The Nook – St .Paul

In the Twin Cities, there is a never-ending battle over who was the originator of the Jucy Lucy and who has the best Jucy Lucy. In fact, it doesn’t matter. You can get these a lot of places and everyone likes a different spot. I personally like The Nook, but I also have had equally delicious Jucy Lucys at the 5-8 Club, Matt’s, Groveland Tap, Blue Door Pub, and a couple of other places. Some people stick with one and then get all militant and douche-baggy about their place being the best. I recommend eating Jucy Lucys everywhere you go and trying as many as possible. D.Rough and I had a hankerin’ for The Nook.

At The Nook, if the place is full (which it WILL be) you give your name to the bartender and they write it on a dry-erase board. When they get to your name, they call out your name and seat you. We got seated pretty quick this time. As usual, we took far too long to figure out what we wanted. Everything is good here. Normally, I get a Paul Molitor Burger (which is a Jucy Lucy packed with pepperjack cheese). Today, I was extra hungry. I needed a Nookie Supreme Burger. I knew this was going to be large, but I didn’t realize how large. I skipped the fries in favor of onion rings this time around. I also scored a 1919 Rootbeer – one of the best rootbeers ever made. D.Rough went with the tried-and-true Jucy Lucy (called a Jucy Nookie here).

The food comes out pretty quick here, even on busy nights. The food comes out fast and it comes out hot. Most veteran Jucy Lucy eaters will tell you, you always eat your fries, tots, or rings before jumping into a Jucy Lucy. Otherwise you will scald your face and risk permanent facial damage when the molten lava cheese spills out onto your chin (or chins). I pounded most of my onion rings right away. They were great. Nothing really special, but they were cooked perfectly. I moved onto the giant burger I had ordered. I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t read the menu closely enough and got a burger instead of a Jucy Lucy. For some reason, external cheese is never as tasty as internal cheese.

This burger is REALLY big. In the photo, it’s hard to tell, but it’s actually three buns and two patties with cheese. When you realize that, it will give you an indication as to how large this burger is. The Supreme was cooked to perfection. I love really juicy burgers that aren’t sloppy. This is one of the best. I had to eat it in pieces since I seriously couldn’t fit my face around all three pieces of bread. Apparently, if you eat two of these things, you win a shirt or prize or something. I don’t think I’ll ever even come close. Not worried though. I only need one of these bad boys.

D.Rough’s Jucy Nookie was a fantastic meat and cheese experience and she had no complaints. It isn’t worth writing up past saying it was awesome.

Top 5 things about The Nook
1. Jucy Nookie/Lucy
2. Paul Molitor Burger
3. Nookie Supreme Burger
4. 1919 Rootbeer
5. Onion Rings

Bottom 5 things
1. You will always have to wait to be seated here
2. It gets really loud on Twins’ game nights
3. The menu has about 300 things on it, and not all of them are food. It’s like they just like to talk and people with a menu in their hand are a captive audience
4. I feel bad, but I haven’t tried any of the other awesome looking food no the menu. Maybe I’ll go Lucy-Free until the end of the year and only get non-cheese-injected foods…
5. People are still going to argue with you that Matt’s or 5-8 Club is better. Just shut it, people – it doesn’t matter. Just eat them.

www.rcnook.com