The Other Claim on the Lucy
5-8 Club sits on Cedar Avenue at 58th Street in south Minneapolis, and it holds one half of the city's oldest burger argument. The Juicy Lucy here, spelled with a soft C, is a cheeseburger with the cheese sealed inside the patty rather than melted on top, and the payoff is the point: cut into it too early and the cheese runs out over the plate. The version at 5-8 Club leans toward a sharper, more cheese-forward pull than its rival across town at Matt's Bar, and the two spellings track a rivalry neither bar has ever settled. The classic burger without the stuffed cheese is on the menu too, for anyone who wants to see how the kitchen handles a patty without the trick, and the fries hold up as the correct order alongside either one.
None of this is complicated food, and it isn't trying to be. The room runs as a neighborhood bar first, with a menu built around one famous idea executed the same way, order after order. Cedar Avenue south of the Crosstown is Juicy Lucy country by long tradition, and 5-8 Club has held its spot in that stretch as one of the two original claimants, not a later addition to the trend. The price sits in the moderate range, burger, fries, and a drink without much strain on the wallet, and the room reads as built for groups: a table of four or six splitting a pile of stuffed cheeseburgers works better here than a quiet two-top.
First-timers to the city get steered here specifically to settle the Matt's-versus-5-8 debate for themselves, and the format rewards that kind of visit: order one of each spelling in one trip if the appetite allows it, since the cheese pull and the char are the entire conversation. It is a burger built to be argued about, and the argument is the reason to go.
