That wasn't a "right out of a movie" kind of night...

What started out as a quest for me and a drunken friend to find some mac n cheese that didn’t suck more than a pornstar in a bj compilation video turned out to be an unexpected, yet delightful evening that ended up with me finally making it to the restaurant for me after years of failure…

The restaurant I refer to being Kuma’s Corner. While this place is a metalhead’s dream restaurant, it should not scare a non-metalhead away, for this place has tons to offer to all. After leaving a bar to drive around hellbent to find mac n cheese, me and my friend stopped at The Beat Kitchen after giving up on the mac n cheese crave.  When asked for id's, we found out she didn't have her wallet, for she had forgotten it at the bar.  Not only did she not have her id, but she had no money.  This was no issue to me, but we had become limited on where we could go grab good food.  Driving a little more was destiny, for we came across Kuma's and I knew this was not an opportunity I should let slip away.  After being denied sitting at the bar, we waited out for a table, which surprisingly took only 20 minutes.

The place itself was much smaller than I had envisioned, but now that I have seen it is a small bar with maybe ten tables explains why this place can at times have two hour waits. Half naked pin-up girls line across one wall with pictures of bands such as Metallica and Ozzy, to name a few lie, underneath these very pin-up girls. Loud, pounding, black/thrash/death/heavy metal blasted from the time I walked in to the time I left. Across the bar were vinyls of several bands to go along with the massive amount on bottles of hard liquor. The wild card of this place is the bathrooms. They are lined with more pin-up girls and old school-esque drawn characters with graffiti from customers over the four years this place has been in business. The waitresses were tattooed, fitting in nicely with a majority of the people that were present at the restaurant. It took less than a second upon walking in and glancing around to know that this place was going to hold a special place with me.

I had been told for the longest time that Kuma’s was mostly known for their burgers and selection of beer. For those of you who have never heard of Kuma’s Corner, all their burgers are named after metal bands (Iron Maiden, Slayer, Mayhem, etc.) They have a pretty long list of different burgers, and if you visit the link I will supply at the end if the article, you will see what I mean. As for the beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon was the only “every day” beer, while the rest of the beer, starting at $5 a pint, was from independent brewers. My friend and I split the Iron Maiden burger, and I bought myself a pint of Allagash White. It reminded me a lot of Blue Moon, minus the orange. The burger I ordered came on a pretzel bun, came with the usual lettuce, onion, tomato, and was then topped with pepper jack cheese, cherry peppers, slices of avocado, and chipotle mayo. We got the waffle fries with our meal too. I know I can over exaggerate a lot of things, but this was serious food that I would wait two hours for if I had to. Kuma’s Corner claims to have the best burgers in Chicago, and the diversity of the burgers and what comes on them surely differentiates these burgers from your basic burger. Easily, this was the best food I have had in quite some time. If you live in Chicago or plan on visiting here, get your ass to 2900 W Belmont Ave pronto and experience Kuma’s Corner first hand.

Visit their website (watch out, it is under a little construction) and check out the menu and beer selection. You will not have any regrets.

http://www.kumascorner.com/html/about.html