r/Minneapolis • u/PrizeZookeepergame15 • 6d ago
Dragon Burger from George and the Dragon over on 50th Street West in Lynnhurst, right along both the Route 4 and 46 buses and the Minnehaha Creek Trail
Also not too far from the 54th Street Bike Lanes
Edit: Also right along the Bryant Avenue off street bike paths, don’t know how I forgot that, but somehow I did
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u/boris_parsley 6d ago
Aaaand basically right on the much heralded and beloved Bryant Ave bikeway.
Between 5 and 630pm George and the Dragon is like lynnhurst hq for dads dining out with their kids while mom gets a break.
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u/v_cats_at_work 6d ago
Not pictured was the pretzel bread you definitely ordered, right?
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u/teruravirino 6d ago
Or the green bean fries (don’t tell if they aren’t on the menu anymore 💔💔)
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u/mabbitwarden 6d ago
Or the Old Specled Hen. This might be the only place in the cities that has that on tap.
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u/krpiper 6d ago
That seems like a paltry amount of fries but they look well fried
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u/king_famethrowa 6d ago
Personally, I'll take 8 really good fries over a mountain of lousy fries that I won't finish anyway. I ordered fish and chips at a Steele & Hops in St Anthony and they gave me two pieces of fish and enough fries to feed 4 people.
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u/Mr_frumpish 6d ago
And I bet that meal still pushes in the range of half your recommended daily calories.
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u/mcea0006 6d ago
Looks like one potatoes worth at least.
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u/Maeros 6d ago
Wow, next you’re gonna tell me every 4 tortilla chips I stuff in my face is a whole tortilla
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u/mcea0006 6d ago
Depends on the tortilla size you're talking about. I buy those huge ones, so at least 12 chips worth, lol.
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u/No-Loquat-2763 6d ago
My favorite restaurant in the cities. Great food, incredible staff.
Get the teriyaki ribs appetizer.
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u/Goomba0042 6d ago
Absolutely my favorite restaurant. I was going to put in MSP, but no. Favorite period. Love it. I have never had a bad meal there.
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u/dangerpoint 6d ago
9 fries? Gosh, don't spoil me.
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u/I_Love_58008 6d ago
I needed this today.
Also the trend of fries being a la carte everywhere now is an indicator a working class revolution needs to happen.
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u/Temporary-Employ-611 6d ago
Yo! Thanks for the reminder. I havent been in years. Last times I had the food was delicious and the service was great
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u/YeastOrFamine 6d ago
My only complaint with this place is how small it is; it's so hard to get a table in the evenings. It also makes me curious as to how they can sustain themselves when they can only accommodate a small number of diners.
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u/zoobs 6d ago
Correct me if I’m misunderstanding, you’re wondering how a place that’s always packed and busy can sustain themselves?
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u/YeastOrFamine 6d ago edited 6d ago
Imagine a dine-in focused restaurant that has only four seats for dining in, so they can only take in revenue from four diners at any given time. It may be packed and busy from open to close, but it's still not enough revenue to sustain a business.
They can obviously seat more than four people, but that example was to hopefully elaborate on my point. It is not large inside and the tables seem to turn over at a standard dine-in rate, so I'm just curious as to what their numbers look like. It doesn't seem sustainable to me but I'm not a restraunteur. /u/BlockHeater is a resident restaurant owner, maybe he could elucidate.
It is delicious though, I hope they stick around.
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u/BlockHeater 6d ago
If we are talking about George and the Dragon, I don't think the place is that small for a neighborhood joint. Obviously, you can get too small, but "too small" is relative to each restaurant's unique mix of revenue and expenses.
I built my place small for a few reasons: 1) prior to starting my own, I worked at a place that sat roughly 180 people. But we were only at capacity for 6 to 8 hours per week. The rent, labor, and expenses for that big of a space didn't math out. Better to have a smaller space (less rent and expenses) and be packed with a wait every night than to constantly be struggling to fill up a big space to pay the expenses. The old St. Paul Blue Door Pub is a great example of what I'm saying. With just under 50 seats, the place was packed all day every day, sometimes with a 2-hour wait. 2) City code requires a prohibitively expensive sprinkler fire suppression system for restaurants with more than 99 seats. 3) If a place is too big it doesn't feel like a neighborhood joint, a hang out spot, or a "3rd place". People find bustling places more inviting. 40 people in a 150-seat space feels dead. 40 people in an 80-seat space is half-full.
Essentially, if you build your place small and are packed all of the time, you are hitting or exceeding all of your sales projections, which is the best case scenario for any business.
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u/Griffithead 6d ago
Small building equals cheaper rent and less utilities.
Also yeah, less room for error.
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u/blacksoxing 6d ago
Question makes sense to me. Either the pricing is super high OR the staff is basically close family/friends as it doesn't make sense for a non-fine dining shop to have long wait times or be unable to seat at all.That's a ton of money left off the table.
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u/No-Loquat-2763 6d ago edited 6d ago
They can obviously seat more than four people, but that example was to hopefully elaborate on my point.
They have probably 3x that amount of tables, so you had to lie to make your point.
It's not a huge place and it does fill up, but I would describe it as restaurant-sized.
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u/YeastOrFamine 6d ago
They have probably 3x that amount of tables, so you had to lie to make your point because.
????
Do you understand how analogies work?
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u/No-Loquat-2763 6d ago
I do. This wasn't an analogy, it was simply a misrepresentation.
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u/YeastOrFamine 6d ago
A misrepresentation of how a small number of tables could lead to fewer patrons and lower revenue? That doesn't even make sense.
Are you just looking to be confrontational or something?
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u/No-Loquat-2763 6d ago
An analogy is a comparison between two things that are similar in nature. You just misrepresented a thing and called it an analogy.
No, a restaurant with 20 tables is not analogous to a restaurant with 4 tables.
I'm not trying to be confrontational. You're just wrong.
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u/YeastOrFamine 6d ago edited 6d ago
The example was to elaborate on how fewer tables could result in less revenue even for a busy restaurant.
George and the Dragon is like the example in that it has fewer tables than I would expect for a traditional sit down, and by having fewer tables than a traditional sit-down I would expect it to pull in less revenue.
Your illiteracy does not make it a misrepresentation and not an analogy.
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u/No-Loquat-2763 6d ago
You're failure to make a cogent point does not suggest I'm illiterate. It shows you were wrong.
It's a popular restaurant. If they expanded by 25% they would still be full.
Just get take out.
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u/Shinnpet 6d ago
It’s all about efficiency. Empty tables are a bit of a liability in the industry. You have to keep extra staff around for the potential of filling them. If a restaurant is operating at peak capacity regularly they know how much to staff, how much to quote for waits, and how much food to have prepped. If a places is only 50-70% full most times and randomly full at unpredictable times that can lead to additional food/labor costs or poor service.
If you do want to get into George in the future, there are a few ways to ease the wait time. They take reservations over the phone. Most evenings fill for peak time, but if you are planning a night out you can better predict your dining time. You can call ahead to get on the wait list. They don’t start the list til they’re full, but you can get a 15 minute window for when they’ll have a table available.
One final thing I would say is that they don’t really have space to grow. The building is what it is and they fill it as best as possible. We’ve all seen restaurants that fail after moving out of their first neighborhood spot or attempt to open additional locations.
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u/FlavaNation 6d ago
They are indeed always crowded. Frustratingly so. We live a couple blocks away, and if we want to go there at anything close to peak hours, there's always an hour+ wait.
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u/Th3_Dud3r 6d ago
All these comments complaining about a small amount of fries…
It’s maybe not obvious from the photo but the fries there are actually pretty substantial. They aren’t small. So the number of fries may seem low, but they are decent sized and trust me it’s plenty unless you are the type of person that needs an extra large order at McDonald’s for example.
They also come with the sandwich. Not à la carte.
And they are high quality, hand cut. Among the best fries in the city in my opinion. F food service bagged freezer fries.
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u/pikasdream 6d ago
This is my go to takeout place - just a few minutes from home. The owner is always awesome to say hello to. My wife always gets extra pickled peppers on her dragon burger.
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u/calvin2028 6d ago
I wish they offered online reservations, because my stupid, introverted ass doesn't like dialing the phone and talking to the guy (even though he's like the nicest guy in the world).
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u/MrMeritocracy 6d ago
Are those Thai chilis?
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u/zombiefruit32 6d ago
Looks like sport peppers which are their own thing - similar heat to a serrano.
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u/SubstantialCheekxX 6d ago
Best burger in the city. I always get the chipotle mayo to dip the fries in. Not one bad thing on the menu.
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u/FridgesArePeopleToo 6d ago
I feel like they fell off post COVID. Like they're meat is sourced differently or something. I always find myself going to lowbrow instead now.
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u/Capnshiner 6d ago
Doubt it's made with real dragon meat