The cost of things these days? Far too expensive! Tariffs, rent prices, giddy price gouging from proprietors large and small—the boring factors are too numerous to count. To protect our readers, Racket launched the Best Budget Bites series, where we’ll showcase a toothsome, wallet-friendly food item that’ll actually fill you up. Have a nomination? Hit us up: tips@racketmn.com.
What: Roast beef sandwich
Where: Maverick's Real Roast Beef
Availability: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., all week long
If this reads like the least emphatic Best Budget Bites recommendation to date, you can blame the Roast Beef Wars.
Since 1999, they've raged. That's when brothers Bret and Bart Hazlett opened Maverick's Real Roast Beef, whose Roseville shop operates far away from the long-brawling Bloomington institutions, Wally's (open since '69) and offshoot Kevan's ('89). When reviewing Kevan's (which, spoiler, is the best of the bunch), I wrote:
Sure enough, if you Google some variation of "best roast beef twin cities," you'll find a Reddit thread that champions Wally's, though the [Kevan's] loyalists come out of the woodwork, too. (Maverick's Real Roast Beef in Roseville also gets some love, but I came away undazzled after my lone visit years ago.)
Having recently dined there again, I can say with confidence that Maverick's comes in a distant third. Which isn't to say it's a bad $9.99 sandwich. But, at that price point, it's more than double the fast-food benchmark it's supposed to (and does) clear: Arby's. (Wally's and Kevan's hover close to $5.)
While all of these beef peddlers have changed hands over the years, it's worth noting that current Maverick's owner Tim Hughes took over in 2018. "I've been coming here my whole life," Hughes told WCCO that year. Three years later, he'd experiment with an ill-fated second location in Stillwater, but the strip mall flagship would retain most of its divey authenticity. "New owner has done right by Maverick’s Real Roast Beef," raved the PiPress, noting, approvingly, that little had changed.
Ditto for my appraisal of Maverick's.
The signature sandwich passes the eyeball test—thin ribbons of medium-pink meat, stacked atop a toasted bun. That beef, however, doesn't melt with the same heavenly tenderness of its south metro rivals; there's a lingering briney sourness that overpowers the rub. The real problem is the massive and dense (brioche?) bun: You're getting way more bread than beef with each bite.
An expansive condiment station provides some fun customization potential, and, once plussed up with horseradish sauce and coleslaw ($3.09), my sandwich entered 7.7 territory if we're arbitrarily whipping out Pitchfork's 0.0 to 10.0 grading scale. For a quickie lunch, you could do a whole lot worse.
It's unclear how hot my lukewarm Maverick's take will prove. The place, based on online chatter, remains beloved by most. Maybe taking the melty cheddar or French dip routes is the way to go, but at that point we're well above the ironclad $10 Best Budget Bites price threshold.
The apparently less ironclad "Best" criteria is on shaky ground here, too. As it stands, the hierarchy of warring Twin Cities roast beef heavyweights is clear: Kevan's > Wally's > Maverick's. In the spirit beefy competition, may they never find peace.
BBB Hall of Fame
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- $9.99 Roast Beef Sandwich From Maverick's Real Roast Beef
