Only a few hours to go before Kuma's is featured on Check, Please! and all hell breaks loose.

johnny wrote:Only a few hours to go before Kuma's is featured on Check, Please! and all hell breaks loose.

I can see it now. So many people, so few Goblin Cocks.

Was there today for lunch. Corwded. People standing waiting for any seat at the bar or tables. This was around 12:45 p.

Went for the infamous Goblin Cock. Just wanted to stuff that big Cock in my mouth and savor it awhile . Can't believe I just wrote that. .

Had a crarving for the Mastodon instead. Which I remember as onion strings, cheddar, bacon and BBQ sauce on top of a burger with that fabulous pretzel bun. It was good, but decidedly inferior to the Kuma Burger.

Will be interested in going back to the best burger place in Chicago next Summer after the Check Please affect dies down.

Bster

Wow - in the very same week Kuma's was awarded the coveted GNR award by LTH, featured on Check, Please!, and two bands with namesake burgers (Clutch and Neurosis) are playing in Chicago.
A well paid publicist couldn't have planned this any better.

You know, they are open for lunch during the week. I suspect that will still be fairly easy to get into even when the madding crowd is cramming the place at night.

At least I hope so, as I want to gobble a... Black Sabbath burger.

johnny wrote:Only a few hours to go before Kuma's is featured on Check, Please! and all hell breaks loose.

I don't think they came off that well in the review on Check Please. The crowd looked scarier than I've ever seen it (which might turn a few people off), and they really didn't talk too much about the specifics of the burgers. And then the lawyer definitely gave them a mixed review (serves him right if he doesn't know what a PBR is ).

Time will tell about what kind of impact it has on the wait times....but I wish Kuma's much success.

(serves him right if he doesn't know what a PBR is ).

Warning: not safe for work, don't play with your speakers turned up, etc.

jakekate wrote:I don't think they came off that well in the review on Check Please. The crowd looked scarier than I've ever seen it (which might turn a few people off), and they really didn't talk too much about the specifics of the burgers. And then the lawyer definitely gave them a mixed review (serves him right if he doesn't know what a PBR is ).

Time will tell about what kind of impact it has on the wait times....but I wish Kuma's much success.

I'm sure it's not going to hurt Kuma's business, but yeah, that comment about the PBR really ticked me off because he classified it as a "Boo" moment for Kuma's, and really, it was his mistake, not the restaurant's (although I do think "PBR" is a relatively modern moniker). But all in all, I think that Check Pleaser was trying to put a positive spin on his experience. The greatest hurt, however, came from the show's shots, every one of which included someone tattooed and pierced. It's sort of like filming the inside of McDonald's and focusing 100% on kids, when we all know that many adults go there too.

aschie30 wrote:The greatest hurt, however, came from the show's shots, every one of which included someone tattooed and pierced.

I bet the editors/producers said, "Well, if we show 'normal' looking people there, a lot of regular folks might go there based on that and be dismayed to discover that every one who works there is tattooed and pierced. And we don't want to be responsible for that." (It is, after all, the case that everyone who works there is tattooed and pierced. At least everyone that I've ever seen.)

Every editorial decision is a choice of commission (even if it looks like a choice of omission), and this one was probably committed not because of a wish to sabotage Kuma's business but because the show didn't want to be responsible for sending "regular" Channel 11 viewers to a place they'd end up being uncomfortable. Better to exaggerate the "dangers" and then any regular WTTW subscribers who venture there anyway can't say they weren't forewarned.

I don't agree with that decision, because as a non-tattooed, non-pierced and semi-regular person, I've felt very comfortable at Kuma's, and I've seen other customers who look like me when I've been there, but I can see how the editorial choice got made.

(Also, after taping at gosh knows how many Chicago restaurants by now, most of which are probably indistinguishable, the producers were no doubt grateful for one that had some visual differences from all of the others, so they gravitated to those differences.)

I'd buy the last paragraph of that far over the first three, Riddlemay.

You're always looking for whatever makes something different from the last 99 of the exact same thing you did.

I gotta say, I just finished watching that segment and didn't see an overwhelming number of tattooed/pierced people. We even saw a few trixies, and a lot of LTHer-looking-types.

But really, if your restaurant was going to be on check please, you'd encourage your friends and best customers to come over and praise the food for the cameras. The owner's friends are tattooed/pierced.

I thought it made the restaurant look great.

gleam wrote:and a lot of LTHer-looking-types.

I didn't know we had a signature "look".

johnny wrote:

gleam wrote:and a lot of LTHer-looking-types.

I didn't know we had a signature "look".

You weren't at the picnic, eh?

Extra bonus points are awarded to the WTTW staffer who decided vintage Slayer was to be the background music.

Am I the only one that caught the last second "Slayer!" right before they cut back to Alpana?

i too saw this on Check Please, and I really want to check it out. unfortunately it's really out of the way - i live in Andersonville and don't own a car. maybe I can talk my friends into driving

briansemerick wrote:i too saw this on Check Please, and I really want to check it out. unfortunately it's really out of the way - i live in Andersonville and don't own a car. maybe I can talk my friends into driving

If you're near the El, you can just head south to Belmont, get off and then take the 77 west. If you hit the connections right (and you're close to the El to start with), it's an easier trip than you might think.

I thought the Check Please segment was slightly unflattering. I'm not sure if having never heard of the place, I'd feel the urge to check it out after watching the review. While they made it look mildly intriguing, it didn't come close to capturing the phenomenally high level of esteem I hold the place in.

Then again, maybe that's a good thing. I called at about 9:30 PM on Saturday night before heading there to see what the wait for a table was like and they said an hour and a half!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:I called at about 9:30 PM on Saturday night before heading there to see what the wait for a table was like and they said an hour and a half!

I happened to drive past Kuma's around 8:30pm on Saturday, it was packed to the gills with a few people outside.

I thought the Kuma's Check Please episode was quite positive and the video clip of the egg yolk running out of the Kuma burger cinematic genius.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:I thought the Check Please segment was slightly unflattering. I'm not sure if having never heard of the place, I'd feel the urge to check it out after watching the review. While they made it look mildly intriguing, it didn't come close to capturing the phenomenally high level of esteem I hold the place in.

Then again, maybe that's a good thing. I called at about 9:30 PM on Saturday night before heading there to see what the wait for a table was like and they said an hour and a half!

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I just watched the segment last night, and of the 3 restaurants that were featured, Kuma's would have been my favorite choice of the 3, even if I were not a semi-regular there. I thought the food photography captured the qualities that I enjoy in their food, and even convinced me that I need to order the calamari next time I'm in, and that would not be an item that I would normally consider eating there. I remember thinking to myself that it might scare some people away, but that those were exactly the people that would a) Feel that it "was not their cup of tea," and b) Fill up tables that might otherwise be filled by me or someone else for whom it "was their pint of ale."

YoYoPedro wrote:
I can see it now. So many people, so few Goblin Cocks.

Wow, kinda like high school...

Jamie

Sunday, 5:30 pm, 45 min wait.
Oy.

leek wrote:Sunday, 5:30 pm, 45 min wait.
Oy.

That's almost a Jewish haiku!

Oh my God, I just saw the Check, Please (it's actually still on). Those people are too scary! I'm not going back to Kuma's, it's like From Dusk Till Dawn in there!

So, has anyone ever been to that Adelle's place in Wheaton? They went gaga for it but it looked like pretty standard upscale dining to me, just judging by pictures of food.

briansemerick wrote:i too saw this on Check Please, and I really want to check it out. unfortunately it's really out of the way - i live in Andersonville and don't own a car. maybe I can talk my friends into driving

Oh yeah, you definately should check Kuma's Corner out whenever you have the chance! It is as damn good, as others say it is. I don't own a car either(and only drive occasionally, since I share my family's car), so I definately sympathize with you there.

Though I haven't seen the Check Please segment on Kuma's yet, I'm not honestly sure if the mention on this show will make that much of a difference in crowds, since it already has a very significant number of reviews on yelp(140+, which is very much above average for a Chicago restaurant on yelp). Not to also mention, I went there just 3 days before the segment aired last Friday on WTTW, and I still had to wait 20 minutes for a table.

The only times where I suspect the wait may be longer, is on weekends, and on certain evenings, such as Friday and Saturday nights. (and maybe also Thursday night)

Mike G wrote:Oh my God, I just saw the Check, Please (it's actually still on). Those people are too scary!

I know what you mean! It's like everyone that works at Whole Foods went to the same bar and ate meat!

Oh no! Jimthebeerguy is on his way home, with friends that he just got from the train station, to pick me (& baby) up to go out to Kuma's Burgers for lunch.

He asked me to check this thread & see if Kuma's would be open today.

So I checked this thread, only to find out it was on Check, Please! How recently was this? Do you think it will be horribly crowded?

Eh, maybe I should come up with a Plan B. What do you all think?

(sorry to crash this thread.... to keep it on topic, what on earth is a goblin cock?)

You should be fine with lunch. You could always just call them and ask what the wait will be.

Give 'em a call.
Lunchtime is typically not as crowded but it IS Friday and the Check Please! aftermath is in full affect.

Thanks, guys...why didn't I think of that?

I gave 'em a call!!!!