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adrian's tavern

[address]

3500 Cedar Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55417

[phone]

(612) 722-7072

[date of visit]

9/30/2005

[price]

[summary]

It's the home of the Jucy and it's a legend. That should be enough to get you there.

[the joint]

Matt's Bar is a larger-than-you'd-expect corner bar on the corner of 35th and Cedar in South Minneapolis. It's dim inside, but not overly dark. In addition to the ten or so well padded stools along the bar, there are quite a few tables and even a handful of booths if you look hard enough. The decor features a lot of standard bar neon and stuff, but there's also a rope light garland over the bar which I thought was pretty mint. There are no games or anything, but the place still came off surprisingly family friendly. That's probably not totally unrelated to the smoking ban.

Matt's also isn't shy about telling you how "Matt's" they are. Signs plaster the walls talking up the quirks of the place and the limited menu and the history of the Jucy and all kinds of other creadibility enhancing stuff. For those of you who find that sort of strutting to be in poor taste, I'd like to remind you that you are in The Mothership, and the whole "no plates, no ice" schtick is theirs and it's original and - as far as I'm concerned - it basically demands to be celebrated. So check your cynicism at the door, because you're in Mecca my friend.

[the food]

The menu at Matt's is limited. Like printed-on-one-side-of-a-table-tent limited. They basically have hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and french fries. Kinda like that SNL skit, only with 3.2 beer instead of Pepsi. I think I may have seen a chicken sandwich or a grilled cheese on the menu, too, but they were probably just for show. If you think you might order one, it's probably a good idea to call ahead. I'd also ask nicely.

For drinks they have the traditional South Minneapolis 3.2 beer, Corbett Canyoncanyoncanyon wine by the glass, milk, coffee, or pop served in a can. (Kudos for labeling it "pop" on the menu.) Beer pitchers were like $9 and were big enough to fill around 5 'scoops', which is what they call their 'large' glass. I have no idea where the term 'scoop' comes from, unless it's some derivative of schooner, but the waitress claimed it was just under 16oz and that's big enough for me. One other drink note is that everyone - and I mean everyone - gets carded before they get a drink. Don't forget your ID.

To get started, our group normally devours a couple of baskets of onion rings or wings or cheese sticks or what have you, but Matt's doesn't have any of that rich-people fancy appetizer crap so we just enjoyed our first couple of pitchers without sides. When we asked the waitress about our options she said, "I think we have some chips in a bag or something", but upon further review that was probably a joke because said chips never appeared. Real funny.

Eventually we got around to ordering up the jucys. Being purists, Matt's only offers them with American cheese with or without fried or raw onions ($4.50). Fries are served by the basket and are big enough to be shared ($3.75). We ordered 3 baskets for the 7 of us and while it was enough, we - and by "we" I mean "me and JoePa" - could have probably put down another basket if we had to.

After a reasonable wait, our burgers and fries arrived, perched down the arm of our server like birds on a telephone wire. Everything gets distributed and we unwrap the burgers to find a simple burger on a simple bun with or without onions, just like we expected. After some cooling time, first bites revealed consistently ample cheese in every burger (7 for 7), a feat most of the imitators only wish they could copy.

Taste was nothing special, but was much better than some other places we've been to. We kept coming back to the theme of the night: do it simple, do it well.

Food wrap-up notes included: buns (cold, untoasted, simple), fries (thin, hot and fresh), pickles: (round and flat, applied directly to burgers). Matt's wrap-up notes: lots of take out business, odd music (Ludacris? At Matt's?!), scary downstairs bathroom.

[service]

Service was awesome, which was totally unexpected. Our server was in a great mood and was laughing and having a great time, all the while maintaining her psuedo-grumpy Matt's persona. The bartender dude was also friendly, but was very busy.

[conclusion]

The Jucy Lucy at Matt's is an obvious must for any Jucy eater. Is it the best in town? Probably not, but it is very good and - most importantly - very consistent. The fact that it's [most likely] the Jucy's birthplace means that it's worth the trip.