Lunchtime Spot Has Sporting Chance

We all have our ideal visions of a night out. For Skokie residents, a romantic evening can sometimes mean a dinner at  or a night at the . Of course, sometimes real life gets in the way.  The babysitter cancels, one of the children gets far too sick, or Friday night traffic on Skokie Boulevard becomes so infuriating that the only option is staying in and ordering a pizza.

Sometimes you just have to connect when you can.  Work keeps us all pretty busy, and between catching up on e-mails or finishing up those last bits of business, a quiet night in isn't always quiet. Thankfully, we can always fall back on that savior of modern romance: the quick lunch date.

It was in that spirit that we headed out to find the ideal place for Skokie couples to meet, eat and get in a bit of lunchtime sweetness on the cheap. We wanted a central location, a bar at which to sit (for the fast service), and we wanted somewhere that didn't have too much going on so it would offer at least a hint of quiet intimacy.

 was the unlikely winner. It's central location at the  was crucial, we knew it had a bar so we'd be in and out, and we figured that an eatery with a focus on sports would give us that quiet afternoon. We were right.

Champps is a national chain, and while it doesn't scream Skokie, it's a popular choice for sports enthusiasts and  in the surrounding area. It's no wonder: The restaurant has televisions everywhere, including several that are easily 12-inches square. If you can't see the game from where you're sitting, you need your eyes checked.

Here to reconnect and to eat, we started with the honey buffalo wings ($8). We've had bad experiences with chain wings before, but these wings were fat, prepared properly and not at all dry, and the sauce was sweet with the most mild kick. Even better, the bleu cheese had fat chunks of solid cheese throughout, which had the two of us fighting for it. With over a dozen wings in a serving, we were both feeling pretty good by the end of the dish.

On the service side, some quick attention from the bartender saw us get another bleu cheese dip without having to ask, as well as refills on our drinks. The first half of this date complete, we used halftime to wash up, regroup and order for the second half. Huddling up to talk strategy, my date dropped her bombshell: The wings had filled her up, and she wondered if we could split an entree.

This play was untested, and I had no idea how it would go down, but the wings had us feeling like we were ahead. I made the call: I'd put her idea on the field and see how it played. We didn't want to blow it, so we cautiously ordered a classic in Champps signature burger, medium rare, for $10. The only risk we took?  We chose provolone as our cheese.

The burger came out of the kitchen and right for us. We split up--me taking one side, her taking the other. It was now or never. I took a bite. She took a bite. We bit, we chewed, we swallowed until there was no more. The silence was deafening. Stuffed, we neared what we knew was the end, and looked up, eager for the call...

It was good!

Well, it was pretty good, anyway. The burger was perfectly medium rare, just as we asked, and the patty itself was tasty enough. We prefer a hand packed--as opposed to machine packed--burger. The disappointing parts were the veggies: the tomato was limp and the lettuce was shredded iceberg lettuce. For that price, we expected more. The hunt for the perfect Skokie cheeseburger continues.

Our quick lunch over, we headed back to our separate cars to go on with our days. Champps did make us feel like winners that afternoon--the perfect Skokie lunch date as we were in and out in about 40 minutes. If you're looking for the same, Champps in Skokie could be your champion.