Blue Door Pub – St. Paul, MN

It has been a while since I reviewed the Blue Door Pub. It’s a fantastic non-divey bar that takes its food pretty seriously. They offer a variety of “fancy” Jucy Lucys (which are Minnesota’s famous burgers with cheese on the inside of the meat patties), and have quite a few other delicious sounding items to choose from, including Spam bites, a burger with peanut butter on it, and build-your-own grilled cheese sandwiches.

Words of warning I always give for this place: It’s always busy. It’s the perfect size for maximum capacity. You’ll always wait, but normally not long enough to frustrate you. They turn tables around pretty quickly here. And it’s worth the wait.

I was meeting Taco and TheDoctor for lunch, and fortunately, they got there before I did and scored a table. The hard part was over. The next difficult part was deciding which sandwich I wanted. I finally had it decided on when TheDoctor pointed out the special burger they had today. The Picnic Bluecy (they call their Jucy Lucys BLUECY Lucys because of the Blue Door name). This sounded brilliant to me. It was a burger with American cheese on the inside, covered with bbq pulled pork and then topped with chipotle cole slaw. Yeah, that was what I needed. I also got a side of buffalo tots, which I had never had before. And finally, we decided our table needed a basket of beer battered deep fried green beans to share, as well.

The green beans came out first and were piping hot. Also delicious. They are slightly greasy, but you convince yourself the whole thing is healthy since they’re green beans! Awesome strategy, Blue Door. They come with a seasoned sour cream ranch dip that’s awesome. They’re not floppy at all, either – the batter gives the illusion of crispiness, so you just keep shoveling them in. I love these things.

The burgers came out pretty quickly, especially considering how busy the place was at lunch. The burgers looked awesome, but I went right in for the tots. Holy Balzac, these things are awesome. I used to think nothing could top Cajun seasoned tots, but these buffalo tots win everything. They come with a blue cheese dipping sauce and the whole combination is incredible. The tots aren’t soggy (at first), so the crunch they have mixed with the spice of the sauce is exactly what you want. I’m telling you, even if you don’t know it, it IS what you want.

I’ve never had a bad burger here (and yes, I’m including the jiffy peanut butter burger in with the non-bad burgers) and this one was one of the best I’ve had. The bbq pork had a great flavor and went well with the chipotle cole slaw. I’m not generally a chipotle-flavored anything fan, but I really liked this slaw. And, of course, the meat and cheese of the burger was also top-quality. I love this thing. I was absolutely stuffed when I left, but it was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a while.

Top 5 things about the Blue Door Pub
1. Buffalo Tots
2. Picnic Bluecy
3. Deep fried green beans
4. Incredible menu options
5. They pride themselves on having good quality craft beers, if that’s your thing

Bottom 5 things
1. There’s always a wait here, just deal with it
2. There are foods here that will destroy your insides. You know what’s going to happen and you don’t care. 100% worth it
3. There are plenty of tots, but I ALWAYS want more. I may start ordering my own extra side
4. This isn’t the place to come with more than 3 or 4 people, or strollers, or baby carriers…
5. Make sure you read ALL the chalk-written specials and food/drink options or you’ll find something ELSE you should have ordered

www.thebdp.com