Outrageous Deliciousness

February 2012, and Melt bar & grilled is bringing back all the most insane and popular special sandwiches from 2011! I know it's already the second week, starting today with the return of The 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon Melt, but I haven't had the chance to post this yet. The last month has been so busy and the last week has been a huge whirlwind of drawing and working. A lot of it was hustling to get this series ready for the 1st.



In celebration of Chinese New Year and The Year of The Dragon, from the 1st to the 7th, Enter The Sweet & Sour Dragon Melt starring Bruce Lee, Crispy Asian Breaded Chicken, Stir Fried Peppers, Onions and Carrots, Year of the Dragon Sweet and Sour Sauce, Flavorful Steamed Rice, Kung Fu Kick Pepper-Jack Cheese and a Hot Mustard Dipping Sauce was available. This was a Special just for a couple days when Cleveland Cinema's screened Enter The Dragon in June, as part of the Late Shift series. I don't think I ever posted the poster I had made for that one. I need to rectify that soon!



This one, I did post, from when Tremors played last November. Hickory smoked bacon, Applewood smoked bacon, Black pepper-crusted slab bacon, Italian Pancetta, Sweet candied bacon, Herb Cream Cheese with bacon bits, In-house made mayonnaise infused with bacon, Sharp Cheddar, Fresh romaine lettuce and tomato. It's insanity. I actually had this back in November, and I gotta say, it's outrageous and delicious.

It was fun choosing the six different versions of Kevin Bacon to include, but I gotta admit, it was a challenge. I wanted there to be a wide array of his roles, but also have distinct enough characters that you could tell them apart and from what movies they are from. Luckily the man has been in a ton of movies and some of the roles have been pretty crazy. I think my favorite one is the Murder in The First image, oddly I think it captures him the most accurately of the drawings. Doing likenesses is hard and never look perfect, but doing 6 likenesses, I just kind of ran with it. The other films are Footloose, Tremors, JFK, Hollow Man, and Apollo 13.



Week 3 is the return of one of the popular things I've ever seen, people were freaking out about how much they loved this jam, and with good reason! The TMNT Cowabunga Pizza Roll Melt is a serious sandwich. I'm really looking forward to this one again: Authentic Cheese Pizza Rolls deep fried till extra crispy and atomic hot, rich homemade marinara, green ooze basil pesto cream cheese, provolone and romano cheese.



I got a margin of Love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but not the same level of nostalgia that people just slightly younger than I have, which is cool, cause if there were a Wolverine's Jungle Adventure Melt I'd be first in line. Still, I wrote before a little about how drawing the turtles feels weird, HERE, and I'm happy to report that it was much less awkward this time. I think it might be that I just decided to feature one of them, or maybe after I drew them last time I got familiar enough to get acclimated to those characters. I don't know, but I'm pretty stoked on how this one landed. As luck would have it, one of my favorite sketch blogs, Ashcan Allstars, theme'd out TMNT this week. Go check out all the art over there, they're the cream of the crop.



Another hugely popular sandwich, this is the third time I've drawn a poster for The Wet Hot Buffalo Chicken Melt. Originally a tie-in with Wet Hot American Summer (which I don't think I ever posted), then the Special of The Month in September, this one is a huge contender for the best sandwich that has ever been made by man. Super Crispy Breaded Chicken Breast, Spicy Authentic Buffalo Wing Sauce, Fresh celery and blue cheese slaw, melted blue cheese, cool ranch dressing for dipping. Vegetarian version available.

I like this drawing a lot. I thought about how to keep this idea fresh and thought about going a lot more cartoony, almost into Looney Toons territory, but then brought it back a little closer to reality. Maybe next time I'll get more Foghorn Leghorn with it.



Finally, as the tie-in with the screening of Flash Gordon (1980) at the Capitol Theatre, it's Emperor Ming’s Merciless Mongo Melt: Tender Braised Asian Short Ribs, Crisp Vegetarian Egg Rolls, Mango and Mandarin Orange Slaw, Sweet and Sour Sauce, Pepper-Jack Cheese. I am really looking forward to this sandwich. This coincides with the weekend that the TMNT is available, and I may recommend a move I like to call "The Half and Half", you and a friend order two different sandwiches and split the halves and you get to have both. A really good Half and Half combination is getting The Godfather and The Parmaggedon.



With this poster I payed some homage to the cover of one of the greatest rap records of all time, The Chef Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx... It worked shockingly well. Ming with Klytus behind him in place of Ghostface.



Here's the dessert card for February. I drew this in kind of a haze of sleeplessness and exhaustion, but I think it came out pretty good. These desserts all sound really awesome, too.



Here's something a little different. The deadline for the ad for Buzzbin Magazine was actually before I had the chance to finish the art for most of the posters, so I had to cobble this together using the new art from the Sweet & Sour Dragon, a totally different Kevin Bacon drawing that didn't make it onto the 6 Degrees poster, and art from the old TMNT and Buff Chix posters I did last year. So, look for this in Buzzbin this month.

I think that's all I have to say about this month's Melt stuff, is that enough? Should I keep typing? Should I keep drawing? What could possibly be next? A Month of DAILY SPECIALS FOR AT MELT. 31 different sandwiches in MARCH?

Thanks for check in, I'll be posting a bunch of stuff in the next few days and over the next few weeks, as I try to catch up, so please check back in. There's some really fun stuff coming up!