Sounds as if you’ve got something great going on. I’ll bet you’ll have it going fine soon. And from what I’ve read here it sounds like a place I’d love to go.

soozycue,

Apology accepted with an additional "I’m sorry" from me to you if my response was a tad too acidic. We’ve been up against the wall since late September when the Saveur issue hit the stands. The problem isn’t even the customers in the store. The problem lies in the never ending stream of people walking in the door even after the place is full to capacity.

You try explaining to folks that there is just no more room and they say they’ll wait. You tell them that pizzas, which normally take about 25 minutes, are running upwards of one hour or more, and they say they’ll wait, no problem. This would all be fine if not for the fact that there are five, six, eight or more parties all wanting to wait around in a foyer area that can hold maybe six people. So then they start spilling into the dining room, lurking over customers who are already seated, trying to enjoy their meal. It’s no fun trying to be both waiter to seated customers and policeman for people who should know better.

So, once again, sorry for my oversensitivity. We’re working as hard as we can, moving as fast as we can to take care of as many folks as we can in a limited amount of space and a limited amount of time. I hope to see as many of you as possible once the madness dies down a little.

Buddy

quote:

Originally posted by divefl

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

I went 900 miles to Washington DC to sample pizzas and was wondering how I was going to tackle Chicago in the future. By golly, I think I’ve found my place. Burt’s Place. [:D]

Living in DC I was wondering if you had any suggestions. I tend to get caught up in the familiar.

Right here. I guess the thread blew through over the holidays.

http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24148

My daughter emailed me two days ago and said next time we will go to Ella’s.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

I went 900 miles to Washington DC to sample pizzas and was wondering how I was going to tackle Chicago in the future. By golly, I think I’ve found my place. Burt’s Place. [:D]

Living in DC I was wondering if you had any suggestions. I tend to get caught up in the familiar.

Buddy~

I am very sorry if my comments offended you. I have never been to Burt’s, and was only commenting about the fact that I thought what happened was not a reaction to children. I did not mean to sound offensive, or put down a restaurant I’ve never been to. I definitely understand being "in the weeds".

I thought about deleting my post completely, but thought it better to explain my comments and apologize for how my post might have sounded. I meant no ill will. These darned forums have a problem with inflection. [:I]

I hope things continue to go well for Burt & family, and yourself, and when I am next in Chicago, will try to stop by for a pie.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Who takes over for you at Burt’s when you go on your Roadhouse Roadshows?

Burt’s wife fills in when I travel. I do the same for her when she goes out of town to visit the grandkids.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

I went 900 miles to Washington DC to sample pizzas and was wondering how I was going to tackle Chicago in the future. By golly, I think I’ve found my place. Burt’s Place. [:D]

Davydd, it would be my pleasure to play host to you some Saturday night. We’ll need to make sure it isn’t some weekend when I’m up in Minneapolis.

Buddy

I went 900 miles to Washington DC to sample pizzas and was wondering how I was going to tackle Chicago in the future. By golly, I think I’ve found my place. Burt’s Place. [:D]

Who takes over for you at Burt’s when you go on your Roadhouse Roadshows?

Okay, as promised I started to write a detailed response to danimal s initial post. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote until the darned thing was three pages long in Microsoft Word and it sounded like some over defensive harangue. Then I realized that I had said everything that needed to be said in my initial explanation back in October, and which Billfish reprinted in December after danimal s bad experience.

There was really nothing else to say. A tiny neighborhood restaurant with one pizza oven and one pizza maker; a place that seats 35 people in less than 400 square feet of space, was suddenly exposed to the entire world through Saveur, one of the most prestigious culinary magazines published. We were swamped. danimal missed my warning/apology and showed up anyway. A simple case of bad timing and missed communication. I forgive danimal if he forgives us.

I guess the only reason I felt a need to expound further on the subject stemmed from the comments made by people who have never been to Burt s; have no idea what the place looks like, how it is run, or why it is special and yet chose to add their two cents anyway. I should have recognized the value of the those comments to begin with and dismissed them.

As for Logan2, I m sorry your experience was less than stellar. You re entitled to your opinion on the pizza and I won t even bother contesting it. As for the service, I m probably the  someone [who] always comes up with some sort of excuse for that. I take it personally because I know how much work and effort goes into trying to make things run smoothly every time Burt opens the door. There are some circumstances (as described above) that are just unmanageable where you simply make the best of things and work your hardest to keep as many people as possible happy.

The waitress mentioned in all of these posts is Burt s wife. She works the floor Wednesday through Sunday, except for Saturday when I am out there. We each have more than 30 years experience waiting tables. We are neither under-experienced or under-trained. We are, at the moment, overwhelmed. I compare it to the old  I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel are employed in a chocolate factory on the assembly line. The chocolate keeps coming out of the chute relentlessly at a faster and faster rate and no matter how hard you try, no matter how fast you go, there is no way to keep up with the pace.

So that s the story. Either you accept the way things are or you don t. Either you decide to come in for some of Chicago s best pan pizza and put up with the crowds and the wait or you don t. danimal, once again, I hope you will take another shot at us on a Saturday night. That topic line is starting to weigh heavy on my shoulders and I m eager to see it changed to Bad Great experience at Burt’s Place.

Buddy

Danimal – We’ve been to Burt’s and really enjoyed our meal. We drove up about 45 minutes with 2 families – 4 adults and 4 kids. We got 2 tables side by side and were prepared for the evening. Lot’s of talk, a salad and some drinks and it was main event time. The pizza – and we had 3 different ones – was great. It was worth the wait.

On our evening, about half the tables were full and we did have the pleasure of waiter extrodinaire – Buddy Roadhouse. While deep dish is not my favorite type of pizza, I loved this version. It was loaded with ingredients and the crust was cooked just right.

I’d encourage you to have another go at it.

danimal,

I will be there this Saturday and every Saturday until my prime travel season for the Barbecue Sauce biz begins in April. If you’ve already been to Burt’s once, you know it is positively tiny and you will have no trouble finding me. Especially since I will be your waiter!

As promised, now that I am back in Chicago, I will also write an in depth response regarding your first experience as well as addressing the comments from the various third parties who found it necessary to chime in above. Unfortunately it will need to wait another day or two while I get caught up with all the other business I missed when we were out of town over the Holidays.

A happy New Year to all,

Buddy

After a disappointing experience at Pequod’s on Clyborn a number of weeks back, my dining companions and I decided to try Burt’s after hearing about it from some magazine and other source. While not quite as disappointing, we found Burt’s pizza to be rather mediocre and would not be in a hurry to return. Service was not very good, as others have said, and I note on several threads that someone always comes up with some sort of excuse for that.