went in on a snowy Saturday afternoon around 1:30. Hunter's Club was defintely cleaned up and much more bright and less smoky than the old place. But the smell of burgers cooking on the grill wasn't as prevalent as it used to be.
We sat in one of the old original booths the new owners kept in the restaurant and the lady waitress came over and asked for drink orders. I got a beer and Cindy got a pop.
I took a quick look at the menu, which had been revamped, but still prominently featured the burgers. The Hunter Burger is a half-pound chargrilled burger that comes with lettuce, pickle, onion and tomato. It's 50 cents more for cheese. A buck more if you want bacon or sauteed mushrooms.
Cindy just got the straight Hunter Burger, cooked well done (Yuck! She just loves having the life cooked out of her burgers.) I got a Hunter Burger - medium - with pepperjack cheese and sauteed mushrooms. With the burgers, you get a basket of fries and a 2 oz. container of cole slaw.
It wasn't more than about 15 minutes later and the waitress brought out our burgers. The sauteed mushrooms were the canned kind. They were OK, but I wish they would have been a little more fresh.
But, still, they didn't detract from the taste of the burger. From the first bite, I was in heaven. Hamburger heaven. My burger was juicy and flavorful. The bun was light and tasty. The toppings - including raw red onions - weren't overpowering. I couldn't get over how great this burger tasted.
Cindy even thought her overcooked burger was very good. I could smell the charred odor from across the table. But she liked it and was happy with the taste.
The fries were OK, nothing special. The cole slaw had kind of a fishy smell to them. They could have easily added a few more fries and deep-sixed the cole slaw. That would have been fine by me.
Well, I used to think Jack's Locust Street Tap had the best burger in the Quad Cities. I still have an affinity for Jack's and their burgers, but I'm afraid I have to say that I don't think I've ever had a better burger in the Quad Cities than the one I had that afternoon at Hunter's Club. I'll have to go back a couple more times to make sure they're consistent. Then I'll make the final determination as to which one is better.
But right now, I have to say it's Hunter's Club.
Update - As I usually write these blog entries days in advance, a rather disturbing revelation came my way last Saturday. I was in dire need of a good cheeseburger for lunch and I drove over to Hunter's Club. As I walked up to the door, I saw a handwritten sign that said, "Hunter's Club Will No Longer Be Serving Food."
I about crapped on the spot. I wondered what the deal was. Well, I found out yesterday in this article in the Quad City Times. The owners felt the restaurant business was not profitable and their turning it into a sort of convenience store. I'm really bummed because I wanted to try one of their cheeseburgers to see if it would be as good as the last one.
So by default, Jack's goes back to having the best cheeseburger in the Quad Cities. And I'll be having lunch there today.
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Posted by: Alan Mosley | July 16, 2023 at 12:24 PM