FOLIAGE.

Fall seems to be flying by already. My favorite month, October, has already come & gone. I don't know about y'all, but my life has been pretty kick ass as of late, aside from the whole ending up in a ditch thing. Halloween, the best holiday EVER, was a blast. We kind of laid low & stayed home with some friends, but that didn't stop up from dressing up. Since I started dating my girlfriend 4 years ago, every year I ask her to dress up as Beth Chapman, & I would be Dog the Bounty Hunter. Well I finally got her to crack this year. I have to say, I think our costumes came out pretty amazing.

Dog likes Dogfish Head. & approves of their 120 Minute IPA.

Even though I am sad that October is over already & that AMC won't be playing awesome horror movies anymore, I am pretty excited for November. I will be seeing my favorite band Chimaira 3 times this month. We went to the first of the shows in New York City on November 3rd. Now you know that I didn't go all the way out to NYC without getting a burger. I decided that we should go to Shake Shack since it was right around the block from where we were seeing the band at BB King's. I've been to Shake Shake before but was not very impressed with it. Since it's voted the 2nd best burger in NYC, I thought that I should go back & give it another shot. I'm glad I did. It was fucking awesome. Super fresh, cooked perfectly, the bun was fresh as well & super soft, almost like a potato roll. I also got it with their signature Shack Sauce, which was kind of like a mayonnaisey Big Mac sauce (so my girlfriend tells me, I have never had a Big Mac,) which was good, they just put a little too much on my burger. But yea, their burger was super yum, but they do need to do some work on their boring, crinkle cut fries. I also decided to try their Shackmeister, which is a beer that the Brooklyn Brewery makes for Shake Shack. This wasn't very impressive either, like a citrus lager kind of. It wasn't terrible, I just wasn't overly impressed with it. Overall though, I was really happy that I decided to try Shake Shack again. I understand their long lines now.

My friend Stephen got the DOUBLE BURGER. The 2nd photo is his.
Follow him on Twitter: @Stephen_ize

We had some time to kill before the show so we mosied over to the Rattle N Hum, my absolute favorite bar ever. I love how no matter what Sarah & I go to the city for, we always end up at this bar. What was really cool was their owner Patrick gave us free food! Another reason why I love that place, the people who work there are awesome! It was also International Stout Day, & I'm not normally a stout fan, but I did drink one for the holiday! A Sixpoint Otis. & it was pretty good, super hoppy & I'm all about super hoppy.

Thanks Patrick!

Chimaira was kick ass, but that's to be expected. We went in expecting epicness & that is exactly what it was. Got to see some old Chimmy friends, so that's always cool. The whole day was just fantastic, it really couldn't have gone any better. Well, the only thing I could have gone without was getting hit in the head during Chimaira which I am pretty sure re-concussed me, but hey, what are you gonna do?

The 2nd photo is again from Stephen. I was skipping after seeing Chimaira I was so happy.

& now I am in Vermont. haha In 24 hours I go from Times Square NYC to Fletcher, Vermont. I LOVE MY LIFE. haha My uncle is visiting from Washington state so my dad rented the cabin that Sarah & I usually rent in May. It's so different being here when it's cold. It's so gorgeous with the foliage. & you best believe I am taking advantage of all the delicious beer that is out here. Where this is going to be a mini-trip & I won't get to do much burgering or check out as much beer as I would like to, I'll be doing a seperate entry for that. You can also expect a guest entry from my uncle. I will give you this preview.

But now I have to get back to drinking & watching football. Until next time. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter if you don't already: @tastemyrizzo Also, if you'd like to check out the videos that my girlfriend took of Chimaira, they can be found on my YouTube channel. & the semi-decent photos I took with my cell phone can be found here.