The "Bucky" Burger at the Ely Steakhouse in Ely, Minnesota

Friends kept telling me about the famous "Bucky" Burger in a restaurant in Ely, MN.  I travel there occasionally for work but rarely have time to travel into town to sample the local cuisine, like Walleye, steaks and burgers .  I recently spent over 2 weeks in Northern MN and had the opportunity to eat in Ely!

The “Bucky” Burger at the Ely Steakhouse is 8 oz. ground beef with bacon, cheddar, grilled onion & special sauce served on a char-grilled bun.  It was quite good and really a "down home", no frills, bacon cheeseburger burger.  It is pretty reasonably priced at $10.42 and comes with steakhouse fries.  My only developmental feedback for the "Bucky" Burger is that it is so juicy that the bottom bun was drenched.  Maybe this is just the style of the burger or perhaps it was user error in that I usually admire burgers that are new to me and take pictures of it so that I can share them with you, my readers, thus allowing the bottom bun to get soggy.  My remedy for this burger dilemma is to put a layer of lettuce between the meat and the BOTTOM bun.

The next time you are in Ely, I would highly recommend that you stop into the Ely Steakhouse and get a "Bucky" Burger.  I tried to find out the origin of the name "Bucky".  The research that I found shows that a "Bucky" burger is a specific type of burger and may have originated in La Crosse, Wisconsin at a place called Bucky's Burger Barn.  I even found a site that has a video and ingredient list for how to make a "Bucky" Burger.  

Sully and Tyler eye their "Bucky" Burgers

The name comes from the fugitive Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, who spent much of his life on the run. During the earlier phases of the hunt, Phillips acquired somewhat of a folk hero status, with local businesses selling t-shirts saying "Where's Bucky?", "Run, Bucky, Run!", "Don't Shoot, Not Bucky", or "Got Bucky?" (a parody of Got Milk?), a local restaurant selling a "Bucky Burger" (because it was served in a 'to-go' box for those on the run), and a local folk musician, Noah Gokey, releasing a single entitled "Run Bucky Run!".