Prime BurgerHouse is one of the restaurants inside the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL. It’s my recollection the Grand Vic was one of the original casinos in Illinois, back when they were limited to being on water and having to take small cruises multiple times a day, during which time gamblers could play. Those days are long gone, with boats permanently anchored, or used as foundations to build land-based facilities. The Grand Vic is a fifty-fifty partnership between a subsidiary of Hyatt, and MGM.
The Prime was born from an idea of the casino GM to offer the best burger in Chicagoland, and in most cases, they succeed, with a plethora of specialty burgers as well as a ‘build your own’ option, offering a wide variety of add-ons, condiments, and buns. The full menu is here. Top of the line is a lobster tail topped beef patty.
Prime also offers microbrews, cocktails, and alcohol enhanced milkshakes, currently a rage at upscale burger joints across the country. Some additional appetizers are offered, including the ubiquitous Las Vegas style shrimp cocktail, which we used to find our Sin City for a buck – clocks in at $14 here.
I was the guest of my pal Tom, operator of a Chicago company that specializes in fun DVDs for kids of all ages. Want to delight your kids? Buy a dozen or so of Tom’s DVDs.
My burger, the Juicy Lucy, an homage to the Minneapolis creation of the same name, was superb. Beef patty cored out and loaded with melted American cheese, perched on onion straws, betwixt a very high quality pretzel bun.
White Cheddar truffle fries are available, for some reason, I opted to get them without the cheese and I think it was a good choice. Although it took years for my palate to cotton up to truffle enhanced food, now I can’t get enough of it.
Don’t let the fact Prime is in a casino put you off, it’s right inside the door and there is easy valet parking.
Highly recommended.
