A skateboarder loving burgers isn’t rare, but Chicago’s Neen Williams has turned his passion for them, and a key friendship, into seven restaurants dishing out a chomper of a cheeseburger.
Williams last week opened the seventh location of Not A Damn Chance Burger on the ground floor of 1441 Larimer Street in Denver’s Larimer Square. The professional skateboarder and fitness buff turned his line of spice seasonings into a high-end burger hall with friend and chef Phillip Frankland Lee, who is bringing his award-winning Sushi by Scratch restaurant to the lower floor of the same address at the end of the year.
The pair began NADC Burger as a pop-up in 2022; it has since grown to several locations in Austin, Texas, as well as in Chicago and Houston.
NADC only serves burgers and fries, but Williams, who is a strength trainer, said he believes burgers are only unhealthy if the calories aren’t burned off through exercise or movement.
“Besides eating a burger, are you sitting around all day and just eating burgers and milkshakes and stuff?” he said. “You want to make sure that you’re doing something and that you can take on the amount of calories a burger and fries has before eating a burger and fries.”
The two choices in terms of food: A thick, double-patty wagyu beef cheeseburger ($16) and perfectly crisp and golden French fries cooked with beef tallow ($5). The fries can also be coated in cheese, “special sauce” and sprinkled with pickle and jalapeño relish ($8 total). (The online menu also lists a “Grilled Cheese” option, AKA the burger without the burger.)
To come up with the recipe, Lee took one of Williams’ blends from his spice company, NADC Spice Rubs, and mixed it with Texas-raised wagyu beef. The burger is topped with grilled onions and pickles. A simple potato bun keeps the dense mound from crumbling into disaster. The ketchup for the fries is made in-house with chipotle peppers and has a strong tang reminiscent of another Texas creation, Whataburger Fancy Ketchup.
There are also cocktails and beer available. The hall is open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to midnight. A back bar will sell Williams’ spices, NADC shirts and build-your-own fingerboards with a custom deck.
Soon the Larimer Street address will become more familiar in Denver. Lee is opening Sushi by Scratch, his Michelin-starred restaurant concept, underneath Not A Damn Chance on New Year’s Eve. A door that leads to the intimate, chef-curated dinner is hidden by the mural of a burger-toting ape painted by local muralist Sam Pierson.
