On the road again: Bouchercon, Albany, day 1

Being a foodie doesn't mean you enjoy only fancy meals.  It means you have a strong interest in food.  In my case, it also means a fascination with the noble tube steak.

That interest led me to today's lunch destination, Dallas Hot Wieners, a business that has served downtown Albany diners for decades.

As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

The food here is anything but fancy, but it sure is tasty.  I, of course, opted for the two signature hot dogs, the one with sauce and the one with cheese.

Yeah, my arteries were hardening even as I ate.

In for a penny, in for a pound in this place, so we shared an order of cheese and sauce fries.

The sauce really is a slightly spicy sauce, not a chili.  The cheese really is, well, you know: the stuff you pump from a can in great yellow spurts.

Over at the convention center, the dealers' room occupied a nifty, tiered space.

The opening ceremonies took place in the lovely theater in The Egg.

Man, would I love to do a stand-up show there to a packed house.  (Hey, I can dream.)

Dinner was an adequate but no better meal at Taste Restaurant. Had the food lived up to the dining room, it would have been excellent, but, alas, the interior design of the place was its best feature. Its worst feature was the dessert I chose: the chef's special cherry cheesecake. I was hoping for a lovely creation of cheesecake-y goodness infused with fresh cherries. What arrived instead was a hockey puck of sadness, a little disc of cheesecake that looked as if it had died of sadness and that tasted, to steal from Better Off Ted, like despair. I won't be going back to Taste this trip.

At the end of the main street that runs to the capitol stands this imposing part of SUNY Albany. 

Should the zombies attack this campus, the students should mount their defense from that tower.

On the walk back to the hotel, I spotted and could not resist this plaque.

How can you not love the name "Bogardus"?