the 5-8 club

 

[address]

5800 Cedar Ave S Minneapolis

[phone]

(612) 823-5858

[date of visit]

6/8/2002

[price]

$

[summary]

Good food with ok service. A great place to start the tour.

[the joint]

The 5-8 club is a former speakeasy that is now a neighborhood bar and grill. They make their own moonshine and the staff dresses like flappers. No, they don't. They do, however, claim to be one of the first (if not the first) places in town to serve the Juicy Lucy. Inside is a bar section and smallish restaurant section. Six of us sat at a nice large table with easy viewing of the Twins game on a couple of TVs.

[the food]

The 5-8 claims that they grind their own hamburger, make their own coleslaw, and bake their own buns every day. The advantage of this approach would obviously be freshness and flavor. Beyond that, they offer three alternatives to the standard American cheese: blue, pepper jack, and swiss. All burgers are served with pickles and choice of fried or raw onions.

Keith, Grossie and I ordered an American cheese Juicy basket while Colin and J-man dug into the swiss version. (Bhav, who drove us there in his bitchin. truck, had a huge basket of fried cheese curds.) According to the menu, and later confirmed by the waitress, the alternate cheese version takes a little longer. We concluded this was because they patty those to order, whereas they prepatty a bunch of American versions each afternoon.

The burgers were large - 1/2 pound - and were quite good. They were neither as hot nor as juicy as one would expect, but they did deliver the expected burst of molten cheese. The quantity of cheese varied somewhat between individual burgers, with some getting tons and others not getting enough. (Strangely, nobody got too much.) The buns, which come toasted as an option, were very good. The fresh slaw and plenty of fries rounded out a quality meal.

[service]

Our waitress was clearly overworked. Food took a while to come out and Colin's order was mishandled. She was friendly enough, though, and after a few cheap beers, everything seemed ok.

[conclusion]

Clearly a popular joint with the locals, you can't go wrong with a Juicy at the 5-8. As this was the first stop on the Tour, right now it's the unquestionable front runner.

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