There are bars with better culinary selections, but these improvements often come at the loss of authenticity. In recent years, many Chicago neighborhood establishments have turned into smaller versions of Bennigan's or TGI Fridays, complete with gimmicky themes and menu items like "Nachos O'Brian." Looking past the places with bright picture windows and big screen TVs, and into places with small, darkened windows and Old Style signs, you can find home-cooked food for the price of a couple of beers.

A prime example is Frank and Mary's. From 11am-1pm daily, the two produce home-cooked lunches for five dollars. The menu changes daily, but entreés include chicken schnitzel, baked ham, lemon-pepper chicken, pot roast, meat loaf, baked chicken, short ribs, breaded pork chops and many more, served with mashed potatoes, bread and a vegetable.

On a Monday, 11am, men wipe the joint compound from their hands and shake cement dust from their bandanas, before sitting in front of a wall covered with mounted bucks and bass. It's a bar with Old Style on tap, but the customers aren't here to play the jukebox, or socialize. Instead, the scene is two dozen guys glancing at ESPN or Jerry Springer and chowing down. Almost all of the meat dishes are hearty. The breaded pork chop luncheon offers a butterfly pork chop trimmed of all fat and at least an inch-and-a-half thick. Many of the dishes feature a Germanic tone-the chicken schnitzel is a unique, lightly breaded treat, and the pot roast is thick and meaty. The only minor problem here are the mashed potatoes and gravy, which aren't homemade, but with a basket of French or Italian bread, your five bucks goes a mile.

Also on the North Side is Clancy's Pub and Grub. Their Friday fish fry features fist-size chunks of cod fried in a thin, potato chip-like breading that doesn't act as grease sponge. Wednesday brings the half-chicken dinner, fried with the same tender crispness, and Tuesday features the standby of all tavern food, meat loaf. But aside from the fish fry, the winner is the smoked butt, an offering currently on a temporary vaction. Giving off a smoked flavor that rivals ham, the meat is tender as a baby's bottom. The only problem with Clancy's is it has too much of a neighborhood feel, as patrons crowd their way into the small dining area, shouting insults about the Cubs over Frankie Valli on the jukebox.

The South Side's factory district is peppered with even more bastions of home cooking, shot and beer joints. Martin's Corner, located just west of Pilsen, serves baked chicken, meat loaf, lasagna and pork chops to an older, hard-working crowd. The meat here is not up to the standards of Ray's or Clancy's, but the homemade mashed potatoes are dished out with a white gravy thicker than most stews.

Finally, the grandaddy of all home-cooked, down-home tavern-restaurants is the Lincoln Tavern. Celebrating its fiftieth year of ownership by the Folak family, the photos along the walls read like a history of Bucktown. The tavern offers daily lunch specials and dinner on weekends. Portions are more than generous, as the Wednesday special, mostaccioli and meatballs, was served on a plate the size of a small rowboat. Homemade soups include mushroom barley, french onion and chicken dumpling, and other daily dishes include barbecue ribs and real steak sandwiches. But the winning specials here are the roast duck, cooked with Mama Folak's 50-year-old Polish recipe, and the walleye, a meaty but tender fish that is worshiped by fishermen and gourmet cooks alike. If you choose, you can eat your walleye in a small dining room featuring life-sized Wisconsin hunting scenes created by the same man who designed the dioramas for the Shedd Aquarium.

"A lot of guys get tired of eating fast food or food off of the service trucks [known as roach coaches] that come around the construction sites," Folak says. "We give them a home-cooked alternative, and for the most part, the guys are pretty appreciative."

Frank and Mary's, 2905 North Elston, (773)463-8179
Martin's Corner, 2058 West 22nd, (773)847-5515
Clancy's Pub and Grub, 4264 North Lincoln, (773)281-1007
The Lincoln Tavern and Restaurant, 1858 West Wabansia, (773)342-7778

Also by David Witter

BRAIN MATTERS
In America, eating cow, lamb and other animal brains conjures visions of rural poverty or characters from horror films. Yet whether you call them sweet breads (Greek, French), sesos (Mexican), or any other name, people around the world not only regularly eat meat from the head, neck and brain area, but consider it a gourmet treat.
(2001-01-11)