Denver has new home of beefy, cheesy, legendary 'Juicy Lucy'

DENVER • When people walk into the place that bills itself as Denver’s Home of the Original Juicy Lucy Burger, est. 2021, they are often perplexed.

“Oh, my gosh,” says the owner, Michelle “Meesh” McGlone. “About 50 times a day, we have to explain what a Juicy Lucy is.”

Just get it. That’s the simple advice of McGlone, the proud Minnesotan who is perhaps Colorado’s proudest ambassador of her home state’s simple, signature delicacy.

Don’t worry. The burger comes with a list of instructions.

1. DO NOT eat in your car.

2. Lips back, teeth out, posture forward.

3. Take a tiny nibble off the side of the meat.

4. Set it down and allow for the steam and the bubbly river of cheese to ooze from your burger.

5. Be patient — you’re almost there!!

6. Enjoy slowly.

7. Come back and see us again soon.

Yes, there are hazards to the melty beef that gushes molten cheese from the inside. But indeed, since Lucy’s Burger Bar opened last August in the Berkeley neighborhood, people keep coming back. In less than 12 months, McGlone reports 17,543 of those curious specialties have been sold.

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The Juicy Lucy has taken the Mile High burger scene by storm, its praises sung in publications citywide. Already, Lucy’s was crowned the people’s choice winner of the annual Denver Burger Battle.

It was a stunning victory even for McGlone, a spirited, lifelong dancer who exudes confidence. “I would say I surprised myself,” she says.

Hers was an unlikely path to burger stardom.

For the better part of the past two decades, she’d been a touring aerialist based in Denver, twisting and twirling on silk for concerts, circuses and parties around the country. There was a Super Bowl halftime show somewhere in that fast, demanding life.

Entering her 40s, McGlone decided it was time for something different. Something more “sustainable,” she thought. She decided on something that reminded her of home.

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“My goal was to bring 1,000 square feet of Minnesota to Denver,” she says. “And other than Prince, there’s nothing more Minnesota than a Juicy Lucy.”

And for her money, there’s nothing better than the one at Matt’s Bar and Grill in south Minneapolis. McGlone grubbed there as a child, the dingy landmark dating to the 1950s.

Not long after opening, the story goes, a local asked for cheese between patties and exclaimed upon first bite: “That’s a Juicy Lucy!” And, as Matt’s website says, “a legend was born.”

Lucy’s Burger Bar aims to honor Matt’s original. There might have even been some insider tricks exchanged, precise techniques shared at the grill.

At any rate, the product is undeniable here: the succulent beef from a Texas ranch that McGlone spent months to find (not distributed to any other restaurant in Colorado, she says); the rims of the patty unusually crisp and sturdy, ideal containment for the American cheese that dribbles forth. It’s cheese and not grease, a distinguished accomplishment when it comes to the Juicy Lucy craft.

It’s American and American only, by the way. And the only toppings are pickles and onions. Just how Matt’s does it.

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Unlike Matt’s, Lucy’s is airy and bright. It pops with greenery from a woman-owned shop down Tennyson Street. That’s a point McGlone emphasizes, woman-owned. It’s a point emphasized by the beer and liquor menu, each product marked for its advocacy or ownership by women or people of color.

“Lucy’s is more than just burgers,” reads the mission statement. “We seek to be a community-oriented establishment empowering and uplifting our neighbors with a message of equality.”

It’s a message McGlone needed to hear as she embarked into the business. She was piercing a burger connoisseur stereotype; men are often the faces, and the places are often dark and dingy, like Matt’s.

“There was a lot of, I wouldn’t say obstacles, that sounds a little too ... I don’t know,” she says. “Proudly woman-owned is one of our main hashtags. There was never anything that was gonna stop me.”

She maintains the big, curly hair and petite, fit physique that defined her artistic, athletic life before Lucy’s. But she is not to be misunderstood: She can put a burger down with the best of them.

She laughs. “I don’t have to watch my burger intake.”

Simple is the name of the game at Lucy’s Burger Bar. The Juicy Lucy ($14) is stuffed with American cheese and comes with pickle and your choice of raw or grilled onion. Those are the time-honored toppings on the cheeseburger ($10) and double cheeseburger ($16) as well — if you’re not feeling adventurous with the Lucy.

Also choice of hamburger ($9), black bean burger ($12) and chicken sandwich ($14).

Fries ordered separately. Half-order ($3.50) likely to fill two eaters.

The grilled cheese ($8) is the unheralded hero. People here call it “dessert:” Hearty sourdough is grilled and sealed, packing the melty cheese and letting it ooze similarly to the Juicy Lucy.

Bar menu includes beers, wines, kombucha and spirits, including thoughtfully sourced whiskey, vodka, gin, rum and tequila.