Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

What's a Naanwich? Find Out Starting Thursday at The Long Room

By Ariel Cheung | June 9, 2015 8:42am
 Owners of The Long Room, 1612 W. Irving Park Road, are opening a food-truck-style addition to the popular bar. Sidecar will offer breakfast and coffee, burgers and sandwiches.
Owners of The Long Room, 1612 W. Irving Park Road, are opening a food-truck-style addition to the popular bar. Sidecar will offer breakfast and coffee, burgers and sandwiches.
View Full Caption
Provided/Don Markus

LAKEVIEW — If there's three things bar-hopping Millennials love, it's booze, coffee and grub.

The Long Room has had the first for 15 years in Lakeview's northwest side. Starting Thursday, they'll be selling food and coffee, too.

"I just think the way people go out has changed," said Jason Burrell, co-owner of The Long Room. "The neighborhood tavern is truly, I believe, an important part of the community. [People] love the tavern still, but now they're not necessarily looking just for a tavern."

After seeing bars in Austin, Texas, bringing food trucks to their customers, Burrell decided to bring a similar concept to The Long Room, by launching food truck-inspired pop-up eateries inside the longstanding bar at 1612 W. Irving Park Road.

 Sidecar, a new addition to The Long Room, 1612 W. Irving Park Road, will offer breakfast and coffee in the mornings, with burgers, sandwiches, wraps and poutine in the evenings.
Sidecar, a new addition to The Long Room, 1612 W. Irving Park Road, will offer breakfast and coffee in the mornings, with burgers, sandwiches, wraps and poutine in the evenings.
View Full Caption
Provided/Don Markus

Sidecar, the bar's new restaurant arm, will be a chef-driven concession area with coffee, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Biscuit Man, Sidecar's breakfast bar, will serve breakfast sandwiches in the morning, with window service from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, with lunch available from noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Lunch offerings include naanwiches and rice bowls.

In the evenings, Sidecar's dinner concept, Beard and Belly, will serve "upgraded" bar food like burgers, sandwiches and poutine in the evenings, Burell said.

Chef Zeeshan Shah, who previously worked at Hop Leaf, Custom House and Old Town Social, said the menus would include his takes on croissant breakfast sandwiches, Indian naanwiches and rice bowls.

Beard and Belly will begin service at 5 p.m., lasting until 10 p.m. on Mondays, midnight on Tuesdays and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Chefs Kyle Schrage and Jim Torres — whose combined resumes include Table 52, Fountainhead and Omnivorous Culinary Fellowship — will specialize in burgers, poutine and rotating sandwich specials.

"One of the things I was kind of hesitant about was changing something people love, so I was expecting some backlash [from regulars]. But 99 percent has been excitement of people getting these needs addressed. I think it's going to be really, really great," Burrell said.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: