CheekyChicago

There are many-a-Chicago staple in this town (in terms of restaurants) and R.J. Grunts (the very first venture for the über-successful and unparalleled Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises) is at the top of my list. How could I not be enamored by a restaurant whose slogan is “catering to the neurotic compensation of eating.”

You walk into R.J. Grunts and expect David Mamet to be sitting at the bar. Maybe Mayor Daley’s in a back booth. Perhaps Barack Obama is at the salad bar. The restaurant is just so. very. Chicago. Not to mention, it’s ridden with history. Just look at the walls – black and white headshots of waitresses past adorn every inch of the place. Since its conception in 1970, R.J. Grunts has stealthily and scrumptiously been serving the neighborhood of Lincoln Park and the entire city as a whole.

What I love about R.J. Grunts is its complete lack of pretension. This place basically launched an entire empire and they’re serving chopped liver at the salad bar, milkshakes at the bar and temperature based soup (yep, you pay in cents what the temperature reads in degrees). Like I said, pretension doesn’t exist. But darn good, home cooked, comforting food does.

The menu is laden with all the good things in life – what we, as Americans, live for: onion rings (served in a tower), chili chili chili, guacamole and salsa, grilled cheese (with bacon and tomato, please), tuna melts (mmmm…..), buffalo style chicken and burgers (hamburgers, cheezeburgers, gruntburgers, mushroom swissburgers, peppercorn burgers and chiliburgers).

My mouth is already watering and that’s without me even mentioning the very thing worthy of its own paragraph – the savory, the healthy, the fresh, the succulent, the ridiculously large….Salad Bar. The salad bar itself makes RJ Grunts a destination to trudge through snow for (especially if you pair it with chili or the soup of the day). With lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peas, radishes, beets (roasted, at that), chick peas (to keep this thing moving, let’s just say ‘veggies of all sorts’), nuts, berries, melons, pickled things, cheeses (lots), chopped liver, chocolate chip cream cheese and a variety of soups, this is the biggest, baddest salad bar in town. Bar none.

Basically, if you’re looking for anything to eat at all, R.J. Grunts will have it. Unless, of course, you’re thinking along the lines of foie gras-infused ice cream (no problem, L20 is right down the street). R.J. Grunts is simple, fun, unpretentious, salad bar-y, milk shake-filled and delicious. I’ll go out on a limb and say that if you walked in and saw Mamet at the bar, Daley in a booth and Obama grabbing salad, they’d all have damn big smiles on their faces.