“Nobody else has this.” That’s what Glenn Fahlstrom claims about the burger at Fahlstrom’s Fresh Fish Market, a burger weighing in at a half pound of chopped sirloin, with raw onion, lettuce, “poorman’s” Thousand Island dressing, tomato, and cheese. I didn’t eat the burger at Fahlstrom’s. I was there to eat fish, primarily. But the claim about its singularity is dubious, as there’s a suspiciously similar burger a few miles north at Glenn’s Diner, the Ravenswood seafood restaurant Fahlstrom founded in 2005 and then was booted from after a protracted legal battle with one of his partners two years ago.
Mostly it was overcooked, the easiest way to ruin a fish. It happened with a large cracker-crusted panfried grouper. It happened with a plate of New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp that additionally failed to deliver any of the promised heat, but were sweet enough to have come from a Chinese takeout container. It happened to the poor mussels, shrimp, crab, and salmon floating in a bowl of equally bland liquid that was supposed to be cioppino broth. And it happened to a fist-size chunk of grilled sturgeon smothered in a cream sherry sauce with bacon and mushrooms.
Then again, the seats are full, and Fahlstrom’s seems as popular as Glenn’s ever was. “I understand what midwestern people like to eat,” Fahlstrom recently told a blogger. He also described the restaurant as a “seafood version of Potbelly’s.”
1258 W. Belmont 773-281-6000fahlstromsfreshfish.com
