Although not known for haute cuisine, Beverly/Morgan Park does have a few places for fine dining such as Koda, a French bistro at 103rd and Western.
For the most part, however, if there was an SAT question that asked you to associate Beverly and food, the correct answers would be Top Notch Beefburgers and Rainbow Cone.
Scott Stewart/Sun-Times
Study up:
Top Notch Beefburgers, 2116 W. 95th (773-445-7218). Known as “Beefy’s” to locals, Top Notch now has two locations but the Beverly location is a time capsule of the 1950s where longtime owner Diran Soulian oversees the production of some of the best burgers in Chicago, if not anywhere.
Every day Top Notch grinds its own beef and then hand forms each patty and fries it up in beef juices for an extra beefy flavor. French fries are cut fresh daily and fried in lard, as all good fries would be if we weren’t so fussy about cholesterol.
The taste of the super-thick chocolate shakes will take you back to a simpler era when men used hair cream and women used curlers.
Aficionados have their rules about ordering at Beefy’s: Don’t order the half pounder; order the regular size. If you need more, get two burgers or a double. If you don’t get to Beefy’s often, get the fries regardless of the calorie count. If you have room, get a shake. The fat grams might kill you, but you’ll die happy.
Original Rainbow Cone, 9233 S. Western Ave. (773-238-7075). Another longtime neighborhood tradition, Original Rainbow Cone has spread its wings and name recognition by participating in the Taste of Chicago, serving up cones in Hollywood and at a special event in Washington, D.C.
But its loyal fans prefer the original location, its interior virtually unchanged in decades even though the building got a new paint job and shiny new LED signage this year.
Opened in 1926 by Joseph Sapp, Rainbow is still family run, now by Joseph’s granddaughter, owner Lynn Sapp. It is the oldest family run ice cream parlor in Chicago.
A rainbow cone consists of five slices of ice cream: chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House, pistachio and a topping of orange sherbet, which Sapp pointed out, technically is not ice cream.
Unlike most cones, which offer up scoops of ice cream, Sapp noted that her ice cream is served in slices, or slabs, layered one on top of the other, to create a rainbow effect. You can eat the flavors one by one, but some longtime fans insist that running your tongue along all the flavors at once creates a unique taste sensation.
And although today the neighborhood has other places to get ice cream, people still flock to the original Rainbow. Sapp said that’s because it’s a niche product that serves up its yumminess with a lot of memories.
“It’s a unique product,” Sapp said. “There is nothing else like it out there. And it’s a Chicago tradition. Ice cream makes people happy. Today people need to bite into happiness more than ever. Grandpa opened during the Depression and he said, ‘People always have money for an ice cream cone.’ ”
