Potatoes and cabbage dominate the menu at the year-and-a-half old Grand Duke's in southwest suburban Summit. But this is not Polish food. It's Lithuanian.
"The Lithuanians they migrated; they moved from Marquette Park, Bridgeport, and now they're more to Oak Lawn, Justice, to Lemont," said Andrius Bucas, Grand Duke's.
"Lithuanian food, it's similar to Polish food but we use a lot of potatoes. We're famous for zeppelins, which is big potato pancake stuffed with meat, good red beet soup and cold beet soup, sauerkraut soup. We use a lot of pork dishes."
This is stick-to-your-ribs food. Stuffed cabbage could feed a small army. So could the Lithuanian sampler plate: a giant zeppelin - stuffed with a porky-meatball - is served along with kugelis, a national dish containing potatoes, bacon and onions; on the same plate, addictive sauerkraut that serves as a bed for a juicy sausage link.
Starters include red borscht, loaded with beets and potatoes, it comes with - surprise - more potatoes on the side. The "fried bread hill" is a Lithuanian classic: simply fried sticks of Lithuanian dark rye, doused in a Swiss cheese-garlic sauce; it's a perfect snack to have with one of Duke's twelve imported beers.
"Pretty much every city in Lithuania had their own brewery, and Lithuanians are known for their beer," said Bucas.
A grilled lamb platter could feed a small army. Fresh vegetables add some necessary crunch. A pork cutlet is cooked like a schnitzel, doused in a mushroom gravy, it arrives with the holy trinity of Lithuanian sides: carrots, cole slaw and beets.
Desserts are sweet and elegant: a rich tiramisu or a homemade napolean of crunchy layers alternating with pastry cream.
If you want to take a little bit of Lithuania home with you, there's an adjacent deli, where you'll find all of that soup, some of those homemade desserts, and lots of imported beer, jams, jellies and dark rye bread. They also have a good assortment of cured and smoked salamis, plus a few savory pastries stuffed with meat or pork.
Bucas says everything in the restaurant was imported from his home country, a fact he hopes his customers will appreciate.
"We wanted to bring a piece of Lithuania to Chicago. That's what we did with our interior and of course with the food."
One other Lithuanian treasure is in Bridgeport. For nearly 70 years, the ironically named "Healthy Food Lithuanian" has been serving kugelis and blinas, all from their small diner on South Halsted.
Grand Duke's
6312 S. Harlem Ave.
708-594-5622
Healthy Food Lithuanian
3236 S. Halsted St.
312-326-2724
