Searching for Minnesota's Best Jucy Lucy

Ever since beginning my search, I have looked forward to the day that the adventure would take me to Casper & Runyon's Nook located across the street from Cretin Derham Hall in St. Paul's Highland Park Neighborhood.

A word of advice? With the restaurant across from hometown hero Joe Mauer's high school stomping grounds, I'd avoid trying to eat at this tiny establishment during a Twins game.

After a long-ish wait, Kate and I grabbed a table and got ready for JuLu Search's Saturday staples: cheese curds and Jucy Lucys.

While the cheese curds didn't quite outdo to amazing curds from Groveland Tap or The Blue Door, there was very little to complain about from this curd lover.

In all honesty, though... it's about the Jucy. Hands down the best I've had thus far on my search, I think the picture above shows exactly why The Nook has been featured on The Food Network's Diners, Drive-Is, and Dives.

Like Newt's, The Nook was also featured in Minnesota Monthly's Burger King listing as the #10 place to get a burger in the state of Minnesota.

Whereas Newt's scored a 19 on a 40-point scale of inherent awesomeness, The Nook scored a 34.

As mentioned, the article discusses the one downside of the Nook... the wait. But it also wraps it up by validating my time investment.

The Nook is St. Paul’s cult burger. People queue up outside for an hour, sometimes even two, to wait for a table to get the thing. They do this on happy, sunny days, of course, but they also do it on gruesome, blustery, rainy, and downright cold and nasty days. What could make people do such things? Because the Nook is home to the definitive bar burger: Well-charred, meaty but tender, wrapped in a soft white bun, and served with a mess of fresh-cut fries in a plastic basket. This thing just hits the sweet spot of what it means to live a real, unpretentious Midwestern life full of friends, family, community, and cold beer (when the time is right). And that’s worth standing in line for (Minnesota Monthly, 2008).