First Taste: Good Stuff Eatery
The burger boom in Chicago shows no sign of abating any time soon. Not only is the city jam-packed with original burger concepts all its own — M Burger, Kuma's Corner, Au Cheval, and Epic Burger among some favorites — but we've seen a huge influx of popular burger brand in the past couple years. Umami Burger and Shake Shack came first, and most recently Spike Mendelsohn threw his fedora into the ring with his first Chicago outpost of Good Stuff Eatery. The amiable Top Chef vet surfed to post-television success in D.C. with his casual burger concept, along with a pizza restaurant and a French spot called Béarnaise. The man is doing well. His first major U.S. expansion outside of the East Coast came via Chicago with the launch of Good Stuff Eatery in the Loop. But in such a saturated burger market, can the Good Stuff stand out?
Good Stuff Eatery is a sunny, barnyard-inspired bastion in the Loop, nestled under the El tracks on Wabash. The elongated space offers a comfy, rural respite from the din outside. It's one of the more relaxing and inviting burger spots in town, far more so than Shake Shack and Umami. Employees are gracious, the menu is straightforward, and the vibe is warmly nostalgic. It feels like being invited to a picnic, albeit a picnic catered by Top Chef alumni.
The menu is simply laid out into a few Americana staples: burgers, fries, and shakes. There's also wedge salads, but that's not what you're here for. The menu template seems pretty ho-hum and tired, but Mendelsohn sets himself apart with some unique flavor combinations like a steakhouse burger strewn with Emmental cheese and "steakhouse mayo," a banh mi-like Blazin' Barn burger with pickled daikon and carrots, and Vietnamese coffee milkshakes. That's all well and good, but the follow-through is pivotal. Some ingredients are a little too wonky and misplaced, like the severely overwhelming Roquefort cheese on the Prez Obama burger. The meat is fresh and luscious, perfectly fatty and succulent, but you'd never be able to tell buried under such a heady cheese. To get a better taste of the beef, stick to the basic Farmhouse Burgers, which nail the classic topping combos of tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and pickles, all nestled on a fluffy Pennsylvania Dutch bun... whatever that means. But the buns taste and feel like a slightly less sweet Hawaiian roll, so that's a glorious thing. The fries are exceptional, freshly cut skin-on beauties with a glistening patina of fryer grease beckoning you to dig in. Liberally salted and tender, these things are the stuff of county fair dreams. Or barnyard dreams, I guess. The shakes are damn fine too.
When he takes burgers into uncharted territory, like Roquefort, things get a little eschew. But when the integrity of the meat, the bun, and the classic ideology behind the Good Stuff concept is allowed to shine through, it shines bright indeed.
- Matt Kirouac