To us, “buzz bait” meant a restaurant that baldly sought press coverage. We also discovered, after trying to understand sentences such as “a buzzbait is a specialized topwater form of a bass jig,” that it’s also a fishing lure. By mid-August, it’ll also mean Buzz Bait Taqueria (1529 N. Wells St., Old Town, 312-642-2899), a fish-taco store run in tandem by Lou Malnati’s and Kamehachi.
“We are going sushi quality, deep-dish fun,” says Lou Malnati's CEO Marc Malnati. The simple menu consists of seven taco options, guacamole, elotes, and a few other items. Five of the seven tacos draw from the sea, including smoked salmon with a sweet barbecue sauce and corn salsa, Sapporo beer–battered cod with mango salsa, and tuna poke with avocado-tomato salsa. Service will be fast-casual, and the restaurant seats 30 inside and 15 outside.
Malnati estimates that eating at Buzz Bait will cost about $10 if you base your meal around the four-inch standard tacos. “We will also have eight-inch giant tacos for That Guy,” he says. Oh, That Guy. The same one who knows about topwater bass jigs.