The Korean hot dog stand with the not-so-Korean name

i'd like a char dog and some bulgogi, please

Hi, everyone!

Just a heads up, Davida and I are taking a week-long vacation next week with my family down to Florida, so no newsletter next Monday. This is going to be interesting, because I’ve never been on a proper Florida trip; we’ll be staying near Orlando.

And yes, a few days at Walt Disney World are on the agenda, since we’ll be traveling with my niece, and no, at 42 years of age, I have never been. I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared for this. But if you have any Orlando-area restaurant suggestions, preferably ones that don’t break the bank, please let us know. It’ll be mostly family time, but we have a day or two to explore on our own.

Okay, back to Chicago. This week, we’re headed to Lincoln Square to hit up a proper hot dog stand on Damen just south of Lawrence. You know the type—the kind whose countertops are perpetually sticky, with stools that suction themselves to your ass, and with a menu that advertises everything Vienna Beef.

But if you stare at the menu at Budacki’s Drive In for long enough, you’ll notice that a few items stick out quite a bit.

That’s because you don’t often see the words “Seoul” and “bulgogi” next to ones like “Italian beef” (though there is one place that does this that I’ve previously written about).

Budacki’s is a hot dog stand owned by the same Korean family that owns Korean fried chicken specialist Crisp, in Lakeview. Hence the Korean items on the menu, which is what we’re mostly zooming in on today.

The only non-Korean thing we got were the corn nuggets ($5), which are a side dish that Davida loves.

I thought I’d point them out because they’re not a super common sight in Chicago. The breaded and fried nuggets encase bundles of creamed corn, and as Davida describes them, are sweet enough to the point where “they’re almost like dessert.” They’re served with ranch dressing on the side, but they’ve got enough flavor that even a dipping fiend like me can happily eat them by themselves.

The only other place I can think of offhand that serves corn nuggets is Superdawg, but there, they’re part of a medley of other fried veggies in an order of Superveggies (which are breaded and fried vegetables, practically health food).

If you’re looking for a really fun sandwich, you should go for the Korean Philly Cheesesteak ($13.50, includes fries).

It’s packed with bulgogi (thinly cut ribeye in a sweet soy sauce-based marinade), which is grilled with mushrooms, green bell peppers, and onions. The sandwich is also stuffed with a ton of melted shredded cheese (which appears to be mozzarella, the menu doesn’t quite make this clear), lettuce, tomatoes, and is dressed with Allison’s Atomic Sauce, which is a creamy and spicy house made sauce.

And oh my lord, is this a gloriously messy sandwich. It’s meaty, drippy, juicy, savory, and sweet—make sure you hunch over the Styrofoam box as you’re eating it. Sorry, Italian beef, you’re going to have to step aside today, because this sandwich is really fucking great. And the fries on the side are good too: They’re fast food fries reminiscent of McDonald’s.

If you’re not feeling so sloppy, you can always go for the Seoul Steak Bowl ($12.50, pictured in header), which is a densely-packed takeout container of sticky rice and bulgogi, topped with fresh green onions. This one seemed to be a favorite among the regulars who stopped in, as I heard a handful of people ordering it as we waited for our food.

The Seoul Steak Bowl is simple but flavorful, and not quite as heavy as a cheese and mayo-laden sandwich. It’s a great option if you’re just not in the mood for a hot dog and fries, plus, as a bonus, it reheats well at home.

The real star, however, are the jumbo whole wings ($11.50 for an order of three, $16.50 for five).

Notice the word “whole.” That’s important because these are the entire wing, including the drumette, flat, and tip, so an order of three would ordinarily translate to an order of six somewhere else (not including the tips). They are indeed, as advertised, pretty jumbo.

There’s five types of sauces, Buffalo mild, spicy, suicide, Seoul Sassy, and Crisp BBQ. The two last sauces are the ones you want to get, the Seoul Sassy, and Crisp BBQ, which are both popular flavors you can get at Crisp in Lakeview. The Seoul Sassy (pictured above) is a sweet, gingery, garlicky soy sauce that coats the wings tightly, and is the type you want to order if you’re not into spicy food.

The wings are all served on a bed of fries, and the best side effect of this is that the wing sauce trickles down on them. You’re going to find yourself shoving them in your face by the forkful. And you also get a side of Allison’s Atomic Sauce for dipping your wings into, which is a nice substitution for ranch or blue cheese dressing.

The Crisp BBQ sauce, which is my personal favorite, is made with gochujang (spicy fermented red pepper paste)

This makes it sweet, spicy, and thick, and is something that will get all over your face and hands as you eat it. Speaking of messy, as Davida and I were tearing into our food at one of the picnic tables in the parking lot, Jae, the owner, came out to give us some wet wipes that he’d forgotten to pack in our order.

We got a chance to chat a little, and I asked him about the name, since Budacki is decidedly not very Korean. He told us that Budacki’s was a business that his family had purchased from his godfather (the namesake Budacki), and after they’d put the Korean wings on the menu, the family found that they were so popular that they opened up Crisp in Lakeview, which immediately became a hit.

Crisp’s mainstay is the Korean fried chicken, which comes in wings and whole pieces, but instead of hot dogs and burgers, it serves things like bibimbap (Korean rice bowls), Korean burritos, and fried chicken sandwiches. I haven’t been to Crisp in ages, and from what I recall, it’s excellent—but it’s also really popular. So if you don’t like waiting in line, the real move is to go to Budacki’s, where there’s an actual parking lot and the neighborhood is way more relaxed.

A fun fact about Budacki’s is that Anthony Bourdain (God, I miss him) visited once for his travel show, The Layover. This didn’t go smoothly. The stand advertised when he’d be there, as they weren’t told that they weren’t supposed to, and the crew subsequently canceled the shoot. But Bourdain did eventually make it in, sans shitshow, and Budacki’s did make it into the episode of the show.

And another fun fact, this one likely lesser-known to Chicagoans, is that Budacki’s once had a location in Los Angeles, which became a rare location to get a proper Chicago-style hot dog. It wasn’t there for long, as in 2015, the family accepted a buyout that was too good to turn down. Sorry, Angelenos, you’ll just have to visit Chicago.

It’s hard for me not to be particularly charmed by Budacki’s, as it’s such a perfect intersection of the Korean and Chicagoan in me. Thankfully, plenty of Chicagoans appreciate it too, as the place had an impressively steady stream of customers during the off-hour Davida and I went to visit. You should be one of them.

Budacki’s Drive In (no official website)
4739 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 561-1322

Hours:
Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Closed Sunday

Heads up: It used to be cash only, but you can in fact pay with card if you order more than $11. Weirdly specific, I know.

---

Hey, everyone, thanks for reading The Party Cut! Today’s edition is on the free schedule, so please feel free to share it far and wide, via social media or by good old-fashioned email forwarding:

And hey, don’t forget to upgrade your subscription to a paid one. The benefits are simple: You get double the newsletter. Every other edition is behind a paywall, but $50 for a new edition almost every week is like a buck per edition, plus you get full access to the archives by upgrading, even the paywalled ones.

It’s not about making money—it’s just to keep this thing going. Every subscription keeps the engine fueled, but without you, it wouldn’t exist.

Okay, Mickey, here we come! See you all in a few weeks, and I love you guys. I mean it.