Jessica and I stopped into Jack Rabbit in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago after sampling quite a few different beers at a little get together, including the excellent and limited Popskull collaboration between Three Floyds and Dogfish Head. I picked up a case of it at FFF after Tom told me it was only going to be available at the brewery in bottles and not make it to Delaware or PA. It’s a brown ale that’s been aged on DFH’s Palo Santo wood. More on that in another post.
We’d worked up an appetite and Jack Rabbit was right across the street. I’d been past many times, but never stopped inside. Their fairly concise menu has a Southwestern flavor and a few of the items sounded interesting, so we stopped in for dinner.
Start with Some Homemade Chips
It was probably partially due to our hunger, but their chips and salsa really hit the spot. The chips were house made and very fresh, just the right amount of salt and crunch to be eaten on their own. But, the provided salsa was excellent, with a little heat and good chunkiness. We ran through the basket pretty quickly, but didn’t get a refill so we could actually finish our meal.
Green Chile Burger and Sweet Potato Fries
Half Magic
I ordered the Jack Rabbit burger medium rare with Hatch green chiles, bacon, and Monterey Jack cheese. I had spied that the steak was on the menu with some very awesome sounding Parmesan sweet potato fries. I convinced my server that I was worthy for a substitution and he brought these out with the burger. I had thought that the Grafton was the secret spot for burger greatness, but Jack Rabbit quickly proved that wrong, deftly serving up the tastiest burger I’d had in Lincoln Square. The beef was well seasoned with a little salt, but not too much. It was grilled and had a bit of a smokey taste without being overbearing. If anything, a little griddle char would have helped, but that would involve a whole different kind of burger. It was juicy, but didn’t wreck the bun in a puddle of ooze. The spice of the green chiles stood up well to the beef and complimented the saltiness from the bacon.
As good as the burger was, it wasn’t the star of the meal. The Parmesan sweet potato fries were something to behold. The potatoes were thinly hand-cut and were definitely more on the limp side, but not soggy. It’s hard to get a crisp sweet potato fry without resorting to breading, so I was definitely fine with the texture here. The Parmesan cheese added a nice sharpness and saltiness that worked well with the sweetness. Definitely some of the best sweet potato fries I’d ever had.
Tacos or Taquitos
Jessica’s shrimp tacos were a little on the experimental side. The tortillas were rolled to form large taquitos, but the filling was good, cheesy and shrimpy. She was a little afraid of the corn red pepper hash served on the site, so I helped her finish it. It had a little spice from the red peppers that mixed well with the slightly sweet corn kernels.
Cinnamon Bread Pudding
We wrapped up with a cinnamon bread pudding. It was quite a large dessert with two nice sized pieces of fairly dense, juicy bread pudding. Lots of cinnamon flavor mixed with caramel topping and sweet, fresh whipped cream. A nice way to wrap things up.
We walked away very content with everything we had to eat. Jack Rabbit was a pleasant surprise with an excellent burger and even better sweet potato fries. I’d definitely regretted not going there sooner and more often.
Tags: bacon, beer, bread pudding, chicago, dogfish head, green chile, hamburgers, shrimp, sweet potato fries, tacos, three floyds
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