We tried our first official Juicy Lucy at a place calledThe Blue Door Pub. If you’re not familiar with a Juicy Lucy, the concept is pretty simple: ingredients are stuffed inside of the meat patty (rather than placed on top), and then cooked. The pub was a small place located in a St. Paul neighborhood. For a Sunday afternoon at 3pm, it was very busy and the wait for a table was moderate. If you’re a fan of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins’, and Dives, you might have seen this place on the show, showcasing their juicy, one-of-kind burgers.
For an appetizer, we started off with some Latin Kisses (Jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon). If you would like to enjoy a cold beer, these little things would complement it nicely. For our burgers, my wife got The Merriam Park. The inside of the burger consisted of bacon, garlic, and bleu cheese. On the outside, it was topped off with red currant jelly and pickles. I ordered the Bacon Blucy, which had bacon and cheddar cheese on the inside, and pickles and jalapenos (which I added) on top. As side items, I got the hand-cut fries and my wife went with the tater tots.
The great thing about the Juicy Lucy is that it is really hard to have a dry burger. When liquid cheese is pouring out from the center and the fat from the bacon renders into the ground chuck, it really doesn’t have a chance of being dry or without flavor. The toasted buns were nothing special, nothing you can’t find at your local grocery store, and I’m honestly okay with that sometimes. For this environment, it was completely appropriate. I would say that we overall enjoyed our Juicy Lucy burgers; my wife’s burger had a nice sweet and savory balance of flavor to it, where mine was all savory.
Nothing against dive bars, but Vincent’s Juicy Lucy stuffed with Gouda and short rib, despite the higher price, did do it for me more than this one. I have a few other must hit spots on my Juicy Lucy burger list, and then I’ll have something to compare it too.
