*in my best Westside Gunn voice*

Have you ever eaten Juicy Lucys in a bar on a Sunday?  

  

I’ve enjoyed coming down to New Orleans to celebrate my birthday for the last few years. The vibe is one that I can appreciate in this phase of life. I look back now and I see the early signs that me and the Crescent City would get on real fine. Signs like my love for the music of Louis Armstrong, Juvenile, and Jay Electronica for a start.

 

I also am someone who enjoys a good time doing some laid-back day drinking. And New Orleans offers plenty of chances to do it. My spot of choice is The Rambler. The Rambler stands out on Frenchmen Street, which is packed with solid live music establishments like The Apple Barrel and Cafe Negril. Its a dive bar that makes you feel like you stepped into a good friend’s basement, or the inside of a pirate schooner. Depending on how the Saints are doing. 

  

For this trip, I was greeted by a deluge of rain, which let upenough on Sunday for me to get out and get on over to Frenchmen Street to catch some football and grab some beers. After stopping first at Brieux Carre (a fine small craft brewery), I heard from my friend Fernanda Meier that shewas heading over to The Rambler to catch a game and thather friend was making Juicy Lucy hamburgers. 

 

I was sold.

 

Her friend Buddy, who’s a die-hard Minnesota Vikings fan, was making the burgers as the Vikings were taking on theMiami Dolphins. I got to The Rambler and decided on grabbing their specialty Frozen Irish Coffee. (Seriously, get one if you go there.)

 

The next couple of hours were full of joy, booze and some really good burgers. A Juicy Lucy is a staple of the Minnesota-St.Paul area. Two hamburger patties stuffed with cheese in the middle, served hot off the grill so that your first bite exposes that molten core of cheese sliding out. I had seen Andrew Zimmern from “Bizarre Foods” rave about it on multiple episodes. Always wanted to try one. Especially as one of my aces, Jaemin, calls me a "burger connoisseur". When it was my turn to grab one, I sat and took a bite. 

 

My brain immediately sounded like Uma Thurman’s voice in the ladies’ room in Pulp Fiction when she went to dinner with Vincent Vega. You know the line.

 

Sitting there, cracking jokes with everyone and watching football while eating one of those as the late afternoon sunpoured in through the front door and the windows…pure bliss. Dive bars, to me, usually have some of the most interesting people. And every time I’ve been to The Rambler, I’ve met nothing but cool-ass folks.

 

I had two burgers and a side of tater tots, and probably two more frozen Irish coffees. And a shot of Malort at the end, for the late bartender Mikey Polino, who I got to know there. 

 

Brent, the bartender, joked on how the place was becoming a Vikings bar. That was followed by folks taking shots from a purple and gold ski-shaped shot holder. Folks even took turns blowing the Viking horn as they closed out the Dolphins, 15-10.

 

They do love their New Orleans Saints at The Rambler though - I came back the following night to watch them take on their division rival Atlanta Falcons in a Monday Night Football matchup that was unfortunately over in the third quarter. 

 

As the Saints are in Paris this week for the National Football League’s first-ever game in France, my mind goes back to that afternoon and other fun times in The Rambler on Frenchman Street. And then I start thinking about what it’ll be like when I get back.