Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The 5-8 Club, Home of the Juicy Lucy

CROSSROAD CUISINE - My quest to find great local food when I'm on the road.

I am really concerned about posting this location. A year ago I would come here and walk right in and be seated. Now that the secret has been revealed on national television I had to wait an hour for a seat. But I have promised to bring you periodic reviews of local restaurants that I eat at when visiting outlet centers, so here goes.

Last week while visiting the Albertville Premium Outlets I had a Juicy Lucy at the 5-8 Club in Minneapolis. Just remember, I was eating here long before it became famous.

5800 Cedar Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55417
(612) 823-5858

In 1928, at the height of Prohibition, the 5-8 Club opened amid the high living flapper era operating as a "speakeasy" serving beer and liquor illegally, along with a light food menu, to its thirsty patrons.

OK, this isn't really near the Albertville Premium Outlets. Normally when I visit that center I drive back to Minneapolis and stay near the airport. This is a simple few miles from the airport. So what you may wonder is a Juicy Lucy? A Juicy Lucy is a burger made with two quarter pound USDA choice, fresh, never frozen beef patties with the cheese in the middle.  YES the cheese is inside the two burger patties and it oozes out when you bite it. Its heaven.
You can order the burger on its own or get it as part of a basket. Your basket can come with fries, jo jo's(think steak fries) or onion rings. They all come with coleslaw which is really good. You can see my cheese starting to ooze out between the two beef patties. The onion rings were pretty much standard fare. The fries are better, but I had never tried their onion rings before.

The appetizers are really big. Definitely enough for 2-3 people. On this trip I tried the Extreme Jo Jo's.

As I mentioned, Jo Jo's are steak fries. In this case they are smothered in chili, cheddar cheese, jalapenos and served with sour cream. They were great, but the best appetizer is the onion straws.

Don't confuse the onion straws with the onion rings that came with my basket. They are not anywhere close to the same thing. The onion rings clearly come to the restaurant premade and frozen. The onion straws are made fresh on the location and they are awesome. I have to admit that I think they are even better than the burger. They are probably the best fried onions I have ever eaten. Worth the trip.

Now for the fame. They have been on the Travel Channels Food Wars, and Man vs Food. They also got best burger in the Minneapolis St Paul Magazine

Look, I don't mind if you go. I just ask that if you see me standing in line at the door that you wave me over to your table.

Check out another great burger I reviewed at the Barley Creek Brewing Company.

If you want another good source for burgers when you travel check out A Hamburger Today.

If you liked this post then you have to get this book: 
500 Things to Eat Before Its Too Late

1 comment:

  1. Ok so now I am hungry. It sounds so good.Christine

    ReplyDelete