Francis the Pig was known only as Butcher Hog KH27, before he jumped over a 3 foot wall at a Red Deer, Canada slaughterhouse, snuck through the sausage plant, pushed open a screened door and escaped into the bushes outside the facility. 

After his brazen escape, he became a local and even national celebrity and folk hero, as he evaded capture for months, coming to be named “Francis.”  School children wrote begging “spare Francis.”  Local news featured stories of his escapades.  And folks were compelled to consider the ideological conflict of wishing well for a single famous hog, while continuing to consume other animals on the regular!  

Francis the Pig was further immortalized by Winnipeg punk band Propagandhi, in their song Potemkin City Limits.  

It is in this brave pig’s honor that Francis Burger Joint serves an entirely plant-based menu - so that none of Francis’s brethren need be harmed for us all to enjoy delicious and decadent food!

7/16/2025 – (CBS Minnesota)
Francis Burger Joint’s Mission to Make Vegan Burgers & Fries

7/16/2025 – (MSP Magazine)
2025 Summer Restaurant Week Editor’s Picks

7/11/2025 – (FOX 9)‍ ‍
Fox 9 Feature

6/8/2025 – (Twin Cities Live)
Twin Cities Live Segment

5/14/2025 – (Eater Twin Cities)‍ ‍
Best Burgers of Minneapolis

1/22/2025 – (Star Tribune)
Best Meatless Sandwiches in the Twin Cities

11/18/2024 – (Bring Me The News)
Meet the Minneapolis Vegan Restaurant Known for Its Burgers

10/24/2024 – (Food & Wine / Yelp)
Best Vegan Restaurants in America 2024

9/25/2024 – (Twin Cities Business Journal)
Francis Burger on East Lake Street

8/5/2024 – (Longfellow Whatever)
Francis Vegan Burger Joint Coming to Old Peppers & Fries Building

5/30/2024 – (Star Tribune)
Best Burger in the Twin Cities

2/4/2024 – (FOX 9)
Juicy Lucy Doc Feature

8/4/2023 – (MSP Magazine)
5 Plant-Based Burgers in the Twin Cities

3/2/2023 – (Axios Twin Cities)‍
‍Review: Francis’ Vegan Jucy Lucy

1/17/2023 – (VegNews)
Cocktails & Comfort Food at Minneapolis’ First Vegan Bar

11/10/2021 – (The Jason Show)‍ ‍
The Jason Show Feature

Bauhaus Brew LAbs

For over a decade, our friends at Bauhaus has been brewing some of the best beer in the Twin Cities, right down the street from Francis NE at Broadway and Central Avenue.  With the huge growth of THC seltzers in the last few years, they launched their THC line called Tetra.  On 4/20, 2025, Francis collaborated with Tetra to release a Guava Limeade Seltzer.  At 5mg THC with 5mg CBG (as well as vitamin B12), this seltzer is delicious and refreshing with a gentle THC vibe.  Available at both Francis locations, the Bauhaus Tap Room, and liquor stores and co-ops around the Twin Cities - pick some up today!

Earl Giles

Our friends at Earl Giles have been instrumental in Francis’s origin story.  Before we literally even had a bar built at our first location in North East, our good friend of 20+ years Mike Byrne toured what was at the time a mess of a construction project @ Francis NE.  He pitched us a vision, where this amazing distillery run by a bunch of incredibly talented and knowledgeable people, would partner with us to create a one of a kind, delicious and innovative bar program.  The beauty of it - Earl Giles is located right down the street.  It has been so cool through the years to work together with the Earl Giles folks to create delectables like “cucumber and pineapple elixir” for margaritas, and root beer syrups for a boozy soda cocktail that we featured on our original menu.  Go check them out at Quincy Hall in NE at your earliest opportunity!  earlgiles.com

Impossible Foods

Francis’s mission is very much aligned with Impossible Beef’s - to make plant-based eating delicious, easy, and not at all a compromise compared to the animal-based equivalent.  We love the origin story…Pat Brown, the founder of Impossible, taking a break from his tenured professor position at Stanford, in order to pursue what he thought was the single biggest opportunity to improve humanity’s chances of surviving on planet earth:  Reducing/eliminating the farming of cattle for human consumption.  This may sound a little outrageous, but it is entirely true.  Animal agriculture’s environmental effects are more damaging to the planet than ALL the forms of transportation world-wide COMBINED.  But if you ask Pat, he’ll tell you that the most important thing about Impossible (in hopes of completing his mission of greatly lessening our dependence on meat) is that it is absolutely delicious and craveable.  It looks exactly like ground beef, starts out red when raw even, and tastes so much like ground beef that people tell us literally every day at Francis that they wouldn’t know the difference. 

Bauhaus Brew LAbs

For over a decade, our friends at Bauhaus has been brewing some of the best beer in the Twin Cities, right down the street from Francis NE at Broadway and Central Avenue.  With the huge growth of THC seltzers in the last few years, they launched their THC line called Tetra.  On 4/20, 2025, Francis collaborated with Tetra to release a Guava Limeade Seltzer.  At 5mg THC with 5mg CBG (as well as vitamin B12), this seltzer is delicious and refreshing with a gentle THC vibe.  Available at both Francis locations, the Bauhaus Tap Room, and liquor stores and co-ops around the Twin Cities - pick some up today!

Steady Pour

Another local Northeast Minneapolis friend, Steady Pour produces some of the most delicious juices and concoctions that Francis proudly features on our non-alcoholic beverage menu.  Also featuring an event space and bar located just miles from Francis, Steady Pour purveys small batch, high quality and innovative drink ingredients that combine the juices of fruits and vegetables, herbs and botanicals, teas and more.  GO visit them ASAP and if you see them on a menu around town, ORDER IT!  https://www.steadypour.com

Vegan East

If you’re looking for the most delectable sweets around, vegan or otherwise, look no further than Vegan East.  Our friends at VE have been pumping out the most amazing dairy and egg free desserts in the Twin Cities for years.  We figured, why not turn a burger into a cupcake?  Abracadabra!  Vegan East made us the cutest, sweetest little burger cupcake (to be clear, it TASTES like a cupcake and LOOKS like a burger!) that we are super proud to sell at our East Lake location.  Hit these friends up for your next party or event, or when your next sweet tooth comes calling!  veganeast.com

MN NON Dairy Lab

Now this is fun… what do you get when you combine a scratch, craft made vegan ice cream with Francis’s outrageously addicting rainbow sprinkle sugar cookies?!  You get RAINBOW SPRINKLE COOKIES AND CREAM ICE CREAM.  Our friends are cranking out the creamiest, most delicious ice cream around, just about a mile from Francis in Northeast.  We are so pumped to collaborate with them to create a variety of delicious treats - including the aforementioned cookies and cream ice cream (available at both Francis locations) and Ice Cream Sandwiches (available at Francis NE).  Stop in to grab a cold delicious treat at Francis today, and look for the MN Non-Dairy Lab label at co-ops, the State Fair, and other purveyors of creamy delightfulness!