Vermilion @ The Taste

If it is early summer in Chicago then that means Taste of Chicago time. Now, the Taste changes for people as they get older. When you’re a kid and go with your parents, just being there is fun. All those people don’t register as sweaty filthy crowds. The food is good and you are happy you get eat it in the middle of the street. You don’t register the absurd prices and long lines. The fireworks are pretty fireworks, not cover for gunfire. But as a child, the negatives aren’t your concern. More Taste commentary as the Taste series continues.


My friend, Eren, and I set out after work one day (which is how 30 year olds do the Taste). We were on a mission to get some burgers for the blog and since Eren does not eat red meat, we had to get creative. Scratch that…we didn’t have to get that creative. Two of the four burgers at the taste aren’t red meat.



Our first stop was Vermillion, a Latin Indian fusion restaurant. We had a Chipotle Madras Curry Turkey burger which was 8 tickets, or in Taste price, like $5.33. The burger was topped with an amazing curry sauce and served with grilled green pepper and onion.



Can you believe they did not have a knife.

These are not ingredients that normally work for my palette. I don’t love green pepper and only recently began to tolerate curry. But, this worked well. Not only did it work well, but it worked in a manner kept you wanting more. By the time your taste buds processed all the flavors, it was over; and all too soon. We split this one and regretted it from the first bite.




We kind of looked at each other at first as if to say, “Are you going to finish that”? Then shot each other the response look of “Hell yea. Stop looking at my food”. The turkey patties were grilled over an open flame and got a nice light char on them that worked perfectly with the curry and grilled pepper and onion. They exceeded expectations on meat alone by avoiding the common turkey burger pitfalls. They did not dry out, fall apart or taste overly seasoned.



Now that I have told you all the pros about this burger and you are ready to run to 10 W. Hubbard to get one…it’s time for the other shoe to drop. It’s not there. They only make the burger for the Taste. In fact, while they do have a burger trio for lunch, this is not one of them. While the menu rotates all the time, and the day you read this there may in fact be a turkey burger on the menu, it won’t be this one. This one is only for the Taste and only for this year.

So there you have it. It can’t possibly be a destination burger. For all of its wonderful, amazing, rock star qualities, and I do mean wonderful, amazing, rock star taste, texture, blend of different flavors, and proper bun…you can never have one again. And that’s just sad.

It could be a nice recipe, though.

Someone needs to crack this. You, out there reading this.

Make it so.