The Jucy Lucy

Calhoun and I don't have cable TV which is great, because it seriously reduces the amount of TV I watch. One of the downsides is that on a Saturday morning when we're just lounging around the house there's not too much to watch on Saturday mornings. As a result, we've become devotees of the Saturday morning coking shows on PBS, which are actually pretty good. One of our favorites is America's Test Kitchen. America's Test Kitchen take popular recipes, kitchen gadgets and ingredients and tests them. America's Test Kitchen is great because they test every-day recipes, chocolate chip cookies, spaghetti and meatballs and this week - Jucy Lucys! The credited the Jucy Lucy to either Matt's Bar or the 5-8 Club, both in Minneapolis.

Jucy Lucy's are famous. And if you're from the metro area and you haven't had them from both Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club I hope you've been living under a rock for the entirety of your adult life. It's an amazing burger, and I would say that sampling Jucy Lucys around the cities it a good use of one's time.

Not only is the Jucy Lucy a good burger, it's a food that has put Minneapolis dining on the map. America's Test Kitchen has picked up on its popularity, testing the recipe enough to come up with a well-tested recipe sure to make your backyard BBQ an event to be celebrated. The Travel Channel's Food Wars and Man v. Food have been to Minneapolis to test the burgers. If national television shows are coming here to test the epic burger, shouldn't you get out there and do the same?

I also think that it's only fair to mention that there are also some great versions of the Jucy Lucy in St. Paul. The Nook was one of our favorite burger places when we lived in St. Paul, they serve the "Juicy Nookie Burger" which is their version of the Jucy Lucy. The Blue Door Pub also serves cheese stuffed burgers, their flagship burger is the "Juicy Blucy."

I like a Jucy Lucy just about anywhere, as long as the cheese has cooled down enough that it doesn't burn my tongue off. But, I'll throw my two-cents in and say that I Matt's Bar's Jucy Lucy is my favorite. My preference for Matt's Bar is based primarily on the ambiance - the menu is posted on one wall and it's a cash only kind of place where it really is about the burger.

If you haven't tried all of these Jucy Lucys, get out there!