Blue Door Pub — Restaurant in Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory

My flight got delayed last minute by an hour and I was looking for somewhere to get a quick bite and espresso drink being that it was 9:40am and I’d been up since 4:30am. Blue door pub was the closest option to my gate so I took a seat at the bar. I watched three different servers or bartenders (not sure what they were considering none of them acknowledged me) come behind the bar before a 4th finally asked from the opposite end of the bar what she could get me. I asked for a water and a cappuccino (which is listed as an option on the menu) to which she replied “we don’t have all that sweet flavored syrup stuff” to which I replied “that’s fine, I like a traditional cappuccino” and then she asked if I was ready to order food, and when I replied and said I wasn’t sure if I was going to order food yet because I hadn’t gotten a chance to fully skim the menu, she completely dismissed me and looked me dead in the eyes and said “then you should go find a coffee shop to get your cappuccino at.” I was baffled and didn’t know what to say. Turning away my business because I wasn’t sure if I was ordering food yet? Talk about ZERO customer service skills. Even the man next to me at the bar looked at me with a “did she really just say that” look on his face. The place was also dirty and smelled, so she probably did me a favor in the end anyways, but this place needs to either train their employees in customer service skills, or...

Airport Bar Chronicles vol. 74…or 1 I forget.

The Blue Door in Minneapolis. “Home of the Blucy.”

Entrance to the bar is something. It’s in a wide open space in the A terminal. There’s a small flight of steps to walk down to get through the sprawling entrance. It feels like very much like a movie walking down those steps. Specifically, that part in Swingers when “The four” show up to that party and stop at the steps to announce their arrival by…just standing there for a beat while strategically lighting a cigarette.

My bartender’s name is Shawna. A silver haired dynamo that was a fast talking emergency services switchboard operated in another life. She doesn’t own the bar of course, but she definitely owns the bar. Gliding from station to station with no wasted movement. Never missing a longing stare from a patron needing another pushy IPA.

As I sat down, she floated past me singing along to Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero” like she was there in 1980 in a dusty Brooklyn studio writing the out the lyrics with Lou Gramm himself. Shawna’s grandkids are oblivious to this version of her. Collected, in form, measured,…serving. She is what time, effort, and repetition binds together - the purest form of ministration. I see you like you see the barhop from behind the blue kitchen door, Shawna. You been putting up with us for 30 years now....

Ordered the Bacon Bluey and the fried green beans. This burger was supposed to be their take on a juicy Lucy, something that Minneapolis is known for. Specifically this one has bacon and cheese inside and cheese on top. At least I think this was the concept.

I believe that the pattie had a hole and the cheese leaked out, which really left soggy sad bacon that was kind of unappetizing. Had the cheese not leaked it may have been good. At least I assume this is the intent, otherwise the burger was ill conceived from the get go. Due to the pandemic this was their only "Bluey" option on the menu, otherwise I would have gotten something more traditional.

Fried green beans were over saturated with oil and bland, probably because the oil was masking the flavors of the batter and beans. My nearly a decade of restaurant service tells me that the cooks didn't wait for the fryer to heat up to proper temperatures. Frying at low temperatures will result in starches, batters, etc to absorb oil.

My server was great and had I been drinking it probably would have been a better visit. Not worth complaining, didn't want more of this food. Ate it because I was hungry and had to jump on...