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The Original Blue Door Pub Exits Merriam Park Location

The tiny restaurant that launched a love of blucys will continue to operate two other locations

A person holding a burger with a bite out of it, cheese is oozing out of the center, there is also a basket of tater tots on the table.
While the Merriam Park location is closed, Longfellow and Dinkytown are still serving those cheese-stuffed burgers and tots.
Katie Cannon / Eater Twin Cities

The original Blue Door Pub on Selby Avenue, the tiny restaurant that launched a love of cheese-stuffed burgers and tots will not re-open. Fans first noticed an eviction notice taped to the eponymous door. After months of being closed due to COVID restrictions, the restaurant owes back rent to the building’s owner.

Two other Blue Door Pub locations continue serving blucys, the BDP version of a jucy lucy, in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood and on Como Avenue.

First opened in 2008, by Jeremy Woerner and Pat McDonough, two industry workers who knew they could build a better cheese-stuffed burger, Blue Door Pub took its name from the blue-pained door. The restaurant location has a long history of cerulean doorways, previously harboring Puerta Azul at that address.

Despite a small footprint, the restaurant had a modest bar with craft beer taps, booths, tables, and a menu packed with bar food favorites that soon garnered cult-like attention like topped tots, spam bites, and a burger built like a dare with bacon and peanut butter.

The blucys remain the star attraction on the menu, with various stuffings and flavor combinations. The second location, just over the river in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood opened in 2003. Before the pandemic hit, there was also a short-lived Uptown location that remains closed.

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