MinotMinot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2023
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Burger & Best Place to Get a Craft Beer awards this year in the Minot Daily News 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards!
The Best Places to Eat French Fries in Every State
Written by Chloe Miller of Mashed.com | March 23, 2023
The humble potato is really one of the most versatile crops on Earth, but perhaps no form of the potato is more widespread — and more beloved — than the French fry. The fry is thought to have originated in Belgium in the 1600s, but America has really adopted fries as a central facet of our culture. And we all have our favorites. No, it’s not McDonald’s or Five Guys, although those both showed up repeatedly in our research. There will always be fast food favorites, but there are crispy, pillowy fried potato goodness of all varieties to try.
Some fry facts may surprise you. For example, we all know Idaho produces the most spuds, but it’s actually their neighbor North Dakota that has an annual French fry festival. Whether you like them curly, thick, sweet, truffled, or topped, we’ve rounded up the best spot for French fries in every U.S. state. Who knew your frying liquid of choice, from duck fat to peanut oil, made such a difference?
North Dakota: JL Beers
North Dakota may be the only state on this list to actually host a French fry festival. It’s called the Potato Bowl, and it’s held in Grand Forks every year in conjunction with a big college football game. Tons of hot, fresh fries are served up for free. If you’re not there in September for the Potato Bowl, JL Beers has locations throughout North Dakota, and people say not to sleep on their fries. Again, toppings rule: You can go simple with sea salt, Cajun, jalapeño cheddar, dill pickle, BBQ, or parmesan garlic seasonings. Or dress it up with bleu cheese. You can also get any of these flavorings on their fresh-cut potato chips, which is really just a fry in another form.
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2022
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Burger award again this year in the Minot Daily News 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards!
The 50 Best Burgers in The United States
BIG 7 Travel
Written by Big 7 Travel Team | August, 2021
The Best Burger in Every State
This list is packed with classic, straight-shooting burgers and the old-school institutions still making them.
Written by David Landsel | July 26, 2021
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2021
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Burger award again this year in the Minot Daily News 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards!
The Best Bar Food in Every State
Written by: Brittany Natale of Eat This, Not That on April 25th, 2021
Throughout history, bars have been an essential place for people to come together in a relaxed setting to enjoy refreshing craft beers, cold beverages, and artisanal cocktails. Of course, all of that drinking and socializing can make one hungry, and this is where good old bar food comes in.
Bar food, the perfect accompaniment to any happy hour, is some of the tastiest, most comforting food out there, and we can understand why. From Knoxville’s duck confit fries to Seattle’s garlic burrata pull-apart bread, this list of some of the best bar food options throughout the States proves that bar food is so much more than just chips and peanuts. Have you been to your state’s top-pick?
NORTH DAKOTA: JL Beers
JL Beers, a neighborhood favorite bar in Fargo, serves such good food that it has won awards! For instance, it has received “Best Burger” in the state of North Dakota for 11 years in a row, and we can see why. Patrons rave about the Humpty Dumpty burger, which comes with a fried egg and melted cheese on a burger patty. Add some ground peanut butter to give it an edge.
www.eatthis.com/best-bar-food-state/
The Best Burger in Every State
Written by: Taylor Rock and Dan Myers of The Daily Meal on July 29th, 2020
These burgers are so much more than just meat on a bun
When you think of a food that’s all-American, the first thing that comes to mind is likely the burger. The simple sandwich of (typically) ground beef on a bun allows for considerable creativity. To celebrate this classic, we’ve tracked down the absolute best restaurant for burgers in every state as well as Washington, D.C.
In order to assemble our list, we started by taking a look at our annual ranking of the 101 Best Burgers in America, which is compiled via a survey with hundreds of burgers on it given to a panel of noted writers, journalists, bloggers and culinary authorities from across the country to vote on. We also extensively researched beloved burger joints in big cities and small towns alike, dug through online reviews and combed existing best-of lists, both in print and online.
North Dakota: JL Beers
JL Beers offers more than a dozen burgers made with never-frozen beef at several locations in North Dakota. The Original Hamburger Stand Burger, topped with only pickles and special sauce, is definitely enough to satisfy a craving, but you might as well go all-in and try the JL Burger with grilled onions, cheese, special sauce and two patties.
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2020
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Place to Get a Craft Beer and Best Burger awards again this year in the Minot Daily News 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards!
CraftBeer.com Announces Great American Beer Bars 2020
An impressive craft beer menu, a stellar atmosphere, and servers who know their stuff are all the makings of a great beer bar. With more than 8,000 small and independent breweries in the United States, great beer bars play an important role in the growth of local breweries.
Each year, we ask CraftBeer.com readers to tell us about their favorite local beer bars. Our editors tally the nominations on a state-by-state basis–as well as Washington, DC and Puerto Rico–to create the annual Great American Beer Bars list. We hope beer lovers use our list as a guide to explore new bars that support craft breweries.
NORTH DAKOTA – JL BEERS
Year Founded: 2009
JL Beers is locally owned and operated with a staff that is friendly and knowledgeable about craft beer. Pair a local favorite, Drekker Broken Rudder, with one of JL Beers’ burgers made with the freshest of ingredients and hand cut fries for an All-American classic combination.
The Single Greatest Burger in Every State
Written by: April Benshosan of EatThis.com on August 6th, 2019
Our friends at Yelp helped us find which burger joint reigns supreme in your home state. Sure, you can pull through the McDonald’s drive-thru when you’re craving a beef patty on a bun. But there’s something special about eating a gourmet burger—one that has fancy condiments, a special bun, or a slice of artisanal cheese. For those occasions, you’ll want to head to a local restaurant. And lucky for you, we have plenty of recommendations. We’ve partnered with Yelp to bring you the best burger in every state.
To come up with this list, Yelp went through the “burgers” category and found the best burger restaurant in each state. In this case, “best” is defined by both Yelp’s star ratings and by how many reviews each restaurant has. Using Yelp’s list of best burger restaurants, we looked through the reviews to find the individual burgers that stood out at each establishment.
The Totally Slawesome Burger
at JL Beers (Fargo, North Dakota)
Sure, you can get a bacon cheeseburger plenty of places. But how many of them will serve
a bacon cheeseburger that’s also topped with coleslaw? JL Beers does!
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2019
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Place to Get a Craft Beer and Best Burger awards again this year in the Minot Daily News 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards!
MSN.com – The Best Burger in Every State
Written by: Dan Myers on May 29th, 2019
When you think of a food that’s all-American, nothing comes to mind before the burger. The simple sandwich of ground beef on a bun allows for considerable creativity from the chef or home cook who’s making it, and there are thousands of variations out there, each more delicious than the last. To celebrate this all-American dish, we’ve tracked down the absolute best restaurant for burgers in every state as well as Washington, D.C.
On our hunt for the best burger in every state, we took into account the fact that there are three main burger styles out there these days: the inch-or-so-thick patties that drip juice down your arm; the “smash burgers,” sometimes called fast food-style burgers, thin patties cooked on a griddle that get an ample crust; and the high-end burgers, usually served in steakhouses and made with scraps of aged beef and other premium cuts, that elevate the burger to fine dining status. All of these styles are represented in our list.
In order to assemble our list, we started by taking a look at our annual ranking of the 101 Best Burgers in America, which is compiled by creating a survey with hundreds of burgers on it and asking a panel of noted writers, journalists, bloggers and culinary authorities from across the country to place their votes. For the remaining states, we extensively researched beloved burger joints in big cities and small towns alike and dug through online reviews and combed existing best-of lists, both in print and online. Even though each of the burgers we found was unique, certain qualities were universal must-haves: high-quality beef (you’ll find no non-beef burgers in our ranking), proper seasoning, well-proportioned components and an overall attention to detail.
North Dakota: JL Beers
JL Beers is a beloved local chain, with seven locations in North Dakota along with three in Minnesota and two in South Dakota. And with 40 beers on tap, a fun and welcoming vibe, and some truly great burgers, it’s not surprising to see why it’s so popular. More than a dozen burgers are available, made with never-frozen beef; The Original Hamburger Stand Burger, topped with only pickles and special sauce, is definitely enough to satisfy a craving, but you might as well go all-in and try the JL Burger (topped with grilled onions, cheese, special sauce and two patties); the Rajun Cajun (pepper jack, Cajun lime sauce, grilled onions and Cajun seasoning); or the Not Just a Nutter Burger (fresh peanut butter, red pepper jelly, diced jalapeños, raw onions and lettuce).
CraftBeer.com Announces Great American Beer Bars 2019
Written by: Andy Sparhawk on February 28th, 2019
It is no secret that America is home to perhaps the largest variety of beers in the world. More than 7,000 small and independent craft brewers call the United States home, and they have great beer bars to thank for helping educate beer lovers about what makes their beers so special.
CraftBeer.com’s Great American Beer Bars 2019 highlights dozens of the unique, passionate and community-focused beer bars that work in partnership with brewers to serve the nation. Each of these beer retailers brings a unique approach to our favorite beverage. CraftBeer.com is proud to present you this year’s list of beer bars to seek out on your beer travels. Congratulations to this year’s winners of CraftBeer.com’s Great American Beer Bars 2019.
NORTH DAKOTA – JL BEERS
Year Founded: 2009
JL Beers is locally owned and operated with a staff that is friendly and knowledgeable about craft beer. Pair a local favorite, Drekker Broken Rudder, with one of JL Beers’ burgers made with the freshest of ingredients and hand cut fries for an All-American classic combination.
MSN.com – The Absolute Best Burger in Every State
Written by: April Benshosan on December 5th, 2018
JL Beers (North Dakota)
While JL Beers won the title of best burger joint in ND, the shack serves up a mean brew, too. The impressive beer selection ranges from robust Belgians to a hot beer cheese dip accompanied by crunchy chips. We’ll take another round of both, please.
The Absolute Best Burgers in Every Midwestern State
Written by: Zach Johnston of UPROXX on July 11th, 2018
Is there a region of the United States more in love with the burger than the Midwest? The endless, snowy winters mixed with summers that demand plenty of “make hay while the sun shines” indulgence combine to create the perfect year-round atmosphere for burgers to dominate the scene.
The Midwest is where burgers met their crazy, overblown, and delectable potential as a medium for getting calories into the body at the highest rates possible. As a result, the region is home to some of the cheesiest, heart-stoppingest, gargantuann riffs on the genre ever created. So let’s dive headfirst into a whole pile of great burgers where the blasphemous words “too much” are never uttered.
These are our picks for the best burgers in the Midwest.
NORTH DAKOTA: JL Beers
Okay, we know JL Beers is a chain with spots in Minnesota and South Dakota too. But, goddamn if their burgers aren’t the best around in their home state of North Dakota. Pillory us for choosing a chain all you want but we dare you not to love the burgers at JL Beers.
JL prides itself that “all of our ingredients come from someone’s backyard.” That care and localvore attitude translates to a great burger. The meat is freshly ground. The buns are a house recipe. The bacon comes from around the corner.
The Humpty Dumpty burger is their award winner — with an excellently cooked runny egg on the classic cheeseburger. The real star, for us anyway, is the Not Just A Nutter Burger with a healthy smear of peanut butter accompanied by local red pepper jelly, diced jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, and locally smoked bacon. It’s a spicy, umami, cheesy, crunchy mess of a burger that hits you deep in the far-reaches of your burger-loving soul.
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2018
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Place to Get a Craft Beer and Best Burger awards once again this year in the Minot Daily News 2018 Readers’ Choice Awards!
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2017
Thank you for voting and awarding us with the Best Place to Get a Craft Beer and Best Burger awards once again this year in the Minot Daily News 2017 Readers’ Choice Awards!
Minot Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards 2016
Thank you for voting for JL Beers in the Minot Daily News 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards. We’re honored to have won the Best Craft Beers and Best Hamburger awards!
The Best Bar in Every State
Written by: Talia Avakian of Business Insider on March 4th, 2016
America is home to some incredible drinking spots. We teamed up with Foursquare, the city-guide app for discovering new places, to put together a list of the top-rated bars in each state and Washington, DC, based on user ratings on the app. The list ranges from upscale cocktail bars to wine joints to craft beer bars.
NORTH DAKOTA: JL Beers
JL Beers is famous for its outstanding beer and burger selection. It has imported bottles from around the globe, mixed brew selections, and “beertails” like the Oatmeal Cookie — an oatmeal stout mixed with a splash of Lindemans Framboise (Raspberry) Lambic.
MSN.com – The Best Burger in Every State
MSN Food & Drink – February 2015
We conducted painstaking journalistic research to figure out the very best burger in every state, from mom-and-pop joints to celebrity-chef restaurants and everything in between.
NORTH DAKOTA: JL BEERS
For less than five bucks, you can get JL Beers’ delicious Humpty Dumpty, which comes with cheese and a fried egg on a soft bun. This regional chain, which originated in North Dakota, recently won best burger by High Plains Reader and other publications.
JL Beers is Coming to Minot!
Minot Daily News – February 2015
JL Beers will soon be a part of the Minot community.
The Friends and Family Opening is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, followed by the public opening on Wednesday, March 4.
JL Beers® features a variety of unique burgers, fries and chips, along with 40 different craft beers on tap and a wide selection of bottled and canned beers, many of which are new to the Minot area. After your meal, you can satisfy your sweet tooth with a creamy root beer float; the perfect combination of 1919 Root Beer and Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream.
JL Beers® offers burgers with everything from the classic toppings, to the Mt, Mushmore® Burger, topped with sautéed mushrooms and teriyaki sauce, to what may soon become a customer favorite in Minot, the Humpty Dumpty® Burger, complete with a fried egg and cheese on top. All burgers are made with fresh ground beef and served on JL Beers’® own signature bun.
Offering high quality food at a reasonable price, the restaurant provides an open kitchen environment that features specialty cooking equipment.
Guests can watch as their fries and chips are cut right in front of them, a testament to the fact that all of the food at JL Beers® is fresh and “comes from someone’s backyard”, a phrase proudly written on the JL Beers® website.
Jesse Zwak and Wayne Zwak of Minot are the owners of the JL Beers® franchised restaurant in Minot. The manager of JL Beers® is Amy Dauphinais and the assistant manager is John Miller.
“We’re excited to be opening a JL Beers® in Minot,” said Zwak. “All of the food is fresh from North Dakota and we have one of the best beer selections in the country.”
JL Beers® has been under construction for about three and a half months and should be completed in early February. With décor and staff training to follow, Zwak says they expect to open the restaurant at their set opening date.
JL Beers® is currently in the process of hiring employees to join their team, projecting a total of 40 employees to be hired.
If a fun and unique dining experience, craft beer, and fresh food are your thing, then JL Beers® will soon be your go-to place.
As their motto says, “Seating for 1,000…47 at a time®”!
Business Beat
Posted: Dec 5, 2013
Fargo based JL Beers is coming to Minot. The news was announced today that Minot based ZZ Food Group operated by Wayne and Jesse Zwak would be bringing the franchise to the Magic City. Jesse tells me that they hope to be open early in 2014…and that a location isn’t set in stone yet — but they are strongly considering downtown Minot. JL Beers is known for their craft beer selection and burgers, fresh fries, and chips.