A place that has been on my "Restaurants to Visit" list for the last year or so is a two location burger joint in the western suburbs of Chicago - Back Alley Burger. The story of how the husband and wife team ended up transitioning from fine dining chefs to running a gourmet burger joint was pretty interesting to me that I had to give the place a try at some point. On a recent visit to the Chicago area, I finally had the chance to do so.
Chris Spagnola was attending the California Culinary Academy (which is affiliated with the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts) in San Francisco where he met fellow student Mary Libsch. The two found that they had a common philosophy in the type of cuisine they preferred - "ingredient driven". After graduating from culinary school, the two ended up in the western suburbs of Chicago where they opened a fine dining restaurant by the name of Maison in LaGrange.
Things change quickly in the restaurant industry and the two closed Maison a year or so after it opened. But they had caught the eye of veteran restaurateur Emilio Gervilla of Emilio's Tapas with a location in downtown Chicago and in the western suburbs. Along with Gervilla, Libsch and Spagnola partnered up for Emilio's Sunflower Bistro in the original Maison location. The little restaurant was more upscale than Emilio's Tapas and offered full entrees rather than the tapas plates at his other restaurants.
Pictured right - Chris and Mary Spagnola
The partnership with Gervilla eventually dissolved in 2009 and Libsch and Spagnola were again off to find another culinary path. In the same space they came up with the concept for Knead Marketplace, a little coffee shop/cafe in the daytime with an upscale bistro menu at night. They featured some gourmet burgers on the menu at Knead and the two - now married - saw a market for a casual, yet upscale burger place. They closed Knead in the fall of 2010 and remodeled the space into the first of two Back Alley Burger locations. Their second location in Elmhurst - the one I went to - opened in early 2013.
The meat for the burgers at Back Alley Burger is combination of grass fed and corn feed beef. The have a source for their beef that starts off feeding the cattle natural grass for the first two years, then putting the cattle on a strict corn diet for two months before slaughter. According the to Spagnola's, this method marbleizes the meat and gives it an extra juiciness.
Back Alley Burger has also garnered a reputation for their vegetarian burger - called one of the best in the Chicagoland area. After trying the usual black bean vegetarian burger, the two came upon a concoction of quinoa, edamame, peas, carrots, onions and cilantro into their veggie burger. It's certainly one of the more interesting veggie burger I've heard about.
The Elmhurst location of Back Alley Burger is just to the west of the intersection of Illinois Route 83 (a.k.a. Kingery Highway) and W. St. Charles Road. (see map) It's not a large place with a series of booths along the windowed walls and tables and chairs in the middle part of the main dining area. It has sort of a contemporary industrial look with diamond aluminum sheets for accent all around the place.
The menu is located on four flat screen television monitors over the main counter. In addition to their burgers, Back Alley Burger also features a number of salads and sandwiches along with a number of sides that include fresh cut potato fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, fried pickles and any combination of chili, cheese and fries. There's also a kids menu at Back Alley Burger.
In addition to their veggie burger, they also have a ground turkey burger that is topped with green olives, mayo and Swiss cheese. The "Crabtastic" burger is a house-made slightly spicy crab cake burger topped with spicy jack cheese and a tartar sauce. They also have an Italian sausage burger, a gyro burger, and something called the "B.F.D." burger - the B.F.D. stands for Breakfast for Dinner. It features an Italian sausage patty topped with a fried egg, green onions, cheddar cheese and spicy mustard on a pretzel bun.
Some of the featured burgers at Back Alley Burger include the "Maui Wowie" burger that features a burger patty topped with fried Spam and pineapple and finished with a sweet barbecue sauce. The "Brooklyn Burger" has a patty topped with warm pastrami, 1000 Island dressing and sauerkraut. The "Meister Burger" is topped with Merkts cheddar cheese spread, salami and sauerkraut and served on a pretzel bun. And for the brave there's the "Most Insane-est Hottest Burger Ever-est" which starts out with a 1/2 pound beef patty and topped with Trinidad scorpion pepper sauce, fried jalapenos, habanero jam, bhut jolokia pepper flakes and Thai chile cream cheese and served on a cayenne spiced Kaiser bun. Yow!
They also have an extensive "Build Your Own Burger" selection. They have two different sizes of beef patty - a 1/3 pound and a 1/2 pound patty. (Turkey, veggie and grilled chicken breast can also be ordered.) They have five different types of buns from a Kaiser, pretzel, whole wheat, white and Pumpernickel. For 75 cents each they have a variety of cheese offerings including American, cheddar, Merkts cheddar, spicy jack cheese and blue cheese. From there you have your pick of nearly two dozen free toppings including white or red onions, grilled onions, pico de gallo, chipotle ketchup, cucumber slices, and jalapenos. For a buck more each, you can add bacon, grilled mushrooms, a fried egg, chili, salami, Spam or any of the hot items found on the "Most Insane-est" burger.
I went with a 1/2 pound burger patty and I added Swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms and bacon. I had them put the chipotle ketchup on it along with yellow mustard and chopped white onions. And I got the pretzel bun. For a drink, I got a Lagunitas IPA from their extensive beer list.
The burger came out with knife embedded in the top of the pretzel bun. I know this drives the author of the great Midwest food blog Jeni Eats absolutely crazy when they do this and it mildly annoys me. The burger was big, but it didn't really need cut in half. And it was just a butter knife, not a steak knife. Put it on the side, please.
Taking the knife out and taking a look at the what was underneath the hood, it unveiled a thick slab of Swiss cheese hiding sauteed mushrooms and bacon slices on top of the burger patty. There was already a lot of juice on the plate from the burger.
The first bite was one of "Wow! This is a very good burger!" I had ordered it medium, but it was plenty pink in the middle - more of a medium rare. I like my burgers cooked a little bit more than that, but this was still a fine burger. The juice was pouring out of the burger making it a definite 7-napkin lunch. Pictured left is the aftermath of the burger.
The pretzel bun was a great touch to the overall taste of the burger, the thick cut bacon was a nice addition, and even though I couldn't get much of the chipotle taste of the ketchup, it wasn't overpowering. This was simply an excellent burger.
I've got to hand it to the Spagnola's - they make a mighty fine burger at Back Alley Burger. While it was a tad undercooked for my liking, it was still one of those burgers where I went "Mmmmm...." after the first bite. It was juicy, flavorful and almost more than I could handle with one burger. Do yourself a favor - stop at one of the Back Alley Burger locations in the western suburbs of Chicago. You won't be disappointed.
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