Tracy’s – Minneapolis, MN (Seward district)

When I get to class early, I like to go for a bite to eat before sitting through a 3.5 hour lecture. Today, there was almost no traffic to speak of and I wanted to try someplace I hadn’t been. I had been told Tracy’s had decent bar food and also a great Sunday brunch, so I popped in and checked it out.

It’s a pretty slick bar with a good sized seating area in one half of the room. There were a couple of tables filled with college kids drinking beers and eating burgers (and some studying – nerds). I grabbed a seat at the bar and got a menu from the trainee waitress. I skimmed it pretty quickly, but I was in the mood for a burger, so it wasn’t long before I found the one I wanted – the Augsburger (named so due to the restaurant’s proximity to Augsburg College). It was a pretty significant sounding burger and I was up for the challenge.

There were actually a whole bunch of things on the menu that sounded good to me. They have a brilliant appetizer called Totchos – basically nachos but on tater tots instead of chips… The Pork & Chicken Platter (bacon wrapped chicken and ham terrine with a Kramarczuk’s polish dog, pickled egg and other stuff; or Summit-battered things (which they refer to as Midwest-tempura). There are also larger entrée-style meals and some salad-y things – Red Curry & Lemon Rice or Wild Boar Shepherd’s Pie. The menu is bigger than you might imagine. I went with the Augsburger – as planned – and then replaced the fries with tots, since the tatchos had put the idea in my head. I also ordered a Strongbow, which I don’t normally do before class, but it sounded right.

I waited a reasonable amount of time (getting worried about missing class made it more harrowing than it probably was) and the food came out. I was right, this buirger was substantial. Really substantial. I knew the burger would be difficult to eat, so I tackled most of the tots first. They had some sort of awesome seasoning on them that made them extra delicious. I like a little seasoning on my tots and these were some of the better ones. Really happy with them. The burger was also amazing.

The burger has two beef patties on it, two slices of cheese, BBQ sauce, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Like I said, it’s serious. It’s also delicious. The meat itself was a tad dry, but the amazing toppings made up for it. I won’t complain at all about the dryness if it tastes this good. Not in the top 5 burgers of all time, but maybe in the top 5 most filling. I was stuffed and it didn’t help that I was wolfing it down to make it to class on time. Which wasn’t even that important since I slept through most of the first half of class – mmmm…… food coma……

Top 5 things about Stacy’s Saloon
1. Tots
2. Augsburger
3. Super nice staff (and great job, trainee girl with librarian glasses!)
4. Strongbow should always be in the top 5 of every list
5. It’s not a divey bar, but just super comfortable and homey

Bottom 5 things
1. Meat patties were a tiny bit dry
2. Some shifty activity happening in the parking lot out back
3. I really wanted to try like 10 things on the menu (probably not a bad thing, huh?)
4. Not super fast – for those of us who have to rush to get some book learnin’
5. I didn’t notice the dessert menu until I looked up the menu online: Cookies & Cream, Real Ice Cream Malts, Chocolate Brownies, Smores, & Floats. And apparently, this isn’t the FULL dessert menu! (Class could have waited just a bit longer for me, I think…)

www.tracyssaloon.com