My First Taste of a Twin Cities Classic

OK, I know I'm very behind on my blog entries. I have been traveling around the country following my Brewers in their quest for the World Series. Even though they didn't make it, I did pick up a lot of good spots to share with you in the coming weeks. I will continue now with our trip to Minneapolis in August.

Now I had been to the Twin Cities area several times before, but there is one thing that I had never tried before, the Jucy Lucy. If you are from the area, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you are not, let me explain. When you make a normal cheeseburger, you put your meat on the grill and when it is almost done, you put your cheese on top and let it melt. Well, with a Jucy Lucy, the cheese goes inside the burger. They take two patties of meat and seal in cheese and then grill it. This creates a wonderful molten cheese center to the burger. They serve these all over town, but the two places that argue about being the first and the best are Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 Club. Since we had to pick one, I deferred to the Travel Channel show “Food Wars.” They had these two battle and the winner was… Matt’s Bar. This is where we had to go.

Now if you are expecting some elaborate dining experience, this is not the place. It is a small, well, bar with a few tables and booths. There is one small grill area with a fryer and in fact, here is their entire menu:

All of the drinks are served cold, but in the can. All of the burgers are delivered to your table simply wrapped in paper. They do have baskets for the fries. There is a sign on the wall that says “We have no plates and no ice, we blew the budget on napkins.” When it came to ordering, there was no question, I had to have a Jucy Lucy. Just a note on the spelling, I have it right. Legend has it that they put this item up on the menu so quickly that they forgot the “I” in Jucy and just left it that way. When they brought my Jucy Lucy and a basket of fries, here’s what I got:

We received a warning on the Jucy Lucy that the middle can be very hot. I ate a few fries and let it cool down just a bit. When I took my first bite, they were correct, it was very hot and here’s what happened:

The cheese just oozes out and mixes with the meat and makes the whole thing delicious. It had taken me a while, but it was worth the wait. I can now say that I’ve had an authentic Twin Cities Jucy Lucy. Maybe my next trip to town I’ll have to check out the 5-8 Club.

If you have not yet tried this wonderful stuffed cheeseburger, give it a try sometime. You’ll love it. Just be careful not to burn your mouth.

Next up, a trip to the lake and another favorite.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: Matt’s Bar

Location:

3500 Cedar Avenue S

, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Website: http://www.mattsbar.com/

Date of Visit: August 27, 2011

Time of Visit: Around 8:00pm, Dinner

Has It Been On TV?: Several Times. I’ve seen them on “Food Wars”, “Man vs. Food” and “Tastiest Places to Chowdown” all on the Travel Channel. They may have been on others too.