Standing Room Only at Standee’s
Standee’s (Granville Red Line stop) is one of those places that attracts you with its nostalgic sign, wrap around counter, and vinyl seats. I first went to this place about six months ago, with a friend, just to have a burger. The burger was pretty darn greasy and good, the service from the extremely nice waitress (an old artist type woman) was beyond excellent, and I can even say that the soup was delicious.
Lois and I have been passing this place a lot on the Red Line recently and have been saying to ourselves, that we will make the early morning trek for breakfast. So we finally did. We were expecting the holy grail of diner breakfast, we were tired, cranky, and hungry, we just wanted some good morning food and coffee. Standee’s was spot on in some areas and not so much in others.
When we got there at 10:30 on Sunday morning, the place was pretty busy. In fact, it seemed to be the day that the whole DePaul JV soccer team decided to get breakfast there. Ouch. We waited patiently by the door for 5 minutes for an open seat.
This place seemed right up our alley. Everything is old and looks like it’s seen better days but in our experience inattention to little things like decor means really good food. We ordered coffee right away then browsed the menu for a few minutes before deciding what we were going to have for this breakfast/lunch. (Important note: Standee’s does not list everything on its menu; check the wall behind the counter for hand-lettered signs describing specials and favorites.)
We ended up ordering, and patiently waiting for our coffee. Lois gets a little cranky when she doesn’t have her caffeine fix, and I could tell she was on edge. About 5 minutes later the waitress finally came out with two mugs and filled us up. Phew.
Only a few minutes later, our order came up. I tried something completely different this time, The Hobo Skillet with the eggs sunny side up. I’m usually a scrambled eggs kinda guy, but I think I’m making the move over to the sunny side. This dish consisted onions, mushrooms, cheese, and sausage, topped on a bed of hash browns, then topped with two pieces of cheese, and two beautiful sunny side eggs on top of that, served with two pieces of toast. The dish was good. Nothing eye popping or mouthwatering… It was “good”. One complaint on this, and it’s not the foods fault(it was the waitresses fault). I ordered the eggs sunny side up so I could do a little dipping action with the toast. The toast didn’t come out with my dish on the first trip, then the waitress forgot about it. And because she was busy, it was hard to flag her down. I got halfway through my skillet, working around the yolks, before she finally saw us trying to grab her attention. She quickly brought out two pieces of perfect looking golden toast, already brushed on with butter, and I continued to enjoy my meal.
Lois jumped on the chance to order chocolate chip pancakes because, as noted in past posts (see Golden House), she has the palate of a two-year-old and therefore favors breakfasts that look and taste like desserts. A few things to know about the pancakes. First, they are BIG. Lois ordered three because she was really, really hungry but should have ordered two knowing that her eyes are usually bigger than her stomach. Second, unlike most places, Standee’s doesn’t serve its chocolate chip pancakes with confectioner’s sugar or whip cream — just the usual butter and syrup. With that said, the pancakes were pretty good — thick and plenty of chips. The side of bacon Lois ordered fell into the “ok” category, a little too fatty and not crisp enough for her taste.
I guess the final verdict on Standee’s is that we’ll stop by if we’re in the neighborhood but it’s not good enough to make a special trek (Carol’s on Pulaski and Diner Grill on Irving Park fall into that esteemed category). And the total tab was about $25, including tip, which is a little more than we’re used to paying for a diner breakfast.
