A Salesforce conference brought me to the city of Minneapolis this week, and I was expecting a good mix of business and pleasure (as my close college friend Sarah now lives there); I wasn't expecting such an enriching educational experience. I learned about the burger concept "Juicy Lucy," what a "cheese curd" is, and that one can actually sell deep fried SPAM. I left the city a new person; an enlightened one.
Call me sheltered, but I had never heard of a Juicy Lucy prior to my trip. The moment my plane ticket was booked, I texted Sarah about the best burger in the Twin Cities, and she responded with "Juicy Lucy." I assumed she was referring to a dining establishment, not a burger genre. The Juicy Lucy concept - where the cheese is baked into the burger patty rather than placed on top - is common knowledge in Minneapolis and there are about five spots famous for their creations. We chose the Blue Door in St. Paul based on its great word-of-mouth reputation. The place was packed at 8pm on a Monday night. The 30 minute wait was more than worth it - I'd wait hours.
My educational awakening began the moment I laid eyes on the menu: cheese curds, deep fried SPAM, Latin Kisses, the list goes on - and I needed a Midwest native to translate each one. As intrigued as I was by the SPAM, I knew I couldn't go wrong with deep-fried CHEESE. While I could tell the cheese wasn't gourmet, that's beside the point: the hot, fried breading perfectly complemented the chewy white interior. The basket of curds came out piping hot, as if they had spent about 10 seconds between the fryer and my mouth.
Deciding on which burger to try was hard. The Blue Door is special because it offers several variations of the Juicy Lucy. After painful deliberation, Sarah and I opted to try the original Blucy and the more adventurous Bacon Cowboy. The more simple Blucy highlights the advantage of baking the cheese directly into the beef; this was the juciest burger I've ever had. We even ordered the beef cooked to Medium which I think can lead to a dryer patty. It was sensational. Then I tried the Cowboy and I almost forgot about the Blucy entirely. I could only muster expletives in the minutes following my first few bites to describe how I was feeling. Big, thick pieces of bacon exploded from within the patty. Traditional bacon strips can be tricky on top of a burger - often they slide out in one long strip because you can't cut a single bite full with your teeth, or you get a bite that misses the bacon entirely. I often just pull off the bacon and eat it separately. Problem SOLVED. Every bite included the juicy beef, cheese, a few chunks of bacon, and oh - a deep fried onion ring. When it was placed in front of me, I thought it all might be too much. I was wrong. I loved the flaky pieces of fried batter. All the activity inside the burger calls for a very special bun. The Blue Door bun is light but sturdy; it supported the main attraction without distracting from it. Did I mention each burger is $7.00 or less?!
The sides - tater tots and french fries - sealed the deal. Like the cheese curds, the fries and tots came out piping hot and perfectly crisp. The cajun-style tater tots also left a lasting impression with their subtle heat. While I will never be able to remember the name of the burger (Juicy moosey goosey lucy-something-another), I will never ever forget the sensation of it on my taste buds.
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