Everest Burger Aims For Summit In Taste, Atmosphere

When you eat at Everest Burger and Bakery, Mark and Margarita Challenger want you to feel like you're sitting down to a family meal.

Order a great American burger with fresh fries and buns, bring the kids, linger, and worry not about hormones, antibiotics or anything artificial.

"My feeling is that you always want to serve what you eat," Margarita said. "You feed it to family, and you feed it to your extended family, which is your customers."

The Challengers are the owners of , just a few doors down from Everest Burger, which cracked its doors open Monday. Everest Burger was inspired by the allure of a great burger and the need for a casual place for families to meet and eat.

"It seemed to me that we lost a little bit of our families [with Guanajuato] so we said, let's do something that's very family-oriented and casual, and we said 'let's do a burger place but let's do an interesting burger place,'" Mark said.

Buns baked fresh (with a gluten-free option) in the attached bakery space. Whenever possible, local and organic ingredients. Homemade hot dogs. Fresh cut fries cooked in rice bran oil. Homemade organic frozen yogurt.

Diners choose from ten different burgers and five different protein options: beef, chicken, turkey, black bean, portabella mushroom, walnut and wild salmon. The ten burger options include the signature Everest burger (lettuce, tomato, onions, avocado, Kalamata olives, bleu cheese), Australian burger (pineapple, beet, lettuce, tomato, fried egg, grilled onions, spicy mayo), Fiesta burger (spicy patty, chipotles, lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapenos, cheese) and Odysseus' Feast (lettuce, tomato, onion, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, cooked in olive oil).

"We researched all of the burgers and you'd be surprised what you learn," Mark said. "Australians apparently like beets and egg on burgers, and I used to go to this great Greek restaurant with a burger that had really great flavor and I knew it had to be cooked in olive oil."

A mural of the Himalayas spans one of the walls in the bakery/dining area and guests come face to face with a crag -- the "mountain" -- right when they walk in the restaurant.

Mark and Margarita have big plans for expanding the offerings at Everest Burger, including healthy breakfast options, a juice bar and more bakery items. For now, they're keeping it simple.

"This is a burger place that you feel good about," Margarita said.

"A better burger place," Mark said.

Everest Burger and Bakery is located at 91-93 Green Bay Road in Glencoe. Burgers are $7-15.