on the new MnMo, Franken and Matt's

If you’re through the new issue of Minnesota Monthly or checked out the MnMo site this week, then you’ve probably read through the features on Al Franken and the best burgers in Minnesota.

And did you happen to notice the juicy quotes from a certain James Norton, “a producer with The Al Franken Show on Air America”?  Yep, that’s our very own Jim Norton, ladies and gentlemen.

The erudite Tim Gihing profiles Franken at just the right moment: whereas Minnesota Law & Politics wrote up Franken months ago and blogowebosphere has been on Franken since day one, just recently the candidate handidly won a first ballot DFL nomination, just this week the Franken and Coleman intro ads started airing and the semi-solidified (never count our the Body) Senate race was a key discussion on Almanac.

(MnMo, being a glossy, also had much better photos of Franken than L&P, which ran pictures of Franken with his head sandwiched between his dog’s face and paws, similar to this.)

Now for the burgers.  I’m always surprised by the number of entries on these lists that I’ve had (mini-burgers at Lurcat are amazing) and always curious about the ones that I should try (how have I not been to the Nook?).

Living right next to Matt’s, I’ve been in the bar at all different hours of the day and have seen every kind of Minnesotan eating Juicy Lucys.  So it’s no wonder every Twin Cities burger list, including MnMo, puts Matt’s on top.  I’ve seen families eat JL’s on Saturdays, I’ve seen Latinos come in after long days of work, I’ve even seen two old ladies holding up a guy so old that he could hardly walk push into Matt’s for lunch to eat a burger.  It’s going to be tough to beat that.

UPDATE: Colin makes a good point—that picture of the burger with the drizzling cheese can’t be the Matt’s burger because it’s got lettuce on it, unless the piece of lettuce is a plant to make the burger look better.  Is that pic of The Nook maybe?

UPDATE AGAIN: Tim Gihring did some investigating and hands over this quote from the MnMo Art Director: “The owner decided to put the lettuce on the burger without any prompting from the photographer. Apparently the owner and the chef had quite a long discussion about whether to do it or not.”