🍔 Big Rig's Burgers, Texas-style

This Monday Night Foodball can't be missed! [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( [Food & Drink]( | February 2, 2024 Thank sweet Jesus Tim Riggins gave up on San Antonio State and went [back to Dillon]( where he belongs. Otherwise, who else would be smashing patties this February 5 when Big Rig’s plays [Monday Night Foodball]( the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Ludlow Liquors? No, we aren’t hosting a troubled, smoldering Texas high school fullback, but we are bringing in Brent and Taylor Dawson, and their [nascent pop-up](. It launched last spring, pivoting from burgers to grilled cheese in the winter, and now with spring on the horizon, back to patties—with one important distinction: “There’s a little bit of Texas in everything we do,” says Taylor, who daylights as the marketing manager for 3 Floyds Brewing. That’s because, somewhere along the way, chef Brent, who came up in a series of Michelin-level restaurants (Next, Kith & Kin, etc.), was bestowed the nickname “Rig” by a fellow Texan during viewings of Friday Night Lights. So their signature double smashburger (and veggie-friendly Beyond variant) is topped with “cowpoke sauce” (a mayo-mustard-Texas Pete alloy), and the beans are cooked in Lone Star. They’ll also be running a loaded baked russet potato salad with chive sour cream, bacon, cheddar, and scallions; and mini bourbon cherry cobblers with vanilla ice cream. It’s Texas forever this February 5 starting at 5 PM at 2959 N. California. Meanwhile—clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose—take a gander at the full Foodball schedule: [a cheeseburger on a orange tray]( [It’s a Texas-sized 10–4 with Big Rig’s Chicago at the next Monday Night Foodball]( Check out Brent Dawson’s smashburgers at the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Ludlow Liquors. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [New (and gently used) Chicago food books you should know]( Seven upcoming and newish volumes on wine talk, beer hikes, cult eats, Boka, and more. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [Flight Club Darts Chicago is a flight of fancy]( July 2018 | Raw oysters, rosé cotton candy, hookah-smoking sloths, and darts—what more could you and your Anglophile friends ask for? by [Aimee Levitt]( | [Read more]( → [So an indie video-game designer walks into an arcade bar . . .]( March 2014 | We handed a pair of video-game designers a fistful of change (and some beers) and set them loose to give us their take on two of Chicago’s growing number of arcade bars. by [Leor Galil]( and [Kevin Warwick]( | [Read more]( → Enter for a chance to win tickets! Ten winners will be chosen on Feb. 7. Sam Thousand and YumDiva (Chef Erika Durham) are creating an [experience full of engaging art forms and soul food]( for Black History Month. Come out and celebrate Black culture, Black music and distinctive soul food on the Southside of Chicago for your Fat Tuesday weekend. [Enter here: entries accepted until 11:59 PM Feb. 6!]( Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, January 25, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 8]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Become a member of the Chicago Reader.]( [Twitter icon]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616