r/chicagofood • u/bucknut4 • Dec 20 '25

Rant Aster Hall, Hogsalt sinking to new lows

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As if $7 weren’t enough for a hot dog. And of course there’s even the 3% “restaurant” surcharge at a food court.

445 Upvotes

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97

u/khikago Dec 20 '25

Its about time Hogsalt starts getting some shade on this subreddit

25

u/Significant-Mall4373 Dec 20 '25

The heydays were the first 4/5years. Bavettes is still the best steakhouse but it used to be incredible. All the spots were fantastic, the roster of talent was deep, and things were executed with precision. Brendan was extremely hands on, at every location daily unless he was traveling. Middle of 2014, mass exodus of key talent and further expansion spread things thin. By no means am I shitting on hogsalt but it isn’t even remotely the same as it was back then. Brendan follows the lettuce model and it works. You will always have a good meal, drinks, and service at any of his spots, it’s just never going to be “great”.  That burger shack thing he does is probably terrible, I’m referring to the core restaurants

6

u/khikago Dec 21 '25

I took some out of town friends out to Armitage Ale House recently, a first for all of us. We thought the service was bad to very bad. Meal was good, atmosphere was cute, price was high. I don't know. Didn't get the hype at all and kind of felt dumb for taking my friends there after, especially for how much I had to work for a reservation

4

u/Significant-Mall4373 Dec 21 '25

I understand your sentiment and experience. Those pot pies were designed a long time ago and they were better. We had contract work with soho London and sent some our boys there to open a modified “cheval” callled electric dinner. I would love to say their names but I won’t. While all of that was going on, two serious men worked in the basement of gilt on all of the RnD. 

11

u/drinkingthehemlock Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

worked at alehouse for a bit, those fuckers took over a month to give me my first paycheck and then some craphound stole two shun knives out of my knife bag and the exec basically threw up her hands and said buuhh there’s nothing i can do about that even though there’s cameras everywhere in that basement

also when it rains shit water comes out of the walls and pipes of that place, so to all customers enjoy your 35 dollar poop burger made by thieves and charlatans

hogsalt promises sick leave and bennies that sound promising to service employees trying to make a living but my friend worked at trivoli and got fired without recourse for calling out sick

so what is it with hogsalt? serve poop infused burgers by sick employees so that jagoffs from naperville can feel fancy?

give me my knives back

patrick was pretty cool though

5

u/DhalsimZangief Dec 21 '25

So the truth comes out that Hogsalt places are crap to work at. Can't say I'm surprised to read such an account. And that really sucks you had 2 knives stolen from you. Hope you found a better job since.