The Arrival of Lilberg

I'm finally a Burger Biker instead of walker or driver! I decided for my first actual Burger Biker adventure I would meet my friend Sandy at Carytown Burgers and Fries. Sandy has been equally enthusiastic about Burger Biking, but is only just joining me because she's been planning and having her wedding and honeymoon for the last two weeks! Sandy has dubbed herself Lilberg, and will be joining me a lot in the future! Here we are at her family's house in Smithfield on the rivah.

Now I haven't ridden a bike regularly since I was about 12, so riding a bike I'm not familiar with through the city of Richmond made me a little wary. First challenge, however, was getting the bike out of the apartment. If you've visited Cory and I, you'll know what a problem this is. We live on the third floor of an apartment building with high ceilings.

The hardest part was holding the bike on the stairs with one hand, while trying to open the doors with the other. It was not graceful. Once I got on the bike, things went a little bit better.  I had Googled the directions to Carytown Burgers to give myself an idea of how long it should take me. The directions said it would take me about 15 minutes. This seemed reasonable to me. How quickly I learned my lesson. The gears need some work, so I was a little nervous about trying to change gears, even though they were stuck in the gear that makes it really hard to pedal. About half way through I decided that being able to walk the next day was worth trying to change to a lower gear, only to have the chain fall off and get stuck. After about 10 minutes of trying to find where it was stuck and then finally pulling the chain out and getting it in the right place again, I was back on the road! Only to realize that I had ridden to Burger Bach (another Carytown burger place), not Carytown Burgers and Fries. I guess I should have looked at the directions rather than just the time. Luckily Carytown Burgers was just around the corner.

I'm not sure what Sandy must have thought when I pulled up twenty minutes late. I was SO sweaty. And coming from the wrong direction. I also realized that I didn't have a bike lock. Needless to say, I was ready for a burger. Sandy went with a basic bacon cheeseburger and I went with "The Smoky," which had BBQ sauce, grilled onions and pickles. We got beers, found a seat where we could keep an eye on the bike and waited for our burgers while I tried to cool down and dry off. Once the burgers came, I was starving and even though Sandy and I had talked about the right way to reheat a leftover burger from a restaurant, I knew I would eat the whole thing. With that said, this was the biggest burger I've had so far. It didn't even fit in the little cardboard boat they put it in. The BBQ sauce was perfectly tangy, the onions were smooth and not stringy and the pickles gave it just the right amount of crunch. I devoured the whole thing.

Like the paper says, it was delicious. Here I am eating my last bite.

Two giant burgers (Sandy was good and decided to half of hers home), two baskets of fries, six beers and 20 napkins later, we decided to walk back to Sandy's apartment and start the second part of our summer together - day drinking and watching Scandal. All in all a great day for Burger Biker and Lilberg.

PS I'm not sure why the comments haven't been working. I've tried a couple different things and still nothing. I'll have Cory take a look and hopefully they'll be back up soon! Sorry!

PPS I thought getting the bike out of the apartment was going to be the hard part, forgetting that I'd soon have to get the bike back into the apartment using those same stairs. UGH.

Beer Frog

I have two more burgers to add to my list from Station 2 and Legend Brewing Co. Last Thursday, I met my friend Tricia at Station 2. The bike still wasn't ready and it was raining so I drove. Sorry. Station 2 is an old fire station that's been converted into a restaurant. They have lots of different burgers on the menu and beers on draft to go with them! They were one of the restaurants participating in RVA Burger Week, so I decided to try the burger they had selected for it. It was called the "Chow Bella" and here's how they describe it: "roasted sweet peppers, bacon, mozzarella, Manakintowne (VA) arugula, onion, & garlic aioli."

I thought this was a good choice because it seemed healthier than the bacon burger I'd eaten the night before. Tricia got the "Beerfest," which I think might have been the better decision. Sometimes with burgers I think it's important to realize you're already forgoing healthy, so you might as well just smother it in beer cheese. Lesson learned. With that said, the "Chow Bella" was really good. The times I could manage to get all the ingredients in one bite were amazing. I wish there had been more of the peppers and aioli, because those were the flavors that really made this burger. Next time I'd ask for some aioli on the side. Who am I kidding - next time I'm getting the "Beerfest." Another interesting fact about this restaurant is that they have lots of art for sale on the walls. This seems to be pretty common in Richmond, which makes sense with VCU Art students everywhere! There were a couple of pictures of tree frogs on the wall, which didn't seem so strange until you really looked and saw that it was a tree frog sitting on a PBR logo. Tricia and I decided that if it was for sale for $35 or less, it would be totally worth it. We forgot to ask.

 Almost better than the PBR Frog, is the picture on the right of a giant black blob eating stick people.

Finally, on Saturday Cory and I went to Legend Brewing Co. for my final stop during RVA Burger week. They were offering an "Avacado Black Bean Burger." Now this is only the third burger I've had this summer, but so far it was the best. And part of me feels badly saying that since it didn't even have any meat, but as I've said before, I don't discriminate when it comes to burgers. And thank goodness, because this burger was amazing. It had great black bean flavor, a little bit spicy, really hearty. Yum. My cousins taught me a recipe for black bean soup, and if you know me you've probably eaten it because I make it ALL the time. This burger was like that black bean soup in burger form.

I realize that the pictures from these two places are awful. I'll try to do better next time. Which is actually in about 45 minutes with my friend Sandy at Carytown Burgers and Fries. Plus, the bike is ready to go, so this will be the first actual burger biker experience. I'll probably be really sweaty. You're welcome :)