I think you're sauceome.

Have I mentioned how much I love drawing food? I wish it was my job to do nothing but eat and draw awesome food all day long. :)

Niles and I both had snow days – his Whole Foods closed early, so he didn’t have to go in for his shift, and I was working from home. When I saw it come across Twitter that Kuma’s was open, we decided to try going there for lunch. We’re a quick 10 minute walk from Kuma’s (well, on a normal day – it took considerably longer getting there through mountains of snow), but I haven’t been there in several months, mostly because the wait is regularly about an hour and a half. Surely, we thought, surely we’ll be able to get a table right away with 20 inches of snow on the ground keeping everyone else away?

We were hardly the only ones with that thought, though. It wasn’t too bad, we ended up waiting only about 20 minutes, and then some seats at the bar opened up. The steamed clams were a new item (to me, but like I said, I can’t remember when I was in there last). We were on the fence about it until Niles noticed the menu said Spanish chorizo. That put it over the top for him. I had never had Spanish chorizo before – I had no idea there were other kinds of chorizo, honestly. Spanish chorizo is harder and denser than the Mexican chorizo you see everywhere in Chicago. It’s almost like an Italian salami in texture. It was spicy and very tasty, and a perfectly pleasant counterpoint to the clams.

It seems silly to get an appetizer at Kuma’s, I know, but I find that it makes it easier to eat only half your burger if you’ve had a few bites of something beforehand. I picked one of the new ones, the Solace. Braised sweet onions, aged gruyere that was all crispy and caramelized at the edges, crisp bacon, and served on toasted caraway rye bread instead of the traditional Kuma’s pretzel bun. It was like a patty melt, only the best patty melt that ever existed. I can’t wait to eat the other half of it!

It’s a testament to Chicagoans’ winter-hardiness that Kuma’s was still pretty crowded yesterday. Or maybe a testament to how awesome Kuma’s burgers are. :)