DMK Burger Bar

This is a really lousy picture but what it was supposed to be a picture of was pretty good. I braved the weather last night to go to DMK Burger Bar. DMK is a joint venture from David Morton, scion of the Morton's Restaurant Group/Morton Steakhouse and owner of Pompei Little Italy, and Michael Kornick of MK Restaurant. To describe the restaurant as a burger bar is correct but very simplified. They use grass fed beef and other artisanal ingredients to form a simple but good menu. There are 14 sandwiches on the menu with 9 being hamburgers. The others include salmon, turkey, lamb, and a veggie burger for the unenlightened. There are also 5 salads on the menu as well as mac and cheese but why would you eat a salad when you know you are coming to a burger joint? Even if the salads are good (which I am sure that they are), eating a salad at a burger joint completely misses the point. And what's a burger without fries? There are 6 types of fries starting with sea salt and pepper, and going to sweet potato with lemon tabasco aioli or fries with parmesan and truffle cream. We have talked about the burgers but if you are going to a place that calls itself a burger bar, you also have to talk about the beer. There are no macro brews on the menu (although Goose Island is there). There are six beers on tap mostly focusing on pale ales and wheats. But the bottle list is pretty interesting. There are 27 bottles on the list arranged from light to dark with some well known craft breweries.

The place has a simple design with hardwood floors with a long bar and several round tables but with enough room in the room to actually move around. It also has a very friendly feel to it. The music playing in the "background" was a lot of old funk and R&B. I sat at the bar where I was able to both watch the goings on of the place and the hockey game on one of the TVs behind the bar. My meal consisted of the #6 which is a burger with marinated portobello mushrooms, blue brie, and dijonnaise and fries with sea salt and black pepper with housemade ketchup. My beer was the appropriately named Sublimely Self Righteous Black IPA from Stone Brewing Company. The food and drink were all good. I like both stouts and IPAs and a black IPA brings the best of both. The fries were simple but very well prepared. They were very crispy and tender and actually reminded me of frites and the housemade ketchup was both tangy and spicy. The burger was well prepared. The beef was of good quality and the mushrooms, brie, and dijonnaise added to it but when you have already had the best burger in town, it is hard to give others their do. There are a few other things on the menu that I may need to try at a future visit.