Buzzbrews in Deep Ellum Adds Chicago Grub to the Menu. Or Does It? [Pensive Music]

Chicago ex-pats are always on the lookout for new spots in North Texas that serve the regional foodstuffs we miss here in the Southwest, such as deep dish and tavern-style pizza, Italian beef sandwiches and Chicago-style hot dogs. When we saw that the Buzzbrews location in Deep Ellum was now owned by a former Chicagoan, that it's being rebranded as Buzzbrews Chicago and that it's promising to sate the aforementioned cravings, we got excited. Their Facebook page promised “real Chicago style food made from scratch” with posted photos of beef sandwiches, dogs dragged through the garden and thick slabs of deep-dish pizza (no tavern-style in sight, but you can’t win them all). Our collective mouths were watering as we planned a visit.

It was Texas-OU game day, and we hoped that the hordes would be milling about in Fair Park instead of Deep Ellum, so we headed to Commerce Street, where we were greeted by a large sign outside proudly proclaiming “Chicago Italian beef and more.” Let the masses enjoy their Red River Shootout; we were going to get some Chicago grub, dammit.

The first thing we noticed, however, was that there was no hot dog on the menu. There was a full page of breakfasts, a page of desserts and drinks, and a page of lunch and dinners, but no hot dog, Chicago-style or otherwise. Maybe they just weren’t listed on the menu, so we asked the server, who said they didn’t have hot dogs yet. “Soon,” she promised. One day. Just not today, evidently.

The pizza options were “hand-tossed” and “deep dish.” We prefer the thin tavern style and hoped that maybe, just maybe, “hand-tossed” meant tavern, so we asked about that as well. “It’s sorta thin, but not thin-thin,” the server explained. We asked if it's cut into squares, and she said no, it's cut as usual in pie-style triangular slices. You don’t cut the very thin tavern-style into wedges: it doesn’t work structurally, so we had our answer.

The deep dish with cheese only goes for $26, which isn’t a bargain for a 16-inch version, but it's not outrageous, either. However, it was going to take about 45 minutes (par for the course for Chicago deep dish), and by that time my planned Italian beef sandwich would be soggy. So, we went with a non-Chicago-style, hand-tossed pizza.

There is, thankfully, an Italian beef on the menu, but it's priced at $14, easily one of the most expensive beefs we’ve seen at this type of restaurant. But we weren’t walking out of there empty-handed; if we couldn’t get a hot dog or tavern-style pizza, we’d at least try this somewhat steeply priced Italian beef. The server asked if we wanted mozzarella on the sandwich (grr) but did not ask about how wet we wanted it or if we wanted hot or sweet peppers.

Our orders were in for about five minutes when the server returned to tell us that the kitchen was no longer making pizzas today. No real explanation, and we didn’t pump her for more information because the hand-tossed had been a compromise selection anyway. No hot dog and no pizza, so we were left with ordering some French toast from the breakfast page for our other main.

There was some disappointment when the sandwich arrived. It was a generous amount of beef, but it was just plopped on a bun, and had neither gravy nor au jus. The beef didn’t appear to ever have lived in a peppery bath of seasoning and juices. Also, there was no giardiniera at all on the beef.
Confused, we consulted the menu and, yes, the menu promised giardiniera. Finally, after a couple of minutes, we got up and approached the counter with the sandwich in hand to ask about the missing condiment. We were told that the server brought it to the table, which was true. She’d just done so while I was waiting to ask about it.

When we received the bill, we confirmed that indeed they had charged us $1 each for the two glasses of tap water we received. (We saw mention of the water charge but were hoping that maybe that was just for to-go orders, but no.) However, the biggest shock was the 20% gratuity that had already been added even though we were just a party of two and there was no mention of that policy anywhere on the menu. This is also easy to miss on the receipt, which had an additional line where one can add an additional tip, which if used would result in tipping on a tip.

The Chicago grub aspect of this location is relatively new and we applaud the effort to bring more of this type of food to the area. Hopefully, they’ll work some of the bugs out in the near future.

2801 Commerce St. Monday – Wednesday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Thursday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.