Slim's Bar & Grill - Bemidji, MN

During our trip to Northern Minnesota this past summer, we made a handful of discovery trips north of our home base of Bemidji during our time there.  On the north side of Bemidji, just off the old U.S. Highway 71 that is known as Bemidji Ave. N. was a cabin-type bar and grill that caught my eye, then caught my fancy.  One day while we were coming back into Bemidji from a short jaunt up north of the city, I decided to stop in to see what Slim's Bar & Grill was all about. 

In 1965, Ernie and Rosie Jacobson opened what was one of the very first pizza places in the state of Minnesota, Jake's Pizza, in Albert Lea.  Jake's was such a hit that with the help of Ernie and Rosie's son Larry, a second Jake's Pizza place opened in 1968 in Fairmont, about 60 miles west of Albert Lea.  Larry eventually sold his interest in that Jake's Pizza to his brother Mark in 1970 and ventured up to the Bemidji area to open up another Jake's Pizza.  Eventually, through family, friends and franchisees owning various locations, a total of 18 Jake's Pizza restaurants could be found throughout Minnesota and northern Iowa.  

Jake's Pizza had some competition in the Bemidji area when two other pizza places opened up in the 80's.  Larry Jacobson decided to turn Jake's Pizza into a new venture - L.T. Jacobs, and then opened a place called the Hard Times Saloon in downtown Bemidji.  L.T. Jacobs proved to be a rather unwieldy concept, so in 1989 Jacobson and his wife Connie opened Slim's Bar & Grill - basically a "slimmed" down version of L.T. Jacobs.  It turned out to be the right idea as it wasn't a large place, it was casual and homey, and above all, it was a profitable business.  

In 2005, Larry and Connie Jacobson sold Slim's to their son Karl and his wife Erin.  They continued to run the business up to Karl's untimely death in 2013.  Lisa Friese had been a longtime employee of the Jacobson family working in their restaurants starting in 1980 when she was still in her teens.  In 2014, Lisa Friese and her husband John bought Slim's from the Jacobson family.  The Friese family continues to run Slim's today.  

From the highway, you can see Slim's Bar & Grill through the trees just past the corner of Bemidji Ave. N and NW Anne St., just over a couple hundred yards west of Lake Bemidji  (see map)  I could see the Pabst Blue Ribbon sign on top of their entry way from the road and it looked like the quintessential northwoods dive bar. I mentioned something to my wife about the place on probably the fifth time I had seen it and she said, "Well, let's go back and have a beer!"  

It was a beautiful afternoon and we walked into the place.  It WAS the quintessential northwoods dive bar complete with a three-sided bar, knotty pine walls with deer racks, trophy mounted fish, pictures of hockey teams from Bemidji State University, and vintage artwork signs from the original Hamms brewery.  They even had Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap!  The smell of fresh made burgers wafted in the air.  

The bartender that day was a young guy named Chris who was personable and friendly.  My wife asked if we could sit out on the patio since it was so nice and he enthusiastically said, "You bet!  Go on out and I'll come out to take your order."  I protested that we could order inside and take them outside and Chris said, "Naw, go on out.  I'll be out there in a minute."  We immediately liked the guy.  

We went out and few moments later Chris came out to get our drink order.  I ordered up a Bemidji Brewing Company pale ale that they had on tap, while my wife got a Tito's and cranberry.  I downed the pale ale pretty quickly and Chris came out a few minutes later wanting to know if I wanted another beer.  My wife was still about halfway through her mixed drink and I said, "Yeah, I would.  I saw you had PBR on tap.  I'll take one of those."  I hadn't had a Pabst beer in a long, long time and it certainly tasted pretty damned good sitting on Slim's patio on a sun-drenched afternoon.  

When we were finished, we took our glasses in to the bar to drop off for Chris.  He protested, saying, "Aw, you guys.  You didn't need to do that.  I would have come out and gotten them."  I looked over in the corner behind the bar and saw that he had a couple burgers cooking on a flat grill.  I asked him if the burgers were good - they SMELLED good - and he said, "Best around.  We always get the Best Burger award that the local paper gives out."  

I also noticed that they had soup specials each day and the next day was going to be chicken and wild rice soup.  Wild rice soup was one of the main things that I wanted to have when we were in the northwoods, but no one seemed to have it.  I told Chris that we'd be back the next day for lunch.  

True to my word, we made it back out for lunch the next day around 1 p.m.  We had gotten there the day before after 3 p.m., so there wasn't much of a crowd in there.  However, we got in on the backside of a busy lunch hour.  Chris was there, as was owner Lisa Friese and another guy working the bar.  Chris saw us and his face lit up.  "Hey, you made it back," he said with a big voice.  

We took a seat at a booth along the wall opposite the bar.  The menu was on the table and we took a quick look to see what they had other than burgers.  Well, really, the main thing on the menu WERE the burgers.  But they also had Jake's Pizza on the menu - a nod to the Jacobson family's first Bemidji restaurant.  But curiously, they also had a couple selections of pizza on the menu under the heading of Dave's Pizza.  There's a Dave's Pizza in Bemidji and I thought it was sort of strange that they would have two different styles of pizza - or if Dave's Pizza delivered to Slim's.  I just didn't know.  

But that was just about it for food on the menu.  Slim's also had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the menu, as well as homemade chili, and nachos with various toppings available.  

The burgers at Slim's are made with beef from Stittsworth Meats from Bemidji.  (We found that many other restaurants in the area used meat from Stittsworth Meats.)  Their buns are sourced from Raphael's Bakery, a bakery/cafe in downtown Bemidji that we neglected to visit.  And they had bottles of Beer's Black Dog barbecue sauce on the tables.  "That's the owners brother," Chris explained to us as I was asking since they didn't seem to have barbecue on the menu.  "It's good stuff.  We sell it here, sometimes by the case!"  

I had to start out with a bowl of the chicken and wild rice soup.  It was a fair-sized bowl that was filled to the brim of a rich and hearty concoction of chicken, wild rice and chopped carrots.  It was simply outstanding.  And it filled me up rather quickly.  I was worried that I had spoiled my appetite for the burger.  But it turns out that it didn't.

My wife got just the regular cheese burger, while I went with the pepper jack cheese, sautéed mushroom and bacon burger.  A thick onion slice came with the burger (fried onion are available on request) along with dill pickles.  The bun was lightly toasted and the burgers came with a bag of potato chips - no fries or onion rings or wings at Slim's Bar & Grill.  The burger is a 7 ounce flat-grilled burger that was juicy and full of flavor. Multiple napkins were needed to go along with the burger.  It was an outstanding burger, to say the least.  

If I lived in the Bemidji area, I'd eat at Slim's at least once a week.  It was a great little northwoods bar with a great burger and a very friendly staff.  They have pizza available at Slim's, but that's about it - pizza and burgers.  Daily soup specials through the week complete the menu.  The beer selection was adequate and the chicken and wild rice soup was superb.  I liked everything about Slim's Bar & Grill, from the northwoods kitsch to the outdoor patio to the friendly service to the excellent burgers.  Slim's was one of my favorite places we visited on our trip to northern Minnesota this past summer.  

Comments

[Jake]

I like Slim's but I like Lazy Jack's better. They have a bigger menu and its a bigger place. Need to go there if you come back to Bemidji.

[Tom Hill]

Coming from south Texas to have A burger and chili from Slims, I’m Tom Hill a Hall of Famer athlete from the 60’s;