You’ve been here before. It’s 10 PM and you’ve been tossed from Darkey Kelly’s for acting the maggot with your mates. The street is spinning, your head is throbbing, and you’ve lost count of the pints o’ Beamish you’ve poured into your gob. You need something fast, hot, and greasy to quiet the churn in your guts.
So you stagger down Fishamble Street looking for the nearest chipper. It’s only steps away, but it feels like miles when the glowing, emerald tractor beam of Leo Burdock finally pulls you toward salvation: a grease-spotted butcher paper package of salty, tallow-fried chips, and a squishy bun sandwiching a crispy, battered beef patty.
In the long run, each Wurly Burger you’ve consumed in this desperate condition has subtracted a week from your lifespan, but at least tonight you’ll sleep in your own bed instead of a urine-soaked alley.
You can’t find Ireland’s most notorious hangover helper anywhere in Chicago—nor likely anywhere in the U.S. But for one night only, you can soak up your Saint Patrick’s Day indiscretions like a scuttered Dubliner, thanks to a collaboration between two beefy beacons from northwest Indiana.
That’s when the Wurst returns to Monday Night Foodball—along with Miner-Dunn Hamburgers—together manifesting an Irish fish and chip shop for the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern.
Ricky Hanft’s four-year-old butchery is one of a kind, and when he brings the Wurst to a Foodball, he plays with the same uncompromising commitment to craft that he does in his little Griffith shop. This time he’s workshopping ideas for a possible new brick-and-mortar with Chad Samara, second-generation proprietor of Highland’s 93-year-old, neon-washed smashburger classic.
Samara’s worked with his dad and brother since 2006, when the family took over Miner-Dunn, commuting from Wicker Park each day, until he and his wife returned to the Region a year and a half ago.
“I didn’t know Ricky at all,” says Samara. But when “I moved back to the area I was in search of a good steak. That led me to his shop, and we kind of instantly hit it off.”
“I started trying to pimp my ground beef to him,” says Hanft. “And you know, you can’t change Miner-Dunn.”
For years the ironworker-turned-butcher has been trying to create a restaurant adjunct to the Wurst to establish a wholistic economy of scale that would stabilize the butchery. Hanft’s shop, which opened at the beginning of the pandemic, has suffered but persevered through a near biblical string of crises, from equipment failures to the loss of a critical catering contract due to his refusal to compromise on his pastured beef hot dog recipe.
Hanft and Samara started spitballing ideas for a concept that would be unique to the Region. It’s too soon to report on their plans now, but from what I’ve heard so far, it would be unique to Chicago too.
The Wurly Burger’s a preview.
Hanft envisions it as a special that could help him make productive use of the mountains of high-quality Slagel trim that pile up when he’s carving tomahawks, tenderloins, and tri-tips.
His Wurly Burger, workshopped in the kitchen at Miner-Dunn, is not unlike anything from his encyclopedic repertoire of world sausages—or the Beef Wennington he showcased at his 2023 Foodball. In its own way, it’s an original.
“We started tinkering around with the idea,” he says. “I found some very Irish ingredients, like this Ballymaloe tomato relish that’s going to substitute for ketchup. I made a black and tan mustard to go on it. We’re going to line the bar with bottles of malt vinegar.” They’re adding Vienna-style neon relish and chopped onions, and seasoning a garnish of batter cracklings with celery salt. This monster is presented on a Turano bun with a side of sport peppers. Subtract the ketchup and “it’ll be a very subtle reference to the Chicago dog.”
They’re also deep-frying a beer-battered, Irish-style pork sausage—another chip shop staple—along with thick-cut, beef tallow–fried chips, with curry and/or garlic cream sauces.
The Slagel beef Wurly Burger won’t sport Miner-Dunn’s signature lacy edges, but if you order it “deluxe” with the chips, it’ll come with a green tea-peppermint Shamrock Sherbet, a nod to the restaurant’s orange soft serve.
Frank and Mary’s is a green beer–free zone on Saint Patrick’s Day (and every day). That gimmick didn’t start in Ireland anyway. But everything else goes green when the Wurst and Miner-Dunn (with an assist from Tim “Sauce Boss” Boswinkle) open the doors on the Chicago Chipper this Monday, March 17, starting at 5 PM until sellout at 2905 N. Elston in Avondale.
It’s the first of a brand-new spring lineup for Monday Night Foodball. Check out the full schedule below.
More in FOOD & DRINK
Take a bite out of Chicago’s delicious food scene.
Michael Quinlan’s late Wicker Park beer bar will rise again in West Town this summer.
Abandoned storefronts are prevalent across the city and often remain vacant for years after a restaurant closes.
The nine-year-old magazine is the only U.S. publication devoted to the Palestinian diaspora.
The Nation of Islam’s iconic dessert is still around, if you know where to look.
A veteran airport restaurateur teams up with a Kentucky master distiller to craft a bourbon for finding common ground.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
