I had an early morning meeting in Oak Brook, a suburb on the west side of the Chicago metro area, and I ended up staying the night at a hotel that I hadn't been to in years and years. I did some scouting around the area to see if there was something that I might like to get and I found a barbecue place that sounded sort of interesting - and a name that I remembered later on for seeing one of their locations in the far northern suburbs of Chicago - Real Urban Barbecue. I headed over there to try some barbecue that particular evening.
Like most barbecue places, Real Urban Barbecue came out of what was an award winning team on the competition barbecue front. Jeff Shapiro was a native of the north shore Chicago suburb of Highland Park who loved barbecue. He started to enter competition barbecue events with the team name of Dr. Deckle and Mr. Hide. Shapiro also expanded his knowledge of barbecue as visited famous barbecue places in Kansas City, Memphis, Texas, the Carolinas and St. Louis. After winning some events, he did what the majority of other barbecue circuit winners do - he opened his own barbecue place. The only difference between Shapiro and many of the same barbecue competitors who opened their own places is that he actually had extensive restaurant experience prior to opening his own barbecue joint.
Pictured right - Jeff Shapiro. Photo courtesy Illinois Restaurant Association.
As a young man Shapiro started in the restaurant business working for the Lettuce Entertain You conglomeration of restaurants in the Chicago area that included stops along the way at R.J. Grunts, Bub City, P.J. Clarke's and the now closed Papagus and Bones (now known as L. Woods) restaurants. After leaving Lettuce Entertain You, Shapiro became the operations manager at Carmichael's Steakhouse that was located near the United Center which was a popular destination for people going to or coming from a Chicago Bulls or Blackhawks game. (Carmichael's was open for 18 years before closing earlier this year.)
Shapiro sensed that an urban barbecue place was something that people were clamoring for and he opened his first Real Urban Barbecue location in Highland Park in November of 2010. He opened his second Real Urban Barbecue in far north suburban Vernon Park in July of 2012. (I actually saw that location not long after it opened up and it sort of piqued my interest.) And in November of last year, he opened a third location in Oak Brook.
The Oak Brook location is on Clearwater Drive near the corner of York Road and 22nd St., about a half mile east of the Oakbrook Center shopping and entertainment complex. (see map) It's located on the west end of a strip mall that's visible from 22nd St.
It was around 8 p.m. when I got into Real Urban Barbecue. It's a cafeteria-style place where you place your order with a guy who cuts the ribs, slices the brisket, dollops the pulled pork and dishes out the sides and plops everything down on a tray. The menu is located along the wall above the counter and their main feature are the pork ribs that you can get either wet - with the barbecue sauce served on them; dry - with nothing on them; rubbed - a Memphis-style dry rub blend of spices; or "perfection" - which is basically Memphis-style and wet together. As I said, they also feature brisket and pulled pork along with smoked turkey, burnt ends, chicken and sausage.
I went with a combo plate of ribs - I got them wet, but I should have just gone for the Memphis-style rubbed - pulled pork and brisket. I had the guy put some barbecue sauce on the brisket and pork, too. But I found that was a mistake. They had barbecue sauce on the table and I wanted to try the different styles that they had on the meats. They had a number of sides in steamers along the cook line that included mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, a walnut/sweet potato souffle, and a sort of scalloped corn side. I ended up going with the dirty rice (something I don't think I've encountered at a barbecue place in the Midwest) and, of course, the baked beans. I also got a couple cans of the Revolution Brewing Company Anti-Hero IPA. Finally, a big handful of dill pickles came with the barbecue. I love dill pickles with my barbecue.
I sat down on a long community table in the main dining area. There are two rooms to dine in at the Real Urban Barbecue location in Oak Brook. On the walls there's corrugated metal wainscoting and above that are signs and pictures of places that Jeff Shapiro visited on his barbecue pilgrimages. I recognized many of the ones from Kansas City and Memphis that he visited. Seated at the end of the same table I was at was a guy working on his computer. I recognize him now from the picture above - it was Jeff Shapiro. Wish I would have known it was him. I would have loved to have talked to him about his trips to barbecue places.
The sauces they had on the table were sort of interesting. The Original sauce is a Kansas City-style sweet sauce. The Texas Roadhouse sauce had a nice spicy bite to it. There was a Carolina vinegar sauce called Piedmont. The Mustard sauce featured a blend of 3 different types of mustard. And something that they just happened to have on the table along with their four regular sauces was a Bloody Mary sauce that had elements of a bloody mary mix with some horseradish mixed in.
First of all, this was a lot of food. The ribs were big and meaty, the slabs of the brisket were thick, and there was a good helping of the pulled pork. The pulled pork had some of the burnt outer side of the pork butt mixed in that gave the pork a nice smoky caramelized taste. It was a shame that I got the barbecue sauce on it at the counter because I would have loved for the full taste of the pork to shine through before I put barbecue sauce on it on my own.
The ribs were all right - they were a little tough and dried out. They probably had been lying there a good portion of the day in a holding oven. They were pretty disappointing.
But the brisket and the pulled pork more than made up for the ribs. The brisket was tender and had a great taste. The pulled pork - in addition to the smoky caramelized chunks - was moist, tender and scrumptious. I couldn't make up my mind what I liked more - the pulled pork or the brisket. If I had to say, I'd go 1) brisket; 1A) pulled pork; 3) ribs.
Trying the different barbecue sauces, I determined that I liked the spicy Texas roadhouse sauce the best, followed closely by the Original sauce. The vinegary Piedmont sauce had a nice peppery taste and I liked it better than the Bloody Mary sauce that would have been a nice addition to, well, a bloody Mary. Finally, the mustard sauce was down on my list only because I don't care for mustard-based barbecue sauces. But each of them were a unique taste in their own right.
I almost forgot to comment on the sides I got - the dirty rice was a nice surprise that they had it as a side, but it was sort of bland and sort of "meh!" It, too, may have suffered from being in a steam bin a good portion of the day. And the baked beans featured five different types of beans (by my count) and all had a distinctive flavor. A flavor that I didn't care for, but some people may.
The brisket and the pulled pork were the stars at Real Urban Barbecue. Next time I'll get them served dry and put my own barbecue sauce on them. The Texas Roadhouse and the Original sauces were my favorite, but I was disappointed in the ribs and somewhat in the sides, as well. Overall, this was a good barbecue experience - not as good as some I've encountered in the St. Louis/Memphis/Kansas City triangle of great barbecue places. But Real Urban Barbecue acquitted themselves very well compared to others in the Chicago area.
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