Kuma's Corner

Kuma's Corner is located on the corner of N. Francisco and W. Belmont Ave. in the Avondale neighborhood. I’ve only been in the city for about 7 months and this joint gave me my first good burger experience in Chicago. That's not to say that there aren't good burgers in this city. It's just that this is the first good one I've tasted.

How did I come to this conclusion? Well my burger criterion is pretty simple.

The meat has to be a hand made patty. No frozen pre-made patties will do. Kuma's patty was most definitely hand formed. The meat was well-seasoned and held together well.

Second the bun to meat ratio has to be balanced. Enough bun to hold the meat, but not too much that you get full on the bread alone. The bun was perfect, big but fluffy so that the bun squished down making it light enough to not overpower the meat.

After that, the rest is the difference between a good burger and a great burger. I think Kuma’s definitely is in my top 10 burgers of all time, but it doesn’t top the list. It falls somewhere in the Karl Malone/Isiah Thomas spot, good but not MJ.

Only one complaint for me, which will probably be a positive for anyone else. I thought the burger was a little too much food. Both Anthony and I couldn't do anything for the next couple of hours. But, I guess more is better than less. Maybe we'll skip the app next time.

Other thoughts:

-The options at Kuma's were creative. The second picture has the two burgers we ordered. My burger was the YOB and Anthony's was the Our Famous Kuma Burger. The descriptions speak for themselves.

-The place itself was a clean version of that really trendy biker bar that all the Hip kids are going to these days, where the service is usually bad unless you know the bartender. Kuma's had the same cool feel however with great service. There was a long wait, but I was cool with it, because we were able to drink beer and watch the place do its thing. Lots of energy.

-We had the oysters as an appetizer because we wanted something light. Well they were light, but the Allagash White Belgian-style Ale, Garlic, Butter, Chiles that they were marinated in was so good that we ended using the bread to sop up the deliciousness that was the marinade.

- We had a couple of the Lagunitas Pils pints and they went really well with the burger. Until next time.