Sunday, September 11, 2011

Comic Books and a Shelby Burger

As I wrote in the first entry, I'm a comic fan. If I'm in another city and there happens to be a comic shop, I'll make a special effort to check it out. So when I found out there was a small comic convention in Denver this weekend, I was totally jazzed about going. My good friend Glenn and I headed downtown at noon to poke around the various booths that were set up. I was pleasantly surprised to see a ton of cool silver and bronze age stuff. Silver age means stuff from roughly the sixties, and bronze age is pretty much seventies books. I was inches away from Amazing Fantasy #15 which was pretty neat. That's where Spider-Man appeared for those that don't know. It's super cool.

I, however, am a huge Daredevil fan, and I'm slowly putting together the entire run. My prized issue is actually Daredevil #1. It's in pretty rough shape. It looks about as good as the Chiefs did this afternoon against the Bills. In any case, I try to fill in a few issues at every show I go to. I have a list. I'm a huge dork. I totally love it. I scored 11 books bringing me down to 99 issues to go. The coolest one I got was #34.


I love goofy quotes and titles on old comics. They just rock.

After we were done at the show, it was lunch time and I was jonesing for a burger. Last time I went to a place I love, and there was another place nearby that I am a huge fan of. However, this would be the lamest blog ever if I never tried new burger places. So we hopped into Glenn's car and drove around a bit downtown before coming upon Shelby's. Located at 18th and Glenarm, Shelby's Bar and Grill looked like a place where you should be able to get a burger. And heck, this could be a great place to get a burger. It's been around for over thirty years, so they must do something well.

You know how people describe old stuff that should be replaced as having character? This place had a lot of character. A lot. That's okay though. This place just might have the best burger ever. Glenn and I opened our menus and both went straight to the burger section. Right off the bat I noticed the Shelby Burger. It had olives, cheddar, swiss, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. I hate olives. I'll eat them on pizza if there are no better options, but I generally find them to be an oddly textured piece of gross. Needless to say, I went Shelby Burger with no olives prepared medium. Glenn went with the exact same burger.

Now I've had cheddar and swiss before on grilled cheese sandwiches or fondue, but I've never gone multi-cheese on a burger. This would be the central concept that was new to me on this burger. After watching the beginning of the CU game, our burgers came out, and I have to admit that they looked pretty tasty. The waitress had given me a hard time about my indecision to include mayonaisse or not, but it was all in good fun. To be safe, she brought some out to the table just in case.


I piled my lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a little ketchup on the burger and prepared to take the first bite. It wasn't a bad bite, but it wasn't great either. I looked at the 1/3 pound of meat, minus one bite, and realized there wasn't even a hint of pink. The burger had been vastly overcooked, which means it was dry. I was disappointed. Not crazy, "Send this back!" disappointed, but it just wasn't what I had hoped for. The cheese duo didn't really work for me either. First of all, it was uneven, and I would get overly cheesy bites, and underly cheesy bites. I'm pretty sure that's not a word, but I'm using it anyways. Secondly, by including both cheddar and swiss with meat and veggies, there was just too much going on. I love cheddar and swiss, but not on the same burger. You don't get the specific qualities of either cheese. From now on, there can only be one cheese.

I'm glad I went to Shelby's. It's fun to try new places, and I learned a valuable lesson about cheese. By the way, if anyone else has cheese lessons I'll attend your class. I love cheese. The staff was super nice, and they even put on the Buffs game for me and Glenn. Glenn and I agreed that the burger wasn't anything to write home about. I'm not entirely sure if that counts blogging, but we'll say it doesn't. In any case, I'll start planning my next burger adventure. There are a few places I want to check out near work, so maybe a lunchtime quest is in order.

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