Where to Break New Year’s Resolutions

Let’s face it. New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. How about you resolve yourself to indulge yourself once in a while? And nothing says “indulge” quite like butter-slathered fried chicken, bacon-flecked cookies, and burgers. Here are some of the best spots in Chicago for breaking resolutions.

Here’s a handy way to immediately shatter any food-related resolutions: have french fries for a meal. Lots of french fries. Slathered in gravy and/or cheese. Frite Street is a new fry-focused eatery in Avondale that serves as the brick-and-mortar outpost of The Slide Ride. Here, it’s all about fried spuds in any and all iterations, from cheese fries and curry fries to Guinness gravy poutine, chicken fried frites, buffalo chicken fries, and more. If you’re going to do wrong, you better do it right.

When you just can’t decide whether you’d like to binge on sweets or savories, Cookies & Carnitas has you covered. The Green City Market vendor-cum-Edgewater cafe features pork in all forms, from tacos and pizza to some of the juiciest carnitas sandwiches in town. For dessert, cookies are the natural way to go. These hub cap-sized confections boast chewy, soft innards with a crisp, slightly caramelized exterior. The bacon-flecked chocolate chip cookies are the ultimate indulgence.

A pile of meat heaped between two thick, chewy rolls is as good as it gets when it comes to flipping off New Year’s resolutions. Get your meat on at Cemitas Puebla, which recently opened a convenient West Loop locale beefed up with their signature cemitas sandwiches (think tortas, more herculean, and with sesame seeds), succulent tacos, chalupas, and quesadillas. Those cemitas are where it’s at though, thanks to their decadent striation of Oaxaca cheese, avocado, chipotle sauce, and fillers like breaded pork loin, ham, and even cow foot if you’re so bold.

Few things can top a good burger when it comes to belt-busting excess and happiness. This is especially true when said burgers are pure Americana. Parts & Labor is a burger spot with a nostalgic nod to South side institution, Wonderburger. The restaurant has long been owned and operated by the Grant family, and Parts & Labor marks Russ Grant’s homage to the time-tested family business. Classic griddle burgers are the name of the game at Parts & Labor. The no-frills menu focuses on double burgers with American cheese, onions, lettuce, pickles, and mayo, with sides such as fried giardiniera, curly fries, onion rings, and fried pickles. For dessert, there’s a fried Twinkie with raspberry sauce, and a couple floats.

One surefire way to up the ante on fried chicken is by slathering it in honey butter. The aptly named Honey Butter Fried Chicken does just that, shattering new resolutions with a menu full of honeyed fried chicken, corn muffins, pimento mac & cheese, chicken fat gravy, creamed corn, and chocolate-toffee-cocoa nib cookies. It’s a veritable wonderland of indulgence, and there’s no better way to start the new year.

Another way to bolster fried chicken’s innate excess? Pair it with doughnuts. You can do so by living dangerously at Do-Rite Donuts & Chicken, the Streeterville outpost of the Loop doughnut counter. Here, they take indulgence to the next level by outfitting their famed doughnut roster with fried chicken sandwiches. If you’re really feeling devil-may-care, you can even get a fried chicken sandwich served on a sliced glazed doughnut. Because life’s too short.

Frite Street
3006 N. Elston Avenue, Chicago
(312) 925-1911
Website

Cookies & Carnitas
5757 N. Broadway, Chicago
(773) 769-2900
Website

Cemitas Puebla
817 W. Fulton Market, Chicago
(312) 455-9200
Website

Parts & Labor
2700 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago
(773) 360-7840
Website

Honey Butter Fried Chicken
3361 N. Elston Avenue, Chicago
(773) 478-4000
Website

Do-Rite Donuts & Chicken
233 E. Erie Street, Chicago
(312) 344-1374
Website