The Southern
1840 West North Ave
Chicago
Date of Last Visit: Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Victim: Julie
The Damage: About $25 each. Beers.
The Background: Sunday April 10th was a GORGEOUS day in Chicago. Over 80 degrees. Amazing. It made me momentarily forget the Blizzard of 2011 that kept me trapped in my apartment with a German exchange student for three days, forcing me to skip my work trip to Israel and head straight to Dubai instead.
I tried to get Julie to buy some proseco or champagne and sit in Wicker Park with me and eat strawberries. Maybe if we closed our eyes tight enough, we could pretend we were in Hyde Park (London) or Hampstead Heath. Somehow, this didn’t work out and we ended up at The Southern for a late brunch.
LATE brunch. Which for me, makes it time for real food…real food, not breakfast food. Sadly, The Southern was only serving their brunch menu. Which means I couldn’t have their regular mac & cheese — the dish they’re most famous for — I had to have their breakfast mac & cheese instead. (I tried people. I tried.)
Bah.
The breakfast mac & cheese arrives and it is soupy. Don’t let the smattering of breadcrumbs up top fool you. The rest of it is just cream of some sort. Soupy soupy cream. (The menu lists the ingredients as smoked gouda, andouille sausage,toasted bread crumbs, and scrambled egg.) I scoop up the sausage and the scrambled egg, but the mac & cheese itself is a disappointment to mac & cheese everywhere. (Which will only become clearer when I have the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had in my entire life when I hit Spuntino in London at the end of April. Mac & cheese in London of all places!)
I got most of it to go and take the rest home and with the help of Twitter, I improved upon it.
The Verdict: Everyone loves The Southern. I should probably give it another shot. But not so impressed right now. Sorry dudes.
6 comments
From @kristainlondon The Southern, Bucktown: The Southern 1840 West North Ave Chicago Date of Last Visit: Sunda… http://bit.ly/mDfV4g
The Southern, Bucktown http://bit.ly/mDfV4g
Damn….might head down to Spuntino shortly for another M&C hit.
That looks pretty anaemic. Are you missing little ol’ London, perchance? 😉
That would be true! Hoping to make a longer visit in June!
I HAVE NEVER HAD AN EXPERIENCE LIKE THIS!!!! My husband, daughter and I met friends from Nebraska and Wicker Park for dinner. We got there early so my 11 year old daughter was playing trivial pursuit on my iPad. We had a fabulous dinner, including appetizers (fried green tomatoes and soft-shell crab – yum!!!) I loved my shrimp and grits. When we left, we forgot my iPad. 2 hours later, we went to the restaurant and were told that the next customers in our booth turned it in, but the staff could not find it. The next day, at 5 pm, they called and said they found my Ipad and were holding it for us in the office. Evan, Kevin, Amy our waitress and Erin, are incredible, HONEST and trustworthy people. I am SO glad I can go back to The Southern, because we had a wonderful dinner and I really wanted to go back there. Thank you to everyone who helped us. Thank you for your honesty and for doing the right thing. We will never forget your kindness. We will be back!!!
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