bobak's on archer

Bobak’s at 5257 S Archer is one of the best Polish deli/grocery stores in the city. They used to have this large dining room sitting practically on top of a set of freight train tracks. When a freight rumbled by you had the impression the dining room was going to be shaken apart, which oddly enough I found kind of charming. I don’t know what happened, but the dining room space has since closed but you can still take home everything they served in the restaurant in a fancy Styrofoam carry-out tray. They’ve also added a $2 hotdog & Polish sausage bar with a nice pepper & onion station with a few nice Polish touches like pickled onions alongside the raw onions.
Today I took home a few hotdogs, potato pancakes, bacon-wrapped weiners & cheese blintzes home for lunch. My wife is half Filipino and unfortunately dinuguan is a comfort food for her. The Poles have a lot of blood dishes as well so I always make sure to bring her home something soaked in some poor dead animal’s blood. Today it was a small scoop of blood sausage, which is served at Bobak’s sans natural-casing.