Bust Outs at El Grito Chicago: This CTA-Themed Burger Stop Is Worth the Ride
Bust Outs at El Grito Chicago: This CTA-Themed Burger Stop Is Worth the Ride
By F’nAround Media
Chicago, Illinois
Mike was back doing what Mike does best: walking up to a food vendor with a guest and somehow turning “let’s try a few things” into a tour of half the menu.
This time, Sandra joined him at Bust Outs during El Grito Chicago in Grant Park, and the two went straight through a lineup that included the Brown Line burger, street corn, garlic cheese curds, seasoned sweet potato fries and Gouda mac-and-cheese bites.
It was a lot of food. It was also absolutely delicious.
Chicago Burgers Built Around the CTA
Bust Outs does not just serve burgers in Chicago. It builds its identity around Chicago.
The restaurant calls its signature creations “L”avated Burgers, with different combinations named after CTA train lines. It is a simple idea that could have been treated like a gimmick, but the menu actually commits to it. Each line has its own personality, toppings and flavor profile.
● Brown Line: Angus beef with barbecue sauce, grilled onions, Merkt’s cheddar and cherrywood-smoked bacon.
● Blue Line: Angus beef with blue cheese, balsamic onion jam and lettuce.
● Green Line: Angus beef with avocado, ghost-pepper cheese, onion, lettuce and tomato.
● Orange Line: An Angus patty dipped in vodka sauce, then topped with melted Parmesan and mozzarella, arugula and capers.
● Red Line: Angus beef with mildly spicy feta, pickled onions and arugula.
● Yellow Line: Angus beef with seared pineapple, sweet chili and teriyaki sauces, mozzarella, lettuce and tomato.
● Purple Line: A vegan black-bean patty with arugula, pickled onions, tomato and Vegenaise on a vegan potato brioche bun.
● The Loop: A double-patty production with cheddar, mozzarella, smoked bacon, an egg, grilled onions and Mike’s Hot Honey.
Most of those combinations are also available as grilled or crispy chicken sandwiches, so you can ride the same line without ordering beef. There are classic cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches too, but the CTA menu is what gives Bust Outs its unmistakably Chicago personality. The current online ordering menu lists the complete combinations and availability.
What Mike and Sandra Tried at El Grito
The Brown Line Burger
The Brown Line was the centerpiece of the stop, and it is easy to understand why it is one of the restaurant’s signatures. Barbecue sauce, grilled onions, Merkt’s cheddar and cherrywood-smoked bacon sit on an Angus patty, giving it the kind of smoky, rich and unapologetically messy combination a festival burger should have.
It is not trying to reinvent Chicago food through foam, tweezers or a paragraph-long explanation from the chef. It is a loaded burger with toppings that belong together, served by people who understand that the entire point is for you to want another bite before you have finished the first one.
Street Corn
At El Grito, the street corn was the right thing in the right place. Bust Outs serves sweet corn in a cup with butter, fruit seasoning and Cotija cheese. It was creamy, sweet, salty and full of flavor the kind of side that disappears while everybody is supposedly “just trying it.”
Garlic Cheese Curds
The garlic cheese curds came panko-breaded with ranch. Crisp on the outside and warm and cheesy inside, they delivered exactly what cheese curds are supposed to deliver. The garlic gives them enough personality to stand apart from the standard festival version.
Seasoned Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet potato fries are easy to get wrong. If they are limp, the experience is over before it begins. These held their own next to a heavy burger and two different fried-cheese situations, bringing a seasoned sweet-and-savory break to the table.
Gouda Mac-and-Cheese Bites
The final item was the Gouda mac-and-cheese bites, and Bust Outs did not treat “mac and cheese” as permission to stop at one cheese. The bites combine Romano Parmesan, aged white cheddar, Fontina, cheddar and smoked Gouda, with marinara on the side.
They were crunchy, creamy, smoky and completely unnecessary in the best possible way. After a Brown Line burger, cheese curds, elote and sweet potato fries, nobody needed mac-and-cheese bites. Naturally, everybody still ate them.
That is F’nAround food math: if it arrives last and there is no room left, it counts as dessert.
More Than Burgers
The rest of the Bust Outs menu keeps going. There are Italian beef and cheesy beef sandwiches, Vienna Beef hot dogs, a Maxwell-style Polish sausage, party wings, a wild-caught cod sandwich, calamari fries, salads and a kids’ menu. The appetizer list also includes pickle fries, waffle fries, Merkt’s cheddar fries and whiskey-battered onion rings.
Even the desserts stay a little off the rails, with fried cheesecake and waffle-brioche buns filled with chocolate or Sriracha honey.
In other words, this is not one of those places where the theme does all the work. The CTA names get your attention, but the range of the menu gives you a reason to come back and try another line.
From El Grito to Elston Avenue
Bust Outs is owned by Angelo and Christina Palivos and operates from the triangular restaurant building at Elston and Foster, a location that has housed a neighborhood eatery in one form or another since the 1950s. When the restaurant opened, the owners described the transit-inspired sandwiches as the concept’s calling card and emphasized its Angus beef and natural, antibiotic-free chicken. You can read more about the restaurant’s opening and the building’s neighborhood history in Nadig Newspapers.
Seeing Bust Outs at El Grito made sense. The festival was a celebration of Mexican culture, music, food and community in the center of Chicago, and Bust Outs brought a menu that proudly speaks the city’s language. Sandra brought the guest perspective, Mike brought the appetite, and Bust Outs supplied enough food to make moderation somebody else’s problem.
The F’nAround Verdict
Bust Outs understands the assignment. The CTA theme is memorable without feeling forced, the burgers have real personality, and the appetizers are not afterthoughts. The Brown Line burger was loaded, the elote fit the festival perfectly, the garlic cheese curds and sweet potato fries delivered, and the Gouda mac-and-cheese bites finished the whole thing with five cheeses and absolutely no concern for restraint.
Everything was delicious, and we would gladly ride this menu again.
Just maybe not all the lines in one sitting.
Visit Bust Outs
Bust Outs
5200 N. Elston Ave.
Chicago, IL 60630
773-993-0391
Instagram: @bust_outs_chitown
Menu selections, prices and availability may change. Review based on F’nAround’s tasting at El Grito Chicago.
Tasting and review of Bust Outs at El Grito Chicago
