Artango – Up North, Waaay North
June in Chicago is always a special time, we put away our winter jackets, people start working out again and the gentlemen of steak night can begin to adventure to wild locations without much complaining. Bill and I brought out our passports for the trek to Lincoln Square.
This June’s steaknight was even more special as a long lost member made a surprise visit. So in honor of Mr. Chris Holinger we headed to an Argentinian steak house (For those wondering – Don Cole emerged from witness protection to tell us he’s still alive although his exact location and/or residence is still a great mystery)
Rick dressed up special for the occasion with his new houndstooth hat to match his (Yankee) Pinstripe suit and his (Duke) Blue Devil tie, topping it all off with a Yellow (Warriors and Penguins) pocket square. He also brought his (Pat)ent Leather dancing shoes.
In honor of Bubby’s recent birthday (and his repeat runner-up performance in the Largest Nipples East of the Mississippi™ Competition) we started the night at Huettenbar. You can tell its going to be a fun night when no one cared to head over to the restaurant at 8. We stayed for a few more and on the way out an adoring fan asked to take Hans picture. As she took it, she referred to him as Pladdie Smiley and a new name was born.
As mentioned, in honor of Mr. Holinger we then headed to Chicago’s hottest Argentinian Steakhouse and Tango extravaganza. Getting a reservation was extremely tight. I decided to splurge since Mr. Holinger was in town and rented the restaurant out for us. It was a unique experience being the only guests in a restaurant but it was worth every penny.
The apps were solid – Great empanadas and we ran them back. The steaks were ok – Hans and I split the trio and none of the cuts were that special. Wine list was very limited and even Mr. Holinger couldn’t break the bank.
Afterwards we headed to a local watering hole and played foosball and darts. Bill broke out his foosball wraps and preceeded to smoke Hans and I. Good times all around.
Overall – 8 (7 for the food, 9 for the Company)
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5 Responses to “Artango – Up North, Waaay North”
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I was in shock when Glick picked Artango because he usually does not like to get on a plane, grab his passport and travel outside River North, especially to a foreign land as far away as Lincoln Square. It is no secret that I prefer going to more traditional steak houses. However contrary to popular belief I am ok with the occasional trip to the Argentinian or slightly less traditional steak place, I just don’t want it to become the norm. One of the things that is great about steak night is the group has slightly different tastes and preferences so you get to go to places maybe normally you wouldn’t try.
My flight to Lincoln Square was delayed a bit thus I didn’t have a chance to stop at Brad’s for a pre-game drink before the pre-dinner drinks at the bar so I went straight to Huttenbar to find Mr. Holinger. Huttenbar was great, laid back fun vibe, window seats on a beautiful night and I think they have a picture of Hans hanging in the back of the bar. The rest of the crew rolled in and had a boisterous German beer inspired cocktail hour.
The restaurant was not crowded and by not crowded I mean it was us and the wait staff. The empanadas were good but empanadas are always good, I actually think the ones at Las Tablas are better. I went with the ribeye, by itself not a ton of flavor, kind of bland. However is you added the chimichurri is was a decent steak. I don’t remember the other apps, sides or dessert at this point. You would think the service would be better with just one table of patrons but that was not the case. I won at credit card roulette for the second month in a row which is nice but I believe the bill was significantly lower than usual.
After dinner drinks were at a local watering hole called Ricochets which included foosball, darts and curious stares from the regulars. The restaurant was just ok but overall a fun evening.
Surely an interesting choice. I have no problem with the neighborhood – but Chicago’s finest have not had much luck at argentine steak houses. Most of them have received marginal to poor reviews. Perhaps the tango lessons would help? It was a nice night, Mai fest was going on in the square and we all gathered at Huttenbar for a few drinks prior. That was a good call. Nice table by the window and while the back of the bar was darker – seeing Holinger’ face lit everything up for me. Love the effort and great to see our resident wine maker.
From there we strolled up to Artango. I felt bad for them as this was a nice Thursday evening with a lot of traffic in the square and there were literally zero people in what is a really big space – so this made it all the more open and somewhat awkward. Compounding the issue of no customers was slow service….likely not wanting to scrap a bunch of food, it took forever to get our food. On the flip side, I guess it was fresh.
As far as the food, the empanadas were solid….i mean, hard to mess up empanadas. For my steak I got the ribeye. Have to say, it was just flavorless. It was cooked ok, but had no flavor. It was almost as if they didn’t add any seasoning and just tossed a piece of meat on the grill. The grilled octopus perhaps the highlight of my meal. As always the company was great but this for sure is not a steak night place and frankly I am not sure it is even a non-steak night selection; too much good dining to be had in Chicago.
Post dinner drinks had us head to local dive bar, Ricochet, and play some darts much to the dismay of the regulars. All in all a great evening and we had a bright and early wakeup call at 5am for a morning tee time.
A trip to the northern reaches of Chicago started off well with a stop at Huettenbar which was originally my given name but was changed to Hans later in life. Seeing Chris “The prodigal son of Chicago” Holi sitting in the window upon my arrival was a sign it was going to be a good evening. Approximately a couple dozen BBKs later we decided it was time to make our way to Artango. Perhaps it was Glick and Conway crossing the proverbial mason dixon line or perhaps we stepped into the twilight zone, but the empty restaurant that also had terribly slow service was a bizarre shift for steak night that typically involves a packed restaurant and vultures for waitstaff. The apps were all decent, can’t go wrong with an empanada. The steak trio was pretty much 3 cuts of all the same flavor and consistency that lacked any real distinction between themselves. The chimmichuri was pretty good, needed a bit more heat. Holi and I each got a glass of Argentinian windex as a cocktail to wash down the german beer which made the rest of the evening seem a bit less memorable than I am sure it was. I do recall Crenshaw eating all of the appetizers, Rick dancing on the table in bright white sneaks, and someone requesting to see my saucer nipples. I cant say I would recommend Artango given there are a number of other Argentinian steakhouses in the city that are quite good. This was a confluence of bad service and mediocre food. An A+ for effort on behalf of our host and a 9 for the evening but a 5 for the restaurant.
Plaiddy Smiley
A short while ago, in a galaxy far far away…..the steak eating men of Chicago gathered in an unassuming and unique choice to celebrate our monthly meating (pun intended) of the minds. Artango was the restaurant of choice, and what was unique about it was that we were literally the only people in the place. That being said, the service spoke to a full restaurant with not enough wait staff.
Not much to say that hasn’t already been said. The steak was only good due to the topping that came on it. The empanadas were good, as they usually are. We actually went back for a second order because Hans ate most of the first. And I really don’t remember much else.
Mr. Holinger graced us with his presence for the first time in a while and now has a better attendance record than Don in the past twelve months.
Afterwards, we relocated to a place with a few more people and played some bar games.
A beautiful night, with beautiful people, and that’s all that really matters.
“Without a ranked contender, what this fight needs is a novelty!” – Rocky (1976) as said by Apollo Creed about giving a local club fighter a shot at the title
Every now and again, Steak Night needs novelty. We can’t just be on a Gibson’s, Morton’s, Mastro’s, Chicago Cut rotation bouncing back and forth between traditional steakhouses and newer livelier ones.
First off, Huettenbar has always been a personal favorite of mine and don’t make it up there enough now. Good vibes, good air flow, good taps. Classing it up this night was special guest Holinger and the best beard on the north side save Jake Arrieta. And the nice night made a few BBK’s go down even smoother.
Artango was a fine place. It made it weirder that we were the only people in there because the place is enormous. It literally could hold roughly 200 patrons at tables and they were all set up with place settings and everything. Kind of like walking into the dining area of a reception of a wedding before the wedding begins.
The apps were good. The aforementioned empanadas were good and the other shrimp dish was also good.
My steak was seemingly better than that of my compatriots. I had the N.Y. Strip and once I put a little of the provided spices on there, it was pretty good. But if we’re comparing it to Argentinian steak houses, it fell short of Tango Sur, for example.
All in all, a different night for steak night, but Artango didn’t do enough to break into the rotation, or even the novelty rotation.