Reader’s Choice

Diner Grill

Home of the devastating Slinger (two all-something patties, cheese, grilled onions, hash browns, chili, and white bread—a contender for best hangover breakfast), the 24-hour Diner Grill (or “Dinner Grill” if you’re looking it from the east) is a beloved anachronism, a potential set piece for a dozen Tom Waits songs. Lacking the merest scrap of irony, this rickety converted train car is commanded by paper-hatted, wisecracking expert grill men who know the corrective properties of grease in their bones. Sometimes a reverential hush falls over the drunken occupants of the counter stools as they watch one of these shamans make miracles of thin griddled burgers, omelets, and flapjacks.  1635 W. Irving Park, 773-248-2030. —Mike Sula

Readers’ Choice

Pick Me Up Cafe

Open 24 hours Fri-Sat, till 3 AM Sun-Thu. 3408 N. Clark, 773-248-6613.

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