9 Juicy Lucy Cheeseburgers in 9 Hours. Which is the Best? | Bon Appétit

We're in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, and while I've clearly already found a lake, it's not what I'm looking for today. I'm looking for the Twin Cities regional specialty, Juicy Lucy. So what is a Juicy Lucy? It's a cheeseburger. of some kind, but instead of the cheese going on top of the burger, it goes between two thin burgers, meaning there's no cheese on the outside, it all lives inside the burger, so this is what I'm looking for in a good

juicy

burger. Lucy for the bread, I want something simple, nothing special, I want it to be soft and maybe you can even throw it on the griddle, put some toasted bread on there for the meat.

It needed to be well seasoned and I want both to brown well. sides I also don't want the burger to be thick or too wide, that will ruin the cheese to meat ratio in each bite for the cheese. I'm not looking for blue. I'm not looking for brief, nothing sophisticated. I want American. cheese and when I bite into the sandwich, the cheese should be melted enough to run everywhere. In general, the ratio of meat, cheese, and bread in Juicy Lucy should be fairly even. I have a day to explore Minneapolis, eat these burgers and meet some friends along the way.

I'm going to get out of this lake and start eating some burgers. We're at the Blue Door bdp pub, as I'm told the locals call it. This is my first Juicy Lucy from The day I'm not going to do this alone, I need someone to hold my hand through this experience, show me the ropes a little, so I hired my friend Liz, a Minneapolis native, to I helped myself. I loved her. Liz looks very wet. I'm Lois, no. okay, okay, let's warm them up with Lucia, yeah, we're coming to Minnesota and you don't get a Juicy Lucy, you're not doing it right, but the rookie moves, these people when he comes out, they bite straight.

I can't make molten lava burn you, oh you don't want to ruin the whole eating experience all over your white sheet, all over your chest hair, okay, don't you want this to be my question, was this a terrible move ? today wearing white, honestly, it's probably the worst one you could have done, but you're going to thrive, but it's going to be like a diary entry exactly. It usually has seasonings. It usually depends on where you are, but most standard ones only have like the two. empanadas with cheese stuffed in the middle that is like the formula that is the monkey yes, that is like work oh my God, that's good, what kind of cheese goes with Jesus, we are talking about American craftsmanship, no, but when you don't have a real American cheese, Moulton's, it's like a juice, okay, so this has been an educational journey so far, but I think we should eat these Regards, I don't know how I feel about choosing food, it's like something nice to Minnesota, okay, I won't be from the Midwest. well yeah right Cheers great burger medium rare you got that pink center you see mmm it's heavy oh my gosh yeah it's really good this is really good as a woman ever made you feel so excited, very rarely on the show, everywhere, everything.

We eat gets a nickname, you decide what this Juicy Lucy's nickname is. I think this is the legend of Longfellow, why is it called the legend of Longfellow? Why is she the one with this name? So we're in the Longfellow neighborhood, okay, one of my favorites. New roads here, okay and I'm sorry, but don't you think this is the legendary Blue Dory, the legend of Longfellow with Liz Cheers, we're at Groveland tap and I'm here to eat another Juicy Lucy, let's see what's going on here Patty se look pretty? good size, but for browning this is really nice, it's a

juicy

and attractive Lizzie, here we go hmm, in theory, I understood where the term Juicy Lucy came from, this is juicy like a long look at that cheese is like it doesn't even it even was. sticky melts it's like runny cheese that's been soaking into the burger the atmosphere apart Groveland's tap is, let's say, focused on beer, there are tons of tap handles along the walls, but this really looks like a burger and a brewery, the Groveland tap Juicy Lucy this is Minnehaha Juicy Lucy, the set of Minnehaha waterfalls, the only set of waterfalls on the Mississippi River and they happen to be in Minneapolis, this juice everywhere, the little mini cheese waterfall , Minnehaha Juicy Lucy in the Grove once we were at the Nook and I have another friend joining me on this trip, he is a little more successful than me, he has about 12 seasons of MLB baseball and three all-star games .

I don't have any of those things, zero and zero, Glen Perkins, hello, thanks for having Me in this basement, yes, I understand that you threw a large scale party here, yes, when in 2014, before the All-Star Game, it was the home run derby night. I love being here. I mean, this is if this was across the street. from my house, I think it would be here in all the networks upstairs, there's kind of a normal sized restaurant, there's a little side staircase going down the stairs, you have this cool, long, narrow bar, full of dollar bills, There is obviously a bowling alley right next door. it's a skee-ball machine, a little arcade that's like everything you wanted in your basement as a third grader with beer, so Glen,

which

makes Juicy Lucy very good.

What I like about yours is that it's no frills, it's as simple as it gets. soft bread just the cheeseburger and mash it, mash it, yeah, well, let's smash them, okay, cheers. Cheers, look, that's perfect, yes, they don't skimp on the Chiefs and the burgers are fine mm-hmm, not today. I like too much meat, so as for the bun, this is what I'm looking for. This bun makes the burger shine. It is simple. Is humble. Contains cheese and meat. Just get something to grab it again. Exactly. I think cheese is perfect for me. It's melted. but it's not melted the Juicy Lucy at the Nook what's the nickname of this burger it's probably like a good burger at the end of the night a good burger closer the nuts this is closer with a closer we're peppers and fries and I'm eating another Juicy Lucy that has cheese on top and in the middle more or less I'm led to believe that the cheese is visible when you see an illustration of a cheeseburger and the cheese perfectly melted around the double cheese outside. below, look how pink that burger is, it's a real medium rare, but most importantly look at that cheese, it doesn't stop, it won't stop, there's so much cheese in here and it's Wow, just wrap it around the burger like this.

Extremely flavorful, very creamy, but the meat is seasoned well enough to stand up to all this cheese, peppers, and fries. This is the burger of the stands. It's a real sports bar atmosphere here. This you want to eat in the stands while watching the game, maybe sub-zero temperatures I heard it's cold in Minnesota in the winter they bleed your burger I needed one of these for another of these we're at the 5-8 club near the airport, right next to Side of the highway, juicy Lucy's is starting to take its toll my body is realizing what's going on it's like, dude, too much red meat, too much salt, too much cheese, eat a salad, but we got more of these deep, so let's see this muffin looks very nice, soft, it's not a fancy muffin.

I think this might be the biggest burger we've had so far, pretty substantial at size 5 8 for the fifth, let's do it, it's a burger with a lot of cheese, but it's spread throughout that big burger, so you get meat and cheese with every bite. the salt in this is very good, not too salty, but definitely well seasoned. There is a lot of bun in this burger, although it is doughy. Juicy Lucy, this is the 5-8 club, this is Pillsbury Lucy, do you know why that little Doughboy started here? In Minneapolis, this is a doughy burger, so when people talk about Juicy Lucy's story, her origin story, the name that comes up is Matt's and that's where we are, you might notice there are two burgers on the table because I have another guest with me. my friend Brian Merkel Brian is a meat guy in Minneapolis yeah, I just ate a guy.

I feel like it's appropriate that he's eating a burger with a butcher. This is the only Juicy Lucy I will eat in town, so just check it out. these guys the right ratio of meat packages, as I like to say what makes a good Juicy Lucy is good jazz music. I like authenticity and I think Matt's is the real Juicy Lucy. I know Matt's is using fresh burgers because they sell like a thousand. pounds of them a week and that's why this is exciting to me here, let's eat them hmm oh, it's sweet, sticky, satisfying. I feel like the fact that you have to slurp with the burger tells me something about this burger where the cheese is perfect. liquid, you have the texture of gold on both sides, simple texture contrasts, yeah, I appreciate that iron is small, right? and it's right behind the bar, there's no kitchen, it's there, no, and you're sitting at the bar drinking your beer, you can always hear the sizzling when we walk in here, basically every table was full mid afternoon on a Tuesday, It's just a guy, I have a grill, there's no equipment, there's no big assembly line for these, it's a guy who just puts them out.

Okay, Brian, what's Matt's Juicy Lucy's nickname? I think we should call it the old standby. It'll be the same every time there aren't 50 different cheese options or stuffed with God knows what, it's just classic Juicy Lucy, the old standby. matze, this is the old standby, it's not going to change anytime soon and it's definitely not necessary. We are in a real restaurant and by real restaurant I mean a big restaurant, there are a lot of people eating here right now and this is served on a real plate we are in Hell's Kitchen right now the name of the restaurant is not my real setting.

I have eaten many hamburgers. I'm feeling a little hellish right now, but I'm about to eat this one, let's see. There's a lot going on here, not just burgers and cheese pickles, we've got onions, tomatoes and lettuce, okay, so the first thing I noticed was that the cheese distribution is a little off, it's all in the center, there's a fairly thick band around the outside. that's just a bleep and that also makes it harder for all the cheese to melt if there's a big pile in the middle and it's not evenly distributed. This is kind of the opposite of what we hadn't known,

which

was the simple burger this I think in Hell's Kitchen this is the most successful just by doing too much pushing it too far it has to go back to its roots go back to the real identity of Juicy Lucy most successful time for another Juicy Lucy at the 508 barn restaurant I'm the cute little side patio right now more fresh air to keep this day moving I can't fall asleep look there's bacon in this we haven't had bacon yet this looks like a pretty thick burger we're going high here and then there's some pickles and shredded lettuce on the bottom.

I'm ready to eat this, let's season it so it's pretty good so far, these are the most nervous I've ever been using this. white shirt, which again I think was inadvisable for today. This one I also think maybe the biggest burger we've had so far had a lot of meat in there. The bread itself is quite large. 5:08 Juicy Lucy. This is the. Twin Cities burger two identical slices of bacon two identical pickles and there's probably enough here for two meals the Twin Cities burger and 508 taste good the last Juicy Lucy of the day in the crooked pint the first appearance is cheese on top looks like it's pretty good the meat melted pretty well seasoned the bun is exactly how I like the bun plain without trying to taste anything letting the burger and cheese take the lead this is obviously a messy burger and you may or may not know it but the famous cartoonist Charles Schulz, the guy who created peanuts, is from Minneapolis, so this in honor of him and the complicated situation I'm dealing with now is the Pigpen.

I'm going to be a little dirty after eating this one, okay, I definitely have enough of juicy Lucy's. Today I think I have my top three up here, but just to make sure everything is okay, I'm going to sleep, give it some time until you know who the champion is tomorrow morning. Greetings, What are the three

best

juicy Lucy's in Minneapolis? at three is the Groveland tap where Juicy Lucy had a beautiful sear on both sides, melted cheese and you know, I just wanted to sit there and drink beer for the rest of the day, that place was red sitting at number two.

Maybe I need a little heat for this one, but Matt is the legendary, the original, the Juicy Lucy who served behind the bar, the sear on the outside was fantastic, the cheese melts super, the bun was humble and the vibe there . It was truly a neighborhood bar. I understand why everyone says it's number one, but for me, the

best

Juicy Lucy made in the Twin Cities is made at the Nook. I was thinking about that burger for the rest of the day after I ate the cheese. so melted, the well-seasoned, seared meat and the plain, soft bun were not trying to steal the show.show plus the atmosphere inside that place next time I'm in the Twin Cities, that will be my first stop at the bar downstairs from the bowling alley. skee-ball, everything I want in a quiet bar, is at the Nook, including the best Juicy Lucy in town, but that's just my opinion.

I want to hear what you think. Did I miss something? Any of your favorite places let me know in the comments below thanks for hanging out and thanks for the twin cities for serving up such delicious and juicy Lucy's all day long. I'm Alex Delaney. Appetite for the burger itself. I want a hard sear on both sides that will give a nice Tex a butterfly.