If you live under a rock, or perhaps in what I call "The Lower 47", you may not know what a "Juicy Lucy" is. This is a now somewhat generic term for a specific item, like Kleenex or I can't think of another example right now. Basically, in Minnesota, the term "Juicy Lucy" describes a burger that has cheese stuffed into the middle of the (usually oversized) patty when made and cooked to order. In general, this coronary double-whammy is supposed to come to your table bubbling hot and even have the potential to scald your mouth if you bite into the molten cheese/meat combo too eagerly.
For whatever reason (or in fear of mouth burns), I have waited until just this past weekend to have my first real, honest-to-goodness Juicy Lucy in Minnesota... and the first one in my life for that matter. I decided to go a little out of the norm and not go to one of the well-known originators of said burger, but to a new upstart that's been getting good reviews, The Blue Door in St. Paul, MN.
I went with a friend. We had a very short wait for a table (which is not the norm) and ordered beers as we looked at the menu. Though the Blue Door likes to tought their "Blucy" (a Juicy Lucy made with blue cheese), we decided on their traditional Juicy Lucy offering, called the "Classic", and stuffed with a Tillamonk cheddar. We also wanted something a little over-the-top, so we rounded our or items to split with a "Breakfast Blucy". This is a Classic topped with more cheese, bacon, and a fried egg. I do like a fried egg on a burger. Order in!
Let me say - I was very stoked to be moments away from my first Juicy Lucys.
That level of "stokedness" only lasted a few bites into my first half (we split both burgers). It was a bit over done and dry. It almost didn't matter though as it was a later-than-normal dinner and I wolfed the half burger down in 3-5 bites. On to the next half... the Breakfast Blucy.
It only took another couple glances at this monster to realize, and I can't stress enough how much this is not a joke, there was no cheese cooked into the middle of this burger. It was empty. Just two patties stuck together and cooked longer than beef should be grilled.
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| This was by no means inedible, but it was far from the Juicy Lucy/Blucy I ordered. |
I mentioned this to the twenty-something waitress who said nothing to ease my pain and something along the lines of, "yeah, all our burgers are pre-made". My friend thought she meant they cooked the burgers ahead of time... but I'm pretty sure the waitress meant all the Juicy Lucys/Blucys are hand-pattied in the morning, making sure the cheese and meat are all together before the orders come in and the burgers finally cooked. But no matter, there was no Juicy Lucy in my mouth that night. And to add insult to (gastro) injury, there was no discount or comp'ed items on the bill when the check came.
So, I did what any red-blooded American would, I tried to call and regale them with my plight the next day, but to no avail. Their phone just rang and rang. So, on Monday, I took to the interweb and found contact info for their catering manager. I emailed her and asked her for the proper contact. She emailed me back within an hour or so and I emailed the owners/managers.
It took about 24 hours to hear back from them, but they told me how bad they felt for my bad experience, that their staff is always given the power to make a customer happy, and they would like to send me a giftcard to cover my first visit and give them another shot at my second, first time. Now, that's how you right a wrong. Sounds good to me, see you soon...
Note: I will be updating this post once I go back to Blue Door and have my second, first-time... stayed tuned, Sportsfans.
