Best Budget Appetizers: $6.99 Roast Beef Sandwich from Kevan’s Penn Lake Roastbeef

The cost of things these days? Way too expensive! Inflation, supply chain, mind-boggling high prices from owners big and small: the boring factors are too numerous to count. To protect our readers, Racket launched the Best budget snacks series, where we showcase a tasty, wallet-friendly food that will actually fill you up for under $10. Got a nomination? Drop us a line: [email protected].

What: Jumbo roast beef sandwich
Where: Kevan’s Penn Lake Roastbeef, 8911 Penn Ave. S., Bloomington
Availability: 10:30am-7pm (closed on Sundays)

Certain restaurant names can be emotional stumbling blocks for opinionated Minnesota diners. Think of the exhaustive Matt’s Bar vs. 5-8 Club Jucy Lucy debate. Or the simple to call from Betty’s Pies, the 68-year-old pie shop in North Shore.

Here’s the triggered lib meme!

(The definitive 2021 side-by-side flavor of Racket revealed that Rustic is indeed better than Betty’s. Not by much, folks.)

Our Best Budget Bites series encountered another of these partisan food fights when we recommended Wally’s, the venerable suburban hot-beef-slinger that’s been at it since 1969. “Wally’s is good, but true Bloomington Roast Beef-heads know that (Kevan’s) Penn Lake Roast Beef is the place to be,” wrote commenter Tschep08. Sure enough, a Google search for some variation of “best roast beef twin cities” turns up a Reddit thread promoting Wally’s, though the Penn Lake loyalists also come out of nowhere. (Maverick’s Real Roast Beef in Roseville also gets some attention, but I came away unscathed after my solitary visit years ago.)

In the spirit of reader service, I felt compelled to delve deep into the heart of Bloomington for a taste of Kevan’s. But before we get to the beef sandwich, we need to discuss owner Kevan Tran’s most talked-about biographical tidbits. The first, and this is highlighted by a photo display near the register, is that Tran learned his trade while working under Wally Erickson, the original owner of Wally’s who launched his meat empire at Tran’s current Penn Lake Roast Beef location. (Wally’s has since moved a mile down Penn Avenue.) The second is that Tran seems like a great guy: In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, he was gunned down during an attempted robbery, and the community encouraged him back in the saddle just three months later.

Nestled in an unassuming strip mall, Penn Lake Roast Beef may confuse first-timers with its cross-cultural fusion aesthetic. The place—from the fonts to the patterns to the homemade water fountain made from old tea bottles—screams Chinese restaurant; the Year of the Ox logo is surrounded by Chinese characters for “love” and “happiness.” The menu, however, is filled with generously priced American comfort foods, like roast beef sandwiches, meatloaf, smoked turkey, hamburger, and cod.

Okay, now for the old, beef-demanding Wendy’s lady! How are those beef sandwiches that Kevan’s has been slow-roasting since 1989?

Look… I take no pleasure in wormy ambiguity. I wish I could get a full-throated endorsement from Wally or Kevan, putting my journalistic prowess on par with the Pitchfork reviewer who called Lizzo, the height of her powers, corny in 2019.

Sorry, can’t! They’re both great indie options that put Arby’s to shame, both clearly cut from the same delicious cloth as Erickson before the moon landing. Same buttery-soft bun? Check. Same piled-on ribbons of perfectly pink, thinly sliced, expertly rubbed beef? Check. Same tub of umami-exploding gravy for dipping, plus creamy horse sauce that could sting your nostrils? Triple check. (It should be noted that gravy and cheese cost extra at Kevan’s and Wally’s, though the total still falls below our rock-solid $10 BBB threshold.)

Side dishes may put one restaurant or another over the top, but that’s impossible to determine within the financial constraints of Best Budget Bites. So take your pick: Want to enjoy a cheap, tasty, hearty meal in a strip mall or under an office tower? When you’re mowing down killer roast beef sandwiches along Penn Avenue in Bloomington, you really can’t go wrong.

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