Nestled in the Land of 10,000 lakes and the home of a river of cheese flowing out of a burger, Minneapolis is the inventor of the Juicy Lucy. What makes the best Juicy Lucy you may ask? Well, start with two flat pressed burgers and slip a slice of cheese between them. Then seal the burgers and grill. What you end up with is a perfect Juicy Lucy oozing with melted cheese. However, don’t let the tongue burns that are part of the authentic Juicy Lucy experience deter you from trying this legendary food. Instead, read on to discover where you can find the best Juicy Lucy in the Twin Cities.
Where does the Juicy Lucy Come From?
Well here is where the contention comes in. There are two different restaurants, still in operation, that claim to be the inventors of the Juicy Lucy.
The first is Matt’s Bar. The story goes that a customer asked for two burgers with a slice of cheese in the middle. Upon bitting into the molten cheese they exclaimed “that’s one jucy Lucy”. Matt’s spells it Jucy Lucy and totes that if it’s spelled right you’re eating a rip off.
The next claimed originator of the Juicy Lucy is the 5-8 Club. This prohibition era club spells it Juicy Lucy and doesn’t have a cute backstory. But they do have a cute sign proclaiming that if it’s spelled right it’s done right.
What Is A Juicy Lucy?
A Juicy Lucy is at its core a cheese stuffed burger. Typically it is two thin burgers and a slice of American or Cheddar cheese. For toppings, they are few and far between. Generally, onions and ketchsup or mustard make an appearance and sometimes lettuce. This is it for a basic Juicy Lucy.
The only other thing a traditional Juicy Lucy comes with is a warning. The server will warn you that biting into the burger too soon can cause burns. Waiting few minutes until you bite into it or taking a small bite at a time will save you from those tongue burns that you traditionally only get with a hot pizza.
However, you can get some fancy Juicy Lucys at some restaurants, complete with all the bells and whistles. One of my favorites is a blue cheese stuffed burger!
However for the following list of the best Juicy Lucy’s in the Twin Cities, we did eat the basic Juicy Lucy at each restaurant for the sake of science – so we could fairly compare them all.
Where To Get The Best Juicy Lucy?
We put the best Juicy Lucys in order below according to our very scientific research, which involves lots of beer and burgers.
Matt’s Bar and Grill
The best Juicy Lucy in town is the self-claimed original at Matt’s. This burger has no frills – don’t bother asking for toppings they don’t have them. The menu here is less than stellar. Do you have food restrictions? This place is not for you. Want a fancy date? Nope, not that either. No credit cards accepted so make sure to bring cash.
However, while this bar is lacking in frills, extras or even plates, they make up for it in the juiciest of Lucys. These thin burgers are cooked on a grill behind the open bar – no special orders. These folks crank them out over and over. So despite the regularly long wait times for a table. Service here is fast and the quality is consistent.
Their basic Jucy Lucy comes with a special sauce, pickles and grilled onions optional. The bun looks like the cheap buns you’d get in the grocery store. And still despite all of these plain accouterments, the actual burger inside is loaded with flavor, and more importantly, cheese that somehow liquifies.
Matt’s is our hands-down recommendation for folks who haven’t had the pleasure of a juicy lucy before. Part of this is the simple gooey pleasure of the burger that hasn’t been topped. And part of it is the dive-bar ambiance.
The Nook Or Shamrocks
The Nook has a full fledged bar menu. Or if you want a little Irish spice, check out Shamrocks instead. Both menus have the same set of Juicy Lucy’s available for order. Their basic burger is juicy and delicious and loaded with cheese and called the Juicy Nookie. The loadedness of cheese ranked this one high on our tastiness scale. What’s more, we love that they have a wide variety of spinoffs, including a chorizo and queso loaded burger! There are lots of customization options available here as well. In addition to the great juicy lucy’s, they have great fries on the side!
What else should you order? Check out their full list of deep fried treats. You can pretty much get any vegetable deep fried as an appetizer. Yes please!
The Nook is our top recommendation for your second juicy lucy and the bar that we go back to again and again for burgers. It is a great overall stop with a variety of unique menu items and clear care taken in crafting these burgers.
The 5-8 Club
The 5-8 Club has an amazing Juicy Lucy. What makes it amazing is the creativity and customization options available to you. So while the 5-8 club’s basic burger doesn’t have the same richness of flavor that Matt’s does, you can certainly upgrade the flavor with some add ons and creative spins. Scott loves the burger stuffed with cheese AND peanut butter. And I love their burger stuffed with blue cheese and topped with onion straws.
In addition to their creative menu of Juicy Lucy’s, they have a full menu, making it a much more family friendly establishment. I love their fried pickles! I have to order them each time and they are by far the best friend pickles I’ve ever had. Honestly, their fried pickles are the real stars of the show here.
The Blue Door Pub
The Blue Door Pub is an unassuming little bar nestled deep in a suburb. And much like the bar, the burgers are basic in all the best ways. While the menu does offer plenty of options, each burger choice has minimal toppings, letting the meat and, more importantly cheese, shine.
Their house juicy lucy is the blucy – a blue cheese and garlic stuffed burger topping with only pickles. This basic burger is delightful and reminiscent of a steak, even cooked bloodier than most burgers. While the uniqueness of the blucy makes this a great juicy lucy to try, overall the Blue Door juicy lucy’s are less juicy than others we’ve tried.
Crooked Pint Ale House
The Crooked Pint Ale House continuously gets voted as having the best burger (or the second best, depending on the year) in Minnesota. The menu boasts a full bar menu including around a dozen different juicy lucy burgers with various stuffed cheeses and loaded with toppings. While their burgers are loaded with toppings and flavors, you loose track of the burger stuffing amongst all the toppings. So it’s a great place for a burger, but if you want to experience the uniqueness of a juicy lucy, we’d recommend starting with another restaurant.
Another super bummer for us was they held our burgers in the kitchen until they were “safe” to eat. While we know eating a juicy lucy can result in cheese burns, they held our burgers longer than we thought was necessary. While we found this disappointing, a first time juicy lucy eater may find this helpful.
We hope this list has helped you explore this unique Minnesota food and helped you find the best Juicy Lucy in the Twin Cities for you! If you want a date night idea, try taste testing all of these in one day. If you split the burgers and skip the apps, you may be able to get through them all.
