Albany Park

I don't think I had actually ever heard of Albany Park before this little project. After some extensive research (read: Wikipedia) we discovered it's one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the country - with particular representation from Mexico, the Middle East and Korea. In fact, Albany Park happens to contain Chicago's own Koreatown, which I also, until this point, didn't know existed. So on Saturday Zack and I hopped onto the Brown Line and headed toward the end of the line - Kimball - determined to get an authentic taste of Korea.


Thanks to Google's street view, we had an idea of what we were getting into - and as we pulled into the Kimball station our expectations were met. There was a dingy little diner, the Huddle House; a big strip mall with shops like the Donut Doctor and Subway; several currency exchanges; and some taquerias. It didn't seem like much of a Koreatown - and until I saw the sign for Honorary Seoul Drive, I was wondering if we were mistaken.

As we walked around, however, we noticed the Korean shop signs and newspapers, along with a few actual Koreans (or so I assumed). Satisfied, we headed to the restaurant we'd picked out in advance, Kang Nam. We'd read they make the food in front of you on charcoal Korean BBQs - sounded interesting. Of course, the place was in a strip mall. Not a good sign, I thought. But once we found it, tucked away in the corner of the strip mall, I was pleasantly surprised at the ambience.

I've never been a Korean-food junkie. I had a really bad experience with bi bim bop at a Korean place in New York City, and since then I've pretty much run in the opposite direction when someone mentions the cuisine. So I stayed pretty conservative on this attempt, ordering the Beef Bolgaki lunch special - basically BBQ beef. Zack got the Kolbi special, BBQ beef short ribs. To our dismay, they didn't cook the food in the little charcoal grill/hole thing in the middle of our table, but rather brought the food out ready for eating.

I'll give the whole experience a 3 out of 10 - mostly for the novelty. The beef and rice were ok, and there were these soy-soaked potatos that I could eat, and a little iceberg-lettuce salad - but I found it largely unpalatable. Zack, as usual, ate every bite of his and enjoyed it for the most part. I was glad I'd at least tried it - until I realized I paid $10 for it. That's not a very special lunch special in my book.

Along with the check, the waitress/hostess plopped down a couple little plastic bottles of some kind of drink called Biofeel. The ingredients were mostly high fructose corn syrup and water, along with some kind of lactose bacillus something or other. I figured they were either trying to aid with our digestion or kill us with biological warfare. We shrugged our shoulders and tested it out. Kind of weird. Orangey sweet with an aftertaste of milk. Not bad, but just weird enough that I decided not to finish it. Zack, of course, liked it enough to finish his (but not enough to drink the rest of mine).

Zack and I forged on after lunch, searching out our next stop in Albany Park - preferably a bar. From what we could see, there were absolutely zero bars in the entire neighborhood. Google maps had a few suggestions, all several blocks away. We headed toward one of the closer ones - a Hookah Bar up on Foster. The walk north on Kedzie was not very scenic. Sketchy, if anything. Then suddenly we came across a campus - North Park University's. It was actually kind of nice! Very campus-y. Zack and I were both impressed. There was even a Starbucks - and now I'm wondering which neighborhoods we visit won't have one. But even in this college environment we couldn't find a bar - The Hookah Bar was closed. We almost shouted out to a student, "You there! Coed! Where do you drink?"

Instead we wandered around in disbelief that this entire neighborhood was utterly bar-less. We ended up circling back to the Kimball stop and nearly giving up, when there, right by the el stop, was a Bud Light sign beckoning us in from the cold. There was no sign on the bar to indicate which bar it was - just the Bud Light one, an Old Style sign and a flourescent rainbow Heineken sign. We stood there for a minute wondering if this was the lesbian bar we'd read was in the area - until an old, scraggly man came stumbling out from inside the dark bar. This was the only bar we'd found all day, and we were going in.

I wish we could have taken pictures of the inside of this place. It was one of those smoke-filled bars where everyone seems to know each other and everyone seems to be down on his luck. Everyone there was a scraggly man by himself, tossing back a bottle of Bud while Nirvana played loudly over the Jukebox. The bar was dark but festive, with decor like James Dean posters, street signs and vodka ads. Zack and I each got a beer and thought about playing a game of pool, ultimately deciding to play a couple games of Pac-man instead. No one seemed to mind us, but I think they were wondering what we were doing there. After finishing our beers we got up, slipped out into the daylight and hopped back on the Brown Line.

I had a great time in Albany Park, as did Zack - but we agreed we'd probably never return. I mean, come on, no bars?