Chicago (American) - Kuma's Corner

Kuma’s Corner
2900 W. Belmont, Chicago, IL; Phone 773-604-8769
Date of Review: November, 2009
http://www.kumascorner.com/

Come for the burger and stay for the attitude. Don’t forget the tattoos either. Kuma’s Corner has been around for many years and I actually knew of it before it ‘”blew up” and got famous after getting ranked as the best burger in Chicago by some publication. I had been here for a beer and a sandwich on a few occasions as it is one of the few bars on this stretch of Belmont Avenue in Avondale near my home in Logan Square. Ironically, it is less than a mile from Hot Doug’s which draws similar lines and I am guessing a similar crowd of Diners, Drive In’s and Dives viewers. This is a place not for the faint hearted. While I brought my parents here once, many would be turned off by the loud (but not obnoxiously blaring) heavy metal music that is always on and the attitude that emanates from this place. Personally, I like it. This place isn’t trying to be cute and they are happy being what they are which is a bar with outstanding hamburgers and a good beer selection. Another thing on the music – they aren’t changing it so don’t bother asking.

Kuma’s is really all attitude from the rules posted on the wall (e.g. We will not "put on the game, bro") to the dim lighting and the menu which is really trying to say ANGER in a not so subtle way. Despite that, the bartenders and servers are very nice and helpful and don’t really display any attitude. If you are interested in a position though, you better make sure you have some visible tattoos as I don’t remember seeing an employee without some visible ink during my visits. They are known for their burgers and have 20 different variations which you can get with a chicken breast or garden burger also. They put a lot of thought and creativity into the toppings and combinations so I would suggest not making special requests (that is actually one of their rules). When I say creativity, it comes from the name of the burger to the toppings. For example, the special burger on my last visit was the Sleep burger which is on for the Thanksgiving season. It is a turkey burger on top of cranberry jam (all burgers are served on a gigantic chewy pretzel roll) with a fried stuffing cake on top of the burger which is covered with gravy. It takes a lot of thought to put out something like that or the Judas Priest together which features bacon and bleu cheese dressing with apples, walnuts, and dried cranberries.

On my most recent visit, we started with an appetizer of BBQ pork fries which feature waffle fries covered with jack cheese and BBQ pork (9$). Given the size of the burgers, this was not needed (and definitely not for 2 people) but it was pretty good. There was a ton of pork on top of a mountain of fries and they didn’t hold back on the cheese. It was topped with some chopped scallions which were a really nice compliment to the other flavors. The fries are not homemade (good luck with making waffle fries homemade) but they were decent. The only negative on the appetizer is that some of the fries on the very bottom were cold but by that point, you probably didn’t need those last few French fries anyway. They obviously don’t care much about offering good French fries if they are serving waffle fries (they do make homemade chips), but that is cool with me as this place lives and dies on burgers and they are not bashful about saying so. On that note, I went with the Iron Maiden which features avocado, cherry peppers, pepper jack cheese and chipotle mayo on a pretzel roll. The high quality meat is juicy and tasty and was served medium (leaning towards medium rare which was perfect). The burger is so big that it is nearly impossible to cut through and keep together. My burger kept falling apart on me and I had to put it back together numerous times. While kind of cool, it can get to be annoying. I purposely went for toppings that I didn’t think would overwhelm the meat and bun. I wanted to taste the burger instead of just the topping which can be a challenge if you order something like the Plague Bringer (Roasted Garlic Mayo, Tortilla Strips, Chicago CO-OP hot sauce, Fresh Garlic, Pepper Jack, Sliced Jalapenos). The chipotle mayo was decent but didn’t really add or detract from the burger. The cherry peppers, avocado and thick slice of cheese where nice compliments that allowed the taste of the meat to come through. Not wanting or being able to handle any more French fries, I went for the house made chips which were solid and once again there were a lot of them. They were served with a cup of chipotle ketchup which was tasty and had a nice chunky consistency. Kuma’s has a good U.S. microbrew heavy beer selection with 6-8 drafts and many variations of bottles.

All of the burgers are between 10 and 12 dollars which is a good value as most people end up taking half home or leaving it on the plate. For me, I ate the whole thing and felt like I wanted to throw up afterwards. Don’t try that! With the heavy metal music, tattoos and overall attitude of this place, it is kind of must at least once. This place has excellent hamburgers. While it isn’t gourmet, Kuma’s isn’t trying to be gourmet about anything. What they are trying to be is in your face with big obnoxious burgers and an endless variety of toppings.