Belly Shack

Belly Shack, the follow-up act to the much-lauded Urban Belly, has arrived. Personally, I have been eagerly awaiting this opening ever since the news broke in July that Bill Kim had signed the lease for this space, right under the Western Blue line stop (rather than in a strip mall). Urban Belly put a sophisticated, contemporary spin on noodles and potstickers. With this new venture, Kim moves into Asian-Latin fusion street food. Though this was only the restaurant's first night, the results are impressive, and more importantly, fun.

After ordering at the counter, we plopped ourselves down in the center of the room at a large communal table constructed of reclaimed 200-year-old maple. Belly Shack's decor was designed by Yvonne Cadiz-Kim and has been self-described as "reclaimed industrial." With an abundance of metals and browns, and a sprinkling of anti-establishment-esque graffiti messages on the walls, Belly Shack is the restaurant incarnate of a skater. I reached for my Vans and red hair dye. The noise of the trains overhead even serves to amplify the urban grittiness.

In no time flat, the food was delivered to us. A side order bowl of Brussels sprouts sautéed with chorizo sausage brought lip-smacking noises from all, even those who had never eaten Brussels sprouts before. Like its bacon brethren, chorizo has a way of magically making anything taste better. Next, we tackled the Korean BBQ Kogi (photo above), inspired by the L.A. Kogi Korean BBQ taco truck. A pile of tender, juicy barbequed beef and kimchi was served with four wedges of flatbread, which you could use as a rolling device. This was a stand-out dish, and it's great to have another Korean BBQ option outside of Koreatown.

The next item was titled "Boricua," which is a term used by Puerto Ricans to identify themselves. At any rate, this is an Asian-influenced spin on the jibarito, the Puerto Rican sandwich specialty created in Chicago which features fried plantains in lieu of bread. I have had excellent, gut-busting jibaritos elsewhere in town, and was interested in seeing what this re-engineering would look like. Here, the fried plantains are holding a slab of tofu marinated in oyster and hoisin sauces, brown rice, black beans and bok choy greens. A ramekin of red ssam jang (seasoned soybean) paste provided an interesting nutty foil and a hint of heat.

For good measure, we got a side order of tostones, which arrived hot, perfectly crisp and sprinkled with cilantro.

And since the menu boldly proclaimed "U kud lik dis," how could you say no to dessert? Belly Shack offers soft-serve ice cream with a handful of topping choices, including huckleberry lime, Vietnamese cinnamon caramel, and bacon-chocolate chip. The latter seems to be winning in popularity, since I saw lots of ice cream dishes streaming out of the kitchen topped with bacon crackles and chocolate shavings. And for good reason, the bacon-chocolate topped ice cream is a perfect melding of sweet, savory, smooth and crunchy. If they sold the bacon-chocolate topping, I would buy it by the pound. I am already imagining how great it would be on muffins, in yogurt, with cereal...

It's not yet listed on the website, but the full menu is below:

Like its sibling restaurant, Belly Shack is BYOB. If you are intrigued by culinary cross-fertilization, be sure to stop by and check it out. I am now putting down money that Bill Kim will two-peat for a Time Out Chicago Eat Out award next year.

Belly Shack

1912 N. Western (and Armitage)

(773) 252-1414