Each month, in our Restaurants Revisited conversation, MnMo food critics Jason DeRusha and Joy Summers return to an “old favorite” restaurant and assess how it’s faring.
Joy: Ever since I took my first rapturous bite of a roast beef sandwich inside this unassuming Roseville strip mall eatery, I can’t help but feel bad for anyone wandering into the Subway next door.
Jason: Maverick’s is what Arby’s wishes it were. Owner Bret Hazlett cooks bottom round cuts of beef every day, slow and low. The meat rests eight hours to seal in the juices and tenderize. Hazlett told me that the real secret to his success is in the slicer—and I can’t say any more.
Joy: The menu is focused: roast beef, pulled beef, or pulled pork with side and beverage options, including delicious chocolate shakes. Once you’ve got your sandwich, the real adventure begins. The condiment bar has pickles, seasoned salt, horseradish, all different kinds of peppers—anything you could ever want.
Maverick’s Real Roast Beef
photo by tj turner
Jason: My kids were enthralled by it and are already talking about what they want to put on their sandwiches when they get back.
Joy: I bet they also loved watching those slender, scarlet ribbons thread through that slicer. I sure do. It’s positively…meatmerizing! It’s so hard to choose between the roast beef or the pulled beef. Longtime customers know the latter as the old brisket sandwich; it’s juicy, packed with flavor, and delicious on a pumpernickel bun.
Jason: The sides are solid too. Get some coleslaw and put it on your pulled pork—the pork’s a little sweet for my liking, so the slaw helped—and the chunks of bacon in the potato salad made that a particularly well-spent dollar.
Joy: I like to dip my French fries in my chocolate shake. Because I’m a maverick.
Maverick’s Real Roast Beef Quick Tips:
Lunch Line: It’s long, but it moves fast—don’t be deterred.
Closed: Sundays and Mondays
Roy Rogers: The décor has a Western bent—try to count all the cowboys on the wall.
1746 Lexington Ave. N., Roseville, 651-488-1788, mavericksroastbeef.com
