Cross-Rhodes: An Old Favorite in Evanston

I grew up a couple of blocks away from Cross-Rhodes in Evanston and it, along with Wiener and Still Champion and my parents, has been a constant in my life. The hand-cut, perfectly fried french fries at WaSC, Hot Doug's, and Edzo's are all great. But the Greek Fries at CR, soaked in an herby vinaigrette, are at another level altogether. Those fries and their gyros are certainly among the top five in my lifetime food rotation.

Cross-Rhodes has been mentioned in a variety of other threads over the years and there is a separate thread on the 2012 passing of one of the owners.

Cross-Rhodes
913 Chicago Ave Evanston, IL 60202
(847) 475-4475
Mon - Thurs: 11:30am - 9:30pm
Fri - Sat: 11:30am - 10:00pm
Sun: 4:00pm - 9:00pm
http://crossrhodes.biz/
Cash only

Cross-Rhodes is a family standard at our house. It deserves its own thread. We like the burgers (the burger with feta is a long-time fave of my daughter) and the gyros. The fries are great and in their own category, as Darren72 notes. We also like the pastitsio. Don't bother with the rice; even their fries sauce can't save it. The chicken is usually beyond well-done but hits the spot when you want to eat something completely unchallenging. Cross-Rhodes is reliably friendly, relaxed, and casual, yet the service is quick and the food quite good, and there are all sorts of people there at all hours. Prices are, as they say, family-friendly. The king-size gyros sandwich is a bargain at $7.50--it's huge.

Who's running the place now that the owner has passed away? Didn't he have a daughter in the biz, or am I misremembering?

I think it is still run by the daughter so it is still in the family - and I second the comments about the fries -

I'm not sure if it's a relatively new menu item (as the rest of the menu hasn't changed much, if at all, since I've been going there as a wee lad) or I've just never noticed before, but I really like the country-style pita with fries in the sandwich.

AaronSinger wrote:I'm not sure if it's a relatively new menu item (as the rest of the menu hasn't changed much, if at all, since I've been going there as a wee lad) or I've just never noticed before, but I really like the country-style pita with fries in the sandwich.

Funny you should mention that. I usually get carry out and don't even look at a menu. Recently, though, my wife and I dined in and had a chance to read over the whole menu. I had the same reaction as you to the country-style pita. The country-style sandwiches include a small number of fries and feta inside the pita. The fries aren't a side, as they are with the dinner.

Darren72 wrote:

AaronSinger wrote:I'm not sure if it's a relatively new menu item (as the rest of the menu hasn't changed much, if at all, since I've been going there as a wee lad) or I've just never noticed before, but I really like the country-style pita with fries in the sandwich.

Funny you should mention that. I usually get carry out and don't even look at a menu. Recently, though, my wife and I dined in and had a chance to read over the whole menu. I had the same reaction as you to the country-style pita. The country-style sandwiches include a small number of fries and feta inside the pita. The fries aren't a side, as they are with the dinner.

I think the country-style pita sandwiches are fairly new (within last couple of years) menu items.

Darren72 wrote:

AaronSinger wrote:I'm not sure if it's a relatively new menu item (as the rest of the menu hasn't changed much, if at all, since I've been going there as a wee lad) or I've just never noticed before, but I really like the country-style pita with fries in the sandwich.

Funny you should mention that. I usually get carry out and don't even look at a menu. Recently, though, my wife and I dined in and had a chance to read over the whole menu. I had the same reaction as you to the country-style pita. The country-style sandwiches include a small number of fries and feta inside the pita. The fries aren't a side, as they are with the dinner.

That sounds very similar to the pita sandwiches that we had when I was in Toronto

stevez wrote:

Darren72 wrote:

AaronSinger wrote:I'm not sure if it's a relatively new menu item (as the rest of the menu hasn't changed much, if at all, since I've been going there as a wee lad) or I've just never noticed before, but I really like the country-style pita with fries in the sandwich.

Funny you should mention that. I usually get carry out and don't even look at a menu. Recently, though, my wife and I dined in and had a chance to read over the whole menu. I had the same reaction as you to the country-style pita. The country-style sandwiches include a small number of fries and feta inside the pita. The fries aren't a side, as they are with the dinner.

That sounds very similar to the pita sandwiches that we had when I was in Toronto

Also similar to the falafel and shawarma sandwiches I've had in Israel (though I prefer those on the thinner and larger laffa bread, which is rather hard to find here).

I finally tried the burger at Cross-Rhodes. Well, maybe I had it many years ago and don't remember. But for as long as I can remember, Cross-Rhodes is gyros, chicken, Greek salad, and maybe one of the Greek dishes. And fries, but that goes without saying. So it was time to have the burger.

Loved it. Char-grilled, crispy on the outside, nice and medium-rare on the inside. Friendly service and, as scottsol noted about Carson's burger, a few pieces of CRISP lettuce made it especially great.

My go-to order from them (esp when I lived DIRECTLY behind them) was always a greek salad (sometimes with chicken) and a spanakopita. So good. Miss it like crazy

Loved the fries with the oil & lemon sauce, were they called Greek fries? Back in the Stone Age (87-91) of Evanston dining, a poor student like myself really appreciated Cross-Rhodes.

EDIT: I really need to read the OP better, Darren covered everything I said!

Checking my records, until today it had been 15 years and 2 weeks since my last visit to Cross~Rhodes (3/2/00). As with a lot of places I used to visit back in the day, I had fond memories of C~R and wondered if they'd hold up. I used to live right around the corner, and ate there very often. Well, as it turns out, the food at Cross~Rhodes was almost exactly as I remembered it. Four of us had a very enjoyable and delicious lunch that really brought me back . . .


Taramosalata
A very nice rendition. I liked that the individual roe sacs were still noticeable on my palate.



Spanikopita
Flaky and flavorful.



Side Salad
Nothing special but carefully assembled. Lettuce was crisp and the salad was fresh, well-seasoned and well-dressed.



Pita
Grilled nicely



Egg Lemon Soup
I liked this soup a lot more than I rememebered liking it in the past. Even the coarse texture was satisfying to me.



Gyros Dinner with Greek Fries
Extremely well-prepared. The meat was crispy, moist and flavorful. And those fries were awesome. Super crispy (at the beginning) and drenched in that delicious dressing.



Skirt Steak and Rice
Not the highest quality steak but it was tasty, tender and properly cooked to medium rare. The rice was more or less an afterthought. Its only purpose must have been to soak up the steak juices.



Charburger with Feta and Greek Fries
Really nice char burger. I used to get this with American cheese but we opted for feta instead today, which may have overwhelmed it just a bit. Still the meat was great and as you can see in the shot below (and from the juices dripping down the side of the bun), it was cooked perfectly to medium rare.



Charburger with Feta
Medium rare -- exactly as ordered.



Chicken Greek Style with Greek Fries
As you can see, the edge of the white meat took a bit of a hit here but the bird and its crispy, charred skin was still very tasty.

Service was friendly and the food was prepared with obvious care. All the food pictured above totalled out at just under $60 before tip, which I thought was a very good value. And it was delicious in its own right -- not just as a throw-back. Who knows . . . maybe you can go home again, or least to that great spot around the corner from where home used to be.

=R=

I'm from that neighborhood and moved to Skokie in '09. The fact that it's still there and maintains its quality for literally 3 decades is one thing that reassures me that there are still good things in this world

Yep, it's as good as ever. Was there this evening with Wife #1 and another couple. We've been going to Cross-Rhodes for almost 30 years; our friends were new to it.

The ladies both had mousaka while the guys each ordered the Greek chicken with fries. The chicken was exactly as Ronnie Suburban described it above. At the end of the meal everyone was very happy. We had made two more converts.

Finally checked this one off the list! Late lunch to go from Cross-Rhodes today consisted of the Country Chicken Pita for Mr. X and the gyros dinner for me with an upgrade to the Maria fries (Greek fries + feta). I didn't expect the gyros meat to be piled on top of the fries, but I see from Ronnie's picture above, it's the way they do it. That was one huge, delicious plate of food! The gyros dinner could feed a few people. I didn't get to try the chicken pita so I'll take that as an endorsement from Mr. X.

I don't know why I waited so long to go to Cross-Rhodes. We'll be back for sure!

I haven’t been to Cross-Rhodes yet, but I heard they offer a BBQ sauce as an option with their gyros and the person I heard it from said it was amazing.

Does anyone know more about this? Their menu describes it as a BBQ sauce- is that accurate? Is it made in-house or sourced from somewhere else?

Going to have to try this place because I keep hearing good things about it!

A musician buddy friend that lives around the corner from Cross-Rhodes turned me onto this place earlier this year, and we've met there about once a month recently. Always get the same thing--skirt steak medium rare with steak fries that steep in the steak's juices. Usually have either a Greek salad--excellent feta--or their avgolemono soup, which is excellent. We also split a carafe of a Spanish wine whose name escapes me at the moment. Really nice.

Cross-Rhodes is the type of joint that the GNR was designed for...

Abe-- The descriptor -- BBQ Sauce is correct -- broad as that is. Don't know whether it is made in-house, but it seems to fall into the generic KC category: fairly (but not too) sweet, tomato-based, somewhat tangy, but not excessively sharp or hot. A nice add-on that everyone can enjoy.

Hope this helps, even though it falls far short of the usual LTH well-defined response.

I gotta say, my last x-Rhodes experience was of the "ain't never going back there" variety. Before the unfortunate and unexpected demise of the founder, he was always hovering around the grill making sure everything was perfect. It was one of the only places I dared order a rare burger. Each day they picked up freshly ground beef which was cooked perfectly. Charred on the outside and bright red in the center. They had rare burgers down to a science, where the meat was warm but still almost raw(but not bloody). They would even serve the bun on the side so it would not get soggy. The owner (I wish I could remember his name) refused to guarantee a rare burger to go because it would continue to cook in the packaging. Unfortunately, it seems that such attention to detail died with the owner. The last burger I got from there was way overdone, gray and dry, as if the meaning of the word 'rare' was completely forgotten. On the other hand, the fries were undercooked. Too bad, it used to be my favorite burger in town.

d4v3 wrote:The owner (I wish I could remember his name)

Jeff Russell passed away in 2012. He was one of a kind; I used to marvel watching him answer one call after another while simultaneously manning the register etc. At the time of his passing, he had already turned Cross-Rhodes over to his daughter, Maria. I assume she is still in charge.

abe_froeman wrote:I haven’t been to Cross-Rhodes yet, but I heard they offer a BBQ sauce as an option with their gyros and the person I heard it from said it was amazing.

Does anyone know more about this? Their menu describes it as a BBQ sauce- is that accurate? Is it made in-house or sourced from somewhere else?

Going to have to try this place because I keep hearing good things about it!

I wouldn't make a special trip for it. To me, it tasted like Open Pit maybe with a bit of hot sauce mixed into it. It was fine as a dipping medium for fries.


Cross~Rhodes' BBQ Sauce

Overall, our pre-show-at-Space dinner was fine, it not spectacular. The highlight was definitely the Greek fries -- an item for which I probably would make a special trip. They were fried well enough to stay crispy, even sitting in the seasoned oil, for quite a while after they hit the table.

A spanakopita appetizer had an unspectacular filling and buttery flavor in the exterior . . . but I can't even refer to it as a crust because it was gummy and not flaky at all. Greek Chicken was good and bad. Because of the way it's butchered, ordering dark-meat-only is not an option. One must order a whole half-chicken and take the white with the dark. It was dry in that exact way that makes white meat a drag. Gyros Dinner -- an enormous portion -- was tasty, as was the tsatkiki. I've been spoiled by the homemade gyros at Psistaria and Avli but for an outsourced version, this was fine . . .


Cross~Rhodes' Gyros Dinner

This is still a viable pre-show option for us when we're going to Space or NU but I don't know that I'd eagerly head all the way east for it if I didn't have other nearby stops on the schedule.

=R=

Hi- I was just on the Support Evanston Restaurants Facebook group, and somebody just posted on there that Cross-Rhodes is currently giving away a small bag of local chocolate and a roll of toilet paper if you order take out from them.

I just checked Cross-Rhodes website, and apparently the free things change every week. They are currently open from 4:00-8:00 for pick up and 5:00-8:00 for delivery. If you are picking up they only accept cash and local checks. They just recently had to raise some of their prices due to the meat shortage.