Foodie Tuesday: Ellyn's Tap Owner Dishes on Cheeseburgers, Plans for Expansion

Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger!

Who can forget John Belushi’s classic Saturday Night Live skit, where he paid homage to Chicago’s Billy Goat Tavern. The Billy Goat put its own spin on the classic American meal if only with the pronunciation, according to Belushi’s interpretation.

Cheezeborgies all around today! It is National Cheeseburger Day and in honor of the day we at Glen Ellyn Patch wanted to find out what makes a cheeseburger so good. We talked with Ellyn’s Tap & Grill’s Jerry Hernandez, co-owner of the restaurant with brother George.

While Ellyn’s offers eight different types of burgers, from the Heart Attack (we hope you don’t have one) to the Black and Blue (a personal favorite), the most requested burger is pretty simple: The Ellyn’s Classic, Jerry Hernandez said.

The restaurant has been in business more than three years now and when it comes to burgers, the Classic gets ordered almost twice as often as other burgers on the menu, he said.

What makes it so good? The fresh ingredients, Hernandez said.

The beef itself is ground up fresh and is never frozen, he said. They use ground chuck, an 80/20 blend, which has no fillers or trimmings.

The toppings are also fresh, from the onion to the tomato, the lettuce to the bun.

“You can’t go wrong with a Classic,” he said.

Ellyn's owners plan expansion

As we were talking with Hernandez we learned that the restaurant’s owners are planning to expand.

In mid-November, Hernandez said the plan is to open a new restaurant in Wheaton.

Warren’s Ale House will open in the Wheaton Town Center in the former site of Red Robin, he said.

The restaurant will be different than Ellyn’s, he said. Warren’s Ale House will offer a wider variety of beer on tap and will place more emphasis on being a dining destination, he said.

“Wheaton is right next door and it was an opportunity to expand,” Jerry Hernandez said. “And, it’s close enough that it shouldn’t be too hard to juggle.”

He said Ellyn’s already gets quite a few customers who are from Wheaton, so it made sense to expand. The owners expect it will attract the same type of clientele who dine at Ellyn’s.

With the expansion, another family member will be added into the business as well, he said. The brothers are bringing in their sister Leticia Hernandez as a partner at the Wheaton restaurant.

If all goes well, Warren’s Ale House will open in mid-to-late November, Hernandez said.

What is your favorite kind of cheeseburger? Tell us in comments!