Edzo’s Burger Shop, one of Evanston’s only dedicated burger joints, sold its final round of glistening cheeseburgers in December — leaving the city’s burger scene even more barren.
Born from owner Eddie Lakin’s career pivot after the economic downturn of 2008, Edzo’s stayed open on Sherman Avenue for 15 years. Lakin said the shop simply never recovered after the pandemic. Businesses reopened, but nearby office employees remained at home.
“If we had the same amount of office workers that we used to have before COVID, we wouldn’t have closed,” Lakin said. “That was just a gaping hole in our demographics.”
Edzo’s was one of just a few quick-service spots in Evanston serving all-American cuisine. For Communication freshman Matthew Finkel, the closure is “heartbreaking.”
Finkel said Edzo’s was his favorite burger spot in Evanston, both because of the food quality and the neighborhood ambiance that he preferred over fast food chains.
“It just had a very unique vibe,” he said. “It felt like it was this little spot that had really good food that no one really knew about.”
As a small business owner, Lakin said he worried about the shop closing every single day. He made the final decision to shut the doors in early December after wrestling with the prospect of a home equity loan.
The shop hadn’t been profitable for the last four or five years, and Lakin said he had spent that time throwing in his savings to keep the business afloat.
“I was basically floating on COVID loans and not making money, but infusing my own personal money into the business,” he said. “That would be just throwing good money after bad, and the only actual wealth that I’ve built and assets that I have, and throwing it into the endless money pit that the restaurant was becoming.”
Where does that leave hungry Evanston patrons yearning for an all-American meal?
Epic Burger on Sherman Avenue and Mustard’s Last Stand on Central Street are two of Evanston’s few remaining burger joints. Their classic burgers are a typical flat patty on a fluffy bun with crispy fries. For a plant-based option, elephant + vine on Church Street offers vegan fare.
Mustard’s Last Stand’s most popular items are its hot dog and double cheeseburger. Compared to Edzo’s, Mustard’s manager Samuel Licea described his burger as more “basic” with a skinnier patty and a smaller 4-inch bun.
Licea said Mustard’s Last Stand doesn’t face much competition from other restaurants because of its proximity to Ryan Field and its customer base of neighborhood regulars.
“We have our own area here,” he said. “The family-friendly feeling that the place brings, that sets it apart.”
However, Licea said his sales have dropped slightly since the onset of the pandemic because of lost business from a nearby office. On average, he said Mustard’s Last Stand has lost about 10 of its 200 daily customers because most of the employees now work from home.
Rising prices have also driven patrons away. Before the pandemic, Licea said a single burger meal was about $9. The cost for the same item now stands at $14.
Since Mustard’s Last Stand relies on a different customer base than Edzo’s, Licea said he expects upcoming economic growth once the new stadium opens, boosting sales for his gameday grub.
“(Edzo’s) and us, we depend on our customers in a little different way,” he said. “They depended on their offices there. Here, we depend on something happening at Northwestern.”
Although Edzo’s shuttered because of the economic recession resulting from the pandemic, it was the 2008 economic crisis that pulled Lakin from the world of fine dining into a kitchen fuelled by the sounds of sizzling cheese and spitting oil.
Lakin attended The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago in the 1990s and dedicated the next 15 years to working in kitchens that served high-end cuisine, including two years in Europe working in Michelin-starred restaurants.
“I started getting sick of the pretentiousness and all, like the kind of pomp and circumstance,” he said. “I just wanted to focus more on the food quality and serving really great food.”
After departing the realm of gourmet cuisine, Lakin worked in a quick-service Chicago restaurant for a couple of years before he was laid off in 2008.
Rather than being discouraged by the recession, Lakin was inspired to create a lunch-focused restaurant so that he could still spend evenings and weekends with his kids.
“I always love that sense of food adventurism and venerating the little local spots to this exalted level,” he said. “When I started putting Edzo’s together, I really wanted it to be like a love letter to Chicago hot dog stand food. I wanted it to feel like a regular Chicago hot dog stand but have just better quality versions of the same food.”
Lakin self-funded the business with $80,000 to get it off the ground. Like clockwork, he came ahead of opening time every morning to grind whole pieces of beef shoulder into fresh patties and slice potatoes into french fries.
Lakin said he spoke with customers during closing week who had been coming to Edzo’s since its inception, many of whom wished for more.
Other suburbs have contacted Lakin through Evanston’s Department of Economic Development to reopen. The heavy traffic of customers during closing week alone convinced Lakin that the business is worth holding onto.
“I was in this place where I kind of felt like I failed … and then I had like 1,000 people come through and tell me that I made their lives a little bit better or touched them or meant something to them,” he said. “It was this amazing outpouring of gratitude, and it gave me such a wonderful sense of validation. If I did this, I’m not a failure. This thing, it’s an actual phenomenon.”
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Best Burger: Edzo’s Burger Shop
— Evanston Burger King ends its reign as empty building gets demolished
— Edzo’s Burger Shop returns with a soft reopening, revitalized interior
