I would need at least two hands (maybe even take off a shoe and sock) to count up the number of times I have driven northbound 35E between the County Road E and Hwy. 96 exits -- north of St. Paul -- spotted the sign for Macaluso's Roadhouse east of the freeway and thought, 'That's a place I want to visit.'
Made the trip with my Dad today. I'd checked out Macaluso's website beforehand, and learned there that they offered $5 burger baskets on Mondays. Once we found our table, a server asked if we wanted menus. I said I'd read about the special burger baskets and that I wanted one of those. My Dad ordered the same. What did we want on our burgers, the server asked. Unsure, I replied: "Cheese?" American and Swiss were available. Went with Swiss. After the server suggested other add-ons, I requested full California-style with onion, lettuce and tomato. Fries or chips with the burger? Fries.
A few minutes after placing our burger orders but without being asked about drinks, I walked to the bar to see what beers were on tap. (When no one in your party is averse to beer, how could you order diet cola at a Roadhouse?) I went with ordering two tall mugs of the seasonal Leinie's Summer Shandy, and brought them back to the table. Also, I went to get a paper tray of complimentary popcorn, which I filled a second time while we were there.
When our baskets arrived, I checked my burger for all requested fixings. (Fixin's?) The raw onion came diced, but a little surprisingly the tomato came diced as well and the lettuce was shredded. Best about the burger was the taste of garlic in the beef. Seemed to make the seasoned fries barely taste ordinary.
Before seeing the bill, I wondered how high the add-ons would stack with extra prices. To my pleasant surprise, I learned that on $5 burger basket Mondays at Macaluso's the price stays $5 no matter what you have on the burger. Certainly fries cost you more than chips, my Dad asked. No, the price stayed $5 each.
There are a few cool things to look at on the walls, and several televisions on opposite walls while we were there were tuned to a variety of programs ... from auto racing and a rerun of Sunday's come-from-behind Twins' win, to both fictional soap operas and real-life soap operas (which are also possibly scripted) on the Maury Povich show. Today's topic on "Maury" -- "Are These Babies Mine? Give Me the DNA Results!" Well, were those babies "his"? I'm not sure, but I could tell from the guests' expressions there was an awful lot of yelling going on.
Jukebox music played in Macaluso's while the TV sound was down. A pretty good mix of music, and the most notable recording new to me was a dueling-pianos-style cover of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil."
I'll return to Macaluso's sometime soon. They promote live music Wednesday through Saturday nights, Texas Hold 'Em on Sundays and bar bingo Tuesdays. If you decide to go, you couldn't go wrong with a burger on Monday but whenever you go, an easy way to get there is to take County Road E east from where it crosses 35E, then go north on Labore Road from County E. Headed east, Labore Road is your first left at a stoplight after the Holiday Inn Express. Macaluso's is at 3857 Labore Road, Vadnais Heights.
Made the trip with my Dad today. I'd checked out Macaluso's website beforehand, and learned there that they offered $5 burger baskets on Mondays. Once we found our table, a server asked if we wanted menus. I said I'd read about the special burger baskets and that I wanted one of those. My Dad ordered the same. What did we want on our burgers, the server asked. Unsure, I replied: "Cheese?" American and Swiss were available. Went with Swiss. After the server suggested other add-ons, I requested full California-style with onion, lettuce and tomato. Fries or chips with the burger? Fries.
A few minutes after placing our burger orders but without being asked about drinks, I walked to the bar to see what beers were on tap. (When no one in your party is averse to beer, how could you order diet cola at a Roadhouse?) I went with ordering two tall mugs of the seasonal Leinie's Summer Shandy, and brought them back to the table. Also, I went to get a paper tray of complimentary popcorn, which I filled a second time while we were there.
When our baskets arrived, I checked my burger for all requested fixings. (Fixin's?) The raw onion came diced, but a little surprisingly the tomato came diced as well and the lettuce was shredded. Best about the burger was the taste of garlic in the beef. Seemed to make the seasoned fries barely taste ordinary.
Before seeing the bill, I wondered how high the add-ons would stack with extra prices. To my pleasant surprise, I learned that on $5 burger basket Mondays at Macaluso's the price stays $5 no matter what you have on the burger. Certainly fries cost you more than chips, my Dad asked. No, the price stayed $5 each.
There are a few cool things to look at on the walls, and several televisions on opposite walls while we were there were tuned to a variety of programs ... from auto racing and a rerun of Sunday's come-from-behind Twins' win, to both fictional soap operas and real-life soap operas (which are also possibly scripted) on the Maury Povich show. Today's topic on "Maury" -- "Are These Babies Mine? Give Me the DNA Results!" Well, were those babies "his"? I'm not sure, but I could tell from the guests' expressions there was an awful lot of yelling going on.
Jukebox music played in Macaluso's while the TV sound was down. A pretty good mix of music, and the most notable recording new to me was a dueling-pianos-style cover of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil."
I'll return to Macaluso's sometime soon. They promote live music Wednesday through Saturday nights, Texas Hold 'Em on Sundays and bar bingo Tuesdays. If you decide to go, you couldn't go wrong with a burger on Monday but whenever you go, an easy way to get there is to take County Road E east from where it crosses 35E, then go north on Labore Road from County E. Headed east, Labore Road is your first left at a stoplight after the Holiday Inn Express. Macaluso's is at 3857 Labore Road, Vadnais Heights.
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