The Greatest Image I've Ever Seen

On January 19th, 2026, I was watching someone stream on Twitch. I spend a lot of my time on Twitch, whether it's engaging with the stream, or just lurking in the background. On this particular day, the streamer was working on making zines. As things tend to go with this streamer, everything gets derailed quite often.

He began clicking on links on every Wikipedia page, spending about 40 minutes doing this. Going from Greek statues, to modern film, to retro tech, to toys, to classic art, to a list of ball games (I added Omegaball to the list), and eventually, a list of sandwiches.

After scrolling through the list and rating sandwiches, we eventually arrived at the page for Jucy Lucy.

After scrolling down a tiny bit, we encountered the following image posted by saralee, with the caption "Jucy Lucy burger from Matt's Bar enjoyed by a lake".

Everything about this image is perfect. It feels like it was taken from an early 2000s digicam, despite it being uploaded in July of 2023. The burger looks like the pickles are about to slide off of it. The raised pinky, along with the grip, is incredible. The background is a nearby lake with lush vegetation. The time of day. Everything about this picture is just so cool.

It immediately captured me, and a couple of people watching, along with the streamer himself. We were all awestruck by this, along with a mix of other emotions.

Now I've had a few Jucy Lucy's over the course of my life, but Matt's Bar has the claim of inventing it (this is debated). A Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger, but with the cheese inside the patty. It's a novelty for sure, but it's a delight. The restaurant is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, also known as the land of 10,000 lakes, so taking a picture next to a lake is the perfect way to encapsulate what makes this special.

It's the greatest image I've seen, and I immediately knew that I needed to pay homage to it by recreating it. I don't know of any place that sells Jucy Lucy's nearby, but there's a place aptly named "The Burger Spot". I've wanted to talk about this place as it's home to some of the greatest burgers and fries I've had in my life. I try to get a different burger every time I'm there, as they have a few different specialty burgers. Last time, I had their Parisian burger, but I think I'll have their Belgian burger this time, which consists of blue cheese sauce, bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and red onion.

With the burger picked out, it was time to find a lake. Now I live on Long Island, New York. At any moment, the ocean is less than 30 minutes away. With that said, it's the middle of winter, there's a snowstorm headed this way in a few days, it's about 10 degrees below freezing, and my car battery is acting up. So I figure, let's just head to the nearest lake, which is 20 minutes away from the restaurant, and hope that my car doesn't die.

So with my plan of attack laid out, it's time to put it into action.

As soon as the clock hit 11AM on January 21st, 2026, I placed my order online, hopped in my car, and drove off.

The drive was uneventful, as it should be, but seeing that the temperature is a few degrees below freezing, I'm thankful that my car is running fine.

I parked in the lot behind the restaurant, and left the car running because I was fearful that it wouldn't start up again and that I'd have to call someone for a jump. I walked into the place, told them that I was there to pick up an order, and had to wait a minute for them to finish packing it. Somehow, I wasn't the first person there to place an order that day, despite the restaurant only opening at 11AM, but they might just open the doors earlier than that.

Either way, with my burger now in hand, I walked back over to my car, which thankfully was still there with the keys in the ignition. I opened my maps app and selected the parking lot by the lake, and drove off.

Once again, the drive was rather uneventful. I was blasting music from a band I was thinking about seeing in a few weeks, first president of japan. It's definitely not music for everyone, but man, it's doing something to my brain.

As I approached the park that housed the lake, I began looking for parking. The road there takes you throughout the entirety of the park, and it was really cool to see people walking around despite the temperature. There were some really neat spots that looked like they might be fun to visit, but I was on a mission.

I drove for what felt like a bit too long, and I only found parking right before the exit of the park. I pulled into a spot and reluctantly shut my car off. I took a tote bag that was in my car, threw my camera and my food into it, and just started walking into the park.

Now, immediately after exiting the lot, I stumbled onto a bridge that went over the highway. I drive past this bridge all the time, probably once a week, and I don't think I've ever been on it. It seems somehow both larger than you expect, but smaller when you cross.

I continued to follow the path, which right away split. I could either continue on the paved path, or I could venture into the woods. I decided to walk into the woods and follow the dirt path.

After a few steps, I encountered a clearing. I followed, what I think was a path, marked by a trash can, closer to the lake. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the path to the major peninsulas that pokes out into the lake. I kept walking, and as soon as I hit the shoreline, I knew that this was the place.

I set my bag down and tried to work as fast as I could. I unwrapped my burger and got myself situated in a spot with decent lighting. I took some photos with my phone first, and then busted out my camera. By this point, my hands were freezing. I couldn't really feel my fingers too well as I adjusted the settings on my camera. Once I managed to get the iso (160), shutter speed (1/1000), and f/stop (f/4) correct, I held out the burger as best I could and tried to capture the photo with my left hand.

The result was excellent. I couldn't be happier. There are obviously many things I could do to recreate this better, using a worse camera, getting a better angle, getting an actual Jucy Lucy, waiting for summer instead of doing this in the middle of winter. But I captured the spirit of the image, and I will be thinking about this for the rest of my life.

I quickly packed away my burger and camera and made my way back to my car to drive home. My car started thankfully, and within another 20 minutes, I was back at home, enjoying my cold burger and fries.

As always, I will leave you with a few words.

Be A Real Person