Convention Grill

3912 Sunnyside Rd., Minneapolis, MN - (952) 920-6881

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Posted By Michael Stern on May 6, 2007 6:45 PM

Here is the great American hamburger. Not the biggest or the best-dressed, not-stuffed with foie gras like the $100 oddities made by show-off chefs, not so lean it's dry nor so greasy it is unctuous, this is a thick, bun-sized patty sizzled to crusty perfection on an extremely well-oiled grill. It oozes juice and radiates beefy savor, and is especially good topped with a mantle of melted cheese and/or California style (with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise). Other available toppings include bacon and mushrooms; or you can have a Plaza Burger, which comes with sour cream, chives, and chopped onions and is sandwiched in a dark bun, which the menu boasts is just like the one "featured in the Plaza Bar of Madison, Wisconsin."

For burgers alone, we'll happily make the pilgrimage to this 1934-vintage diner in Edina; but we can guarantee our California cheeseburgers will be accompanied by French fries. Beautiful fries: cooked until honeytone brown, each serving a mix of cream-centered, full-size sticks and darkened crunchy little twigs and burnt ends of delicious potato debris from when the spuds are hand-cut in the kitchen.

On the side you want a malt. Huge and so thick that they must be spooned from their silver beaker because pouring is impossible, Convention Grill malts are available in a rainbow of flavors: chocolate, wild blueberry, butterscotch, strawberry, coffee, banana, vanilla, caramel, honey, hot fudge, butterfinger, mint, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. For fifty cents extra, you can have fresh banana added. The only problem with ordering a malt is that it makes it less likely you will have the stamina to have a hot fudge sundae for dessert. That was our problem when we visited, but we couldn't help ogling the sundaes at the next table. They come in the typical broad tulip glass with plenty of fudge underneath the ice cream and a mountain of whipped cream on top; and on the side is a good-size cup of extra hot fudge to pour on as you eat your way through.

All this excellent Roadfood is dished out by a staff of white-uniformed waitresses who are utterly efficient and, in our experience, omnipresent. It was Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of "The Splendid Table," who said we needed to go here; and while Lynne is best known as an expert on Italian food, this suggestion alone earns her an exalted chair in the Burger Lovers' Hall of Fame.