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This past Wednesday, my girlfriend and I made our way out to The Fifty/50 in Wicker Park for a sneak preview of a couple menu items from the soon-to-be-opened, Roots Handmade Pizza, as well as two new burger offerings from The Fifty/50. While I’m assuming many of you are familiar with The Fifty/50 because of all the recognition it’s received (including being named Best Sports Bar in America by Thrillist), this trip was a first for both of us.

Roots Handmade Pizza, which will make it’s debut in West Town at the corner of Chicago and Winchester this March, will be a family-style Italian restaurant and bar with a heavy emphasis on making everything possible in house. In addition to “Quad Cities pizza parlor favorites,” Roots’ bar will offer an extensive Midwest-centric beer list, infused liquors, and house-brewed sodas on tap. Worth keeping in mind for summertime, the location will also have a 50 seat patio dining area, and a late-night window serving pizza by the slice. Now, on to the food.

Giant House Made Mozzarella Stick

After munching on a pretty standard chopped Greek salad, we were served mozzarella sticks made with fresh, house made mozzarella cheese. Most times you encounter mozzarella sticks, you’re dealing with the processed tasting, previously frozen variety at the Friday’s and Applebee’s of the world. The smooth, creamy texture of these, however, were a nice change of pace. The exterior of the sticks had good crispiness and were also coated in a cracker meal and Asiago cheese mixture. As you can see in the picture at the right, Roots’ mozzarella sticks are about four times the size of those you’ll find elsewhere.

Surf N Turf Burger

From there, we moved on to the two items we were most excited to try, two recent additions to The Fifty/50′s menu, the Surf N Turf and O-Face burgers. The Surf N Turf burger ended up as the unquestioned highlight of the night for both of us, combining The Fifty/50′s tasty “Triple Secret” burger patty, with a four ounce house made crab cake. In addition to the “surf” and “turf,” the burger also featured Swiss and pepper jack cheeses, as well as two sauces, a Creole mustard and a red pepper aioli. While I felt that the flavors of the sauces were lost a bit, my partner disagreed, but we both were pleased with the sandwich as a whole. The burger was juicy and cooked perfectly, and the flavor and texture of crab cake complemented the beef much better than I would have imagined. Not to be forgotten, the burger also comes with sweet potato fries and a unique, tangy mesquite ketchup. If you’re heading to The Fifty/50 to catch a game, this would definitely be my recommendation.

O-Face Burger with Mac & Cheese Waffle

While we were less impressed with the O-Face burger, we have to give The Fifty/50′s staff points for creativity. In addition to pulled pork from the smoker in the back and Merkt’s sharp cheddar spread, the burger is also topped with a section of a mac n’ cheese waffle (see picture at right), which is made by running mac n’ cheese through a blender, combining it with batter and throwing it in a standard waffle maker. As someone who spent four years in South Carolina, I’d like to think of myself as somewhat of an authority on pulled pork, and The Fifty/50′s didn’t really jump out at me. Even if it was excellent, we probably wouldn’t have been able to fully appreciate it, as my date and I both felt that there were simply too many heavy, rich ingredients on the burger which all kind of muddled together. The main culprit was the cheddar spread, which tasted like Velveeta and high cholesterol. The taste and texture of the waffle also missed the mark for us, but as I mentioned earlier, I definitely respect the effort.

Behemoth Lasagna from Roots

Although we were both already full at this point, we soldiered on to tackle the next offering, an absurdly large (the picture does not do it justice) piece of lasagna which you’ll be able to tackle with two or three of your friends when Roots opens its doors this spring. While we were a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of cheese (my date repeatedly wondered aloud how many days it would take in the gym to burn off a full piece), we both agreed that the individual flavors in this dish complemented each other much better than those in the O-Face burger. The acidity and heat from the house made marinara sauce and sausage provided a nice balance for the richness of the melted Parmesan bechamel and surprisingly light, fluffy four cheese blend that made up the lasagna’s filling. We were also impressed to learn that the pasta in this dish, along with the rest of the pasta to be served at Roots, will all be made in house.

The (mercifully) final item of the evening was a sampling of The Fifty/50′s Buffalo wings, which have been voted best in the city by RedEye and WGN. Keeping with the theme of the night, The Fifty/50 makes their own Buffalo sauce, and doesn’t rely on a pre-bottled hot sauce base, like most bars do. I’ve got to say, the results are excellent. The sauce has a great balance of heat and vinegary tanginess. While I wouldn’t put them ahead of the otherworldly smoked pieces of heaven that Risque Cafe in Wrigleyville serves, they were meaty, crispy, and generally pretty damn good.

One other item to mention was the Mango Chili Margarita that my date ordered, which was served in a 24 ounce football shaped glass. While we both thought the contrast between the sweetness of the mango and the heat of the chili was nice at first, it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to drink 24 ounces of this in one sitting. After a while the novelty of this unique cocktail wore off, and we weren’t able to finish it, even with two people working on the same glass.

While we were generally pleased with the dishes we were able to sample from Roots’ menu, we definitely thought it was a little odd that there wasn’t any pizza served at a media dinner for a restaurant which will have pizza in its name. We asked one of Roots’ managers about this, and he explained to us they decided not to serve pizza that night because The Fifty/50′s kitchen didn’t have the right kind of ovens. We understood, but we we’re still left feeling befuddled about what to expect from “Quad Cities-style” pizza. Overall, we’ll probably plan to check out Roots Handmade Pizza at some point, but it’s not likely to be a top priority. On the other hand, we’re definitely looking forward to returning to The Fifty/50 in the not-to-distant future, to bask in the glow of the Surf N Turf burger again.

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