King’s Place – Miesville, MN

A couple months back, I found a fellow food blogger’s website and ended up exchanging some food recommendations with her. RubyVita, author of Boullabaisse Brain, recommended King’s Place right out of the gate and said I had to go there. In fact, she was so excited about it, she said we should meet there and have some amazing burgers. I’m always game for food adventures, so I agreed and we made it happen.

I found an article on line that mentioned this place and the owners wanted to be the masters at one specific thing. They chose that thing to be burgers. They offer like 25 burgers on their menu with different toppings. Some normal, some not so normal.

I knew this place was in the middle of nowhere, but I wasn’t exactly sure HOW in the middle of nowhere. It’s southeast of the Twin Cities, almost to the equator. I drove through towns I have never heard of on these wild backroads. I drove through Coates, MN (population 163)(seriously). I drove through New Trier, MN (population 116). And I got to Miesville, MN (population 135). Does this give you any indication as to what you’ll be dealing with when you go here?

It’s a hometown bar, so you won’t be at all surprised when you walk in to find lots of wood work, beer signs, rolls of paper towels on the tables, and home town folk. We got seated and made our introductions and small talked while trying to figure out what we needed to eat. We had to pause our conversation to actually focus on the menu, since these are some serious burger topping choices. Each one of the burgers has a baseball themed name – which I find hilarious since I loathe baseball (sorry, Gerd). Miesville has a local team which are a pretty big deal – they’re called the Mudhens. Not even sure what that is, but I probably don’t want to find out. So in support of the Mudhens, King’s Place named all their burgers baseball-y things.

The waitress came to take our orders and after discovering King’s Place doesn’t have Pepsi products, I got some lemonade. RubyVita ordered some waffle fries since she liked thenm last time she was here. They came out and were greasy bar fries, but had some decent seasoning on them. I refrained from eating any of her fries (for now), since I knew I was not going to be able to just get ONE burger. And I was right. The best part is these burgers are really affordable. Anywhere from like $4-6 for a burger – well played, King’s Place.

The list of things to choose from is immense. They have a large section of wildly adventurous burgers, and then they have the top 10 list, which seemed much more tame for people like Coach and my father. I ended up with two different burgers after serious deliberation. The Bases Loaded burger: salsa, jalapenos, sour cream, pepperjack, swiss, and cheddar, and of course bacon. And I also go the Bullpen: a hot dog, a fried egg, cheddar, and of course bacon. RubyVita got the Dugout: Peanut butter, mayonnaise, and lettuce.

Some of the other ingredients you’re not going to find at most places include sauerkraut, ham, cottage cheese, olives, seasoned potatoes, mushroom and a couple of other things I’m blanking out on. These people are not afraid to put some wackiness into their burgers.

The burgers came out fairly quickly and the cameras flew (well, the camera phones, anyway). We both love to take shots of our food, so we took photos and then swapped photos. The buns were kind of puffy and moist, so despite the burgers looking smallish, you could tell they really weren’t. I was pretty sure at this point, I was going to be full tonight.

We cut our burgers into smaller portions so we could share food – it was the best way to facilitate both of use trying to eat three burgers without going to the hospital, truly. The Bullpen was really awesome. The hot dog flavor really came through and the egg on top made it seem like a breakfast sammich from heaven. And of course, the bacon tied everything together like a tasty high-cholesterol ribbon. RubyVita’s Dugout was a risky gamble, but well played, I think. I have heard people talking about burgers with peanut butter on them, and I just have been adventurous enough to try it. I’m glad she was, because when I took a bite, it was really amazing. It’s odd, I can assure you , but it’s odd in a way that makes you crave more. It’s a fantastic combination, so don’t be afraid to try this if you ever see it on a menu. You’ll be weirded out, but two bites in, you’ll be raving about it.

The champion of the night (in my humble opinion) was the Bases Loaded. I was really surprised at the zing in this burger. It was like a super cheesey cheese burger with a Mexican kick in the face. I don’t normally like to eat jalapenos on their own, so I was a little skeptical. I figured if I hated it, I could pick them all off, but I wanted to at least give the chef in back the benefit of trying his creation as he intended it to be. I didn’t have to pick anything off at all. The jalapenos added a great deal of zip, especially with the salsa added on, but the sour cream kind of took some of the edge off of it. And did I mention there was bacon – nature’s medicinal food. RubyVita even claimed she liked this burger for the same reasons, so I know my tastebuds aren’t too far out of whack.

I eventually caved and grabbed one of RubyVita’s waffle fries. They were pretty good. Still just seasoned waffle fries and not stellar, but perfect reasonable in a place like this. I liked them, but I’m glad I didn’t get an order of them.

I think we did a pretty good job of devouring this burger feast.

I’m about this (………) close to putting these burgers in my top 5 list of best burgers of all time. I feel like I’ve thrown around that moniker too often lately with various foods, but I really think they’re up there close, if not IN the top 5. Really, these are fantastic burgers. I’ll stress, it’s not just the variety of topping available, but the burgers themselves are REALLY quality burgers and juicy and flavorful without being greasy or getting the super fluffy buns all soggy.

I’m glad RubyVita and I decided to do this. We bonded over some good food, both classy food and down-and-dirty favorites as well. Told some hilarious stories, talked about her impending move to the suburbs, laughed about Coach being the world’s pickiest eater, and in general had a great dinner. Look for more adventures of the colliding food bloggers in the future.

Top 5 things about King’s Place
1. Bases Loaded Burger
2. Dugout Burger
3. Bullpen Burger
4. Hanging out with fellow food lovers who also take photos of food
5. Being able to try three burgers instead of one – much better way of doing things. Next time, we’ll invite 10 friends and turn this into a tapas burger party!

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd would have loved RubyVita. Oh yeah, and these incredible burgers. I’m bummed Gerd missed both of them
2. No Dew
3. It’s a haul, but I truly think it’s worth it (tell that to my family when I drive the out to Deliverance-ville then next time they’re in town)
4. I REALLY think they need to offer a sampler platter with 5 or 6 mini-versions of these burgers. I wanted to try like 10 of these burgers, but knew I would go home on a stretcher
5. My GPS refuses to believe in the existence of Miesville