Carney's Restaurant

March 8th, 2006 (by Tony)

this just in from Champaign, "Land of Lincoln" Illinois...

March 8th, 2006 (by William Tucker - Whitney's brother)

I was visiting the “Big City” from the heartland (Champaign, Illinois) and was able to accompany my brother on burger tour. This was Tony’s review to write, but since it was my one chance to write something, and Tony didn't have the best track record,  here goes…  

The folks leaving from the Raytheon parking lot got there late, but a staggered arrival proved to be a good approach: even though there were 20 tourists along, we obtained our food fairly quickly. There seemed to be ample parking in back for Marti’s patrons, also a considerable win. The neighborhood has a lot of neon lights and is home to at least one strip club. This left at least a few tourists wishing that they had brought more ones.  [in other words...we were on "Sunset Blvd." - Mistro]

The atmosphere itself was fairly interesting. I would describe it as an attempt to simulate an outdoor hotdog & burger stand inside, down to cardboard food baskets, the paper towel dispenser, and the word “stand” in the name. The thing is that it’s inside a train car, harkening back to the roadside attractions and diners of rural America. I wanted to ask, “Which is it?” Let’s just call it unique. The seating runs along one wall and consists of several tables, each suitable for four or five people. There may be additional outdoor seating; I didn’t check.

The question, “Which is it?” was a bit of a theme. The aprons claim to have possibly the world’s best hotdogs and hamburgers, but it seems to me that you can only have one. (In Champaign, the late Taki Iatropoulos managed to meet both of these criteria, but not at the same time - the “possibly-best” hotdogs and assorted sausage-in-bun foodstuffs were from his cart and the possibly-best burgers were from the restaurant he later opened.) This lack of dedication to the burger was evidenced in the ratings and comments (this is a lie - I haven’t seen them as they are still in Tony’s possession): after my burger (which was certainly not bad), I was fairly convinced that these could not possibly be the world’s best burgers (caveat: I made the rookie mistake of choosing a double cheeseburger instead of a 1/2 pound burger). I have no reason to believe that the hotdogs are not among the possibly-best. I was tempted to check, but will instead leave this investigation, and the implications as to whether this place is going for “inside” or “outside” to some enterprising “hotdog tourist”.

Additional notes and observations:

I was also disappointed in the fries, which lacked an exterior texture.