Denver's Best Burger Could Be a Juicy Lucy (From Minneapolis!)

Tennyson Street doesn't really need more reasons to visit. It's already one of the better stretches in Denver for just walking around, grabbing food, and not feeling like you're in a strip mall. But when Lucy's Burger Bar opened there in 2021, it added something the Denver food scene genuinely didn't have: a real Juicy Lucy.

If you're not from the Midwest, here's the concept. The cheese isn't melted on top of the patty — it's sealed inside it. You bite in and molten cheese comes out. It's one of those things that sounds like a novelty until you actually eat one, and then it makes you question why burgers are done any other way.

Lucy's got a lot of press when it opened — Eater, Westword, 5280, the Denver Post all covered it — and it's held up since then. They've won Best Juicy Lucy from Westword and took home Best Grilled Cheese at the Denver Grilled Cheese Fest, which is a slightly strange award for a burger bar but also makes complete sense once you think about what a Juicy Lucy actually is. They've also landed on multiple best-of-Denver restaurant lists. That's not a fluke after three years.

The people behind it have real credibility with the source material. Owner Michelle "Meesh" McGlone is from Minnesota, and her business partner Nate Collis spent six years working the grill at Matt's Bar & Grill in Minneapolis — which is one of the two spots that claim to have invented the Juicy Lucy. Matt's spells it "Jucy Lucy," actually, because of a menu typo that apparently just stuck. So when Denver gets a version of this burger, it's coming from someone who made them professionally at the place that arguably started it all. That's a different kind of legitimacy than someone just riffing on a trend.

I went back into the kitchen with McGlone on film, which is always the most useful way to understand a dish. The process matters here. Getting the cheese sealed inside the patty without it leaking during cooking is the technical challenge — do it wrong and you just have a regular burger with some cheese pooled underneath. Do it right and you get that moment where the cheese is still liquid when you bite in. That's what Lucy's is consistently pulling off, which is why the reputation has stuck.

The location on Tennyson puts it in Sunnyside, technically just north of the Highlands proper, but it's an easy walk or drive from anywhere in that part of the city. Tennyson itself runs through Berkeley and has a good mix of independent restaurants and shops, so it's the kind of street where you can make a whole afternoon out of it rather than just popping in for a burger and leaving.

One thing that came up in my conversation with McGlone is how much the business is tied into community giving — it's woven into how Lucy's operates, not just a line on the website. It's women-owned, and that focus on positivity and local impact seems to be a genuine operating principle rather than marketing language.

If you haven't been to this part of Denver much, Tennyson is worth the trip on its own. Most people are more familiar with the 32nd and Lohi corridor, and Tennyson is a little less crowded and a little more neighborhood-feeling. Parking can be tight on weekends but it's not a serious problem — street parking opens up a block or two off the main strip.

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Acova

While you're in the area, Acova at 3651 Navajo St. is worth knowing about. It's a neighborhood bar with a 4.6 rating and a double dollar sign price point, which in this part of Denver usually means you're getting something genuinely good without the bill that comes with some of the more visible spots closer to downtown. Navajo puts it just off the main drag, which keeps it from feeling overrun. It's the kind of place where the locals actually go, and that's usually a reliable signal. If you're making a night of the Highlands-Sunnyside area, it fits naturally into the rotation after dinner.

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Back to the main reason you'd come out here: if you haven't had a Juicy Lucy, Lucy's is the right place to fix that in Denver. The burger is better than it has any right to be at a neighborhood spot, and the fact that it was built by someone who learned the technique at the source gives it a credibility that most regional food imports don't have.

One thing to know before you go: the standard advice with a Juicy Lucy is to wait before you bite in. The cheese inside stays hot for a while after the burger comes off the grill, and if you rush it, you'll burn the roof of your mouth. McGlone covers this — she talks about how to eat a Juicy Lucy as part of what the restaurant does, which sounds like a small detail but is actually useful if you've never had one before. It's not precious about it; it's practical.

Denver's burger scene is solid but not spectacular — we do have good pizza here, which was not something I would have predicted moving to Colorado, but the burger landscape is more scattered. Lucy's fills a specific gap, and it does it well enough that the press coverage from 2021 still reflects what you'll actually find in 2024. That doesn't always happen.

Tennyson Street on a weeknight is an easy call. My wife and I have gone on weeknights and had no trouble getting in, and the neighborhood energy is relaxed enough that it doesn't feel like you're fighting the crowd. Weekends will be busier, especially in warmer months when the street really gets going.

If you're already planning a trip to the Highlands or Berkeley neighborhood, build Lucy's into it. And if you're not familiar with Tennyson yet, this is a reasonable excuse to get there — one of my favorite streets in Denver, and the burger at the end of it is legitimately worth the trip.