Double cheeseburger Photo: Martha Williams

What more is there to say beyond just, “Eat the burger”? Seriously. That burger. No wonder that it has launched a thousand imitators, or that it has caused the hostess to quote you a five-hour wait that ends up really being five hours. The double-patty, melty-cheesy-eggy-bacony (if you’re doing it properly) creation has justifiably become an icon, and has spawned a mini-empire of Small Chevals that serve an almost-but-not-quite-perfect facsimile of the West Loop original. Tourists may think of us as a pizza town, but by now even they know to add the Au Cheval burger to their must-eat list. The restaurant also serves excellent duck-heart-gravy fries and even some other very good entrees, including a near-flawless mushroom-and-goat-cheese omelet. But you’ll probably still end up getting the burger. And you should. It’s worth every minute of that wait.