A segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub containing footage from a 2002 event in which diners attempted 3 and 6 pound burgers has been uploaded to youtube. No one was able to finish a 6 pound burger, but Lori Weiss did manage to set the record for the three pound burger.

DennysBeerBarrelPub.com announces that the restaurant presented a trophy to Lori Weiss on her recent birthday to honor her eating achievements at that establishment. Ms. Weiss is one of two people to have completed the monster 96er burger and also holds the female speed records for the two and three pound burgers. (The website lists Lori’s last name as “Weis”, but her 96er finisher plaque and other articles list it as “Weiss”. )

Denny’s website also mentions that it will be featured on a Travel Channel program, “All You Can Eat Food Paradise”, later this month. The program will debut on April 26 at 6pm eastern and be rerun on April 30 at 8pm.

In a recent blog entry, Wing Tut expresses skepticism about the claims that Kate Stelnick and Lori Weiss are the only people to complete Denny’s 96er burger in under three hours. There is a good deal of evidence to support Denny’s claims that Lori Weiss did accomplish what the restaurant claims. Lori Weiss ate the three pound burger (5+ pounds with toppings) in 36 minutes at a contest recorded for the Food Network in 2002, setting a record (which I believe still stands based on megamunch’s picture of the recent finishers of that burger) The archived versions of Denny’s websites have two articles about that contest:

Lancaster New Era
Clearfield Progress

I am not sure if this contest was ever televised by the Food Network since I have not been able to find any information about the show it was on. If it was, Lori’s appearance might have been cut.

Lori’s conquest of the 96er last July was documented in a blog entry at
http://baxojayz.blogspot.com/2005/07/4th-of-july-weekend-dennys-beer-barrel.html (Surprisingly, the blogger claims that the record Lori was aiming to break was under 2 hours, when the official mark by Kate Stelnick is 2:54. I am not sure if there is a lower unpublicized record or if he just got confused.)

If Lori Weiss’ feats are hoaxes, they are extremely well constructed ones.

In this blog entry, Baxojayz says he witnessed Lori Weiss complete Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 15 pound Belly Buster burger in about two hours. Last year, he said she finished the 11 pound 96er. I have sent a comment to Baxojayz, but it has yet to be approved or answered.

After a top 10 finish in Wing Bowl 14, blogger steakbellie is considering making an attempt at the 12.5 pound Zeus burger from the Clinton Station Diner, which no single eater has finished. In the comments, steakbellie says he contacted Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, who repeated their assertion that Lori Weiss tied Kate Stelnick’s time. Denny’s has not updated their website to provide information about Ms. Weiss’ feat despite having over four months to do so.

I emailed the address found at dennysbeerbarrelpub.com about the result of the attempt by Lori Weiss at the 11 pound Ye Olde 96er burger witnessed by baxojayz and received the following response:

Hello from the Pub I’m happy to report that Lori Weis completed the
Ye Ole 96er in 2 hours 54 minutes to tie Kate Stelnick for the
record…Thanks for asking Denny

It is hard to believe that the two people to finish the 96er in under three hours have a combined weight of about 200 pounds. Since Lori Weiss weighs only about 90 pounds she is probably the champion in percentage of bodyweight consumed except for possibly Kobayashi. Maybe Lori tying Kate will inspire Kate to return to Denny’s to regain sole possession of the record.

Before Kate Stelnick finished Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound Ye Olde 96er burger in January, Lori Weiss came closest to completing the behemoth burger in the three hour time limit when she finished all except the bottom half of its bun despite a body weight of less than 100 pounds. Lori Weiss also finished Denny’s burger with 3 pounds of meat (about 5 pounds total) in a record 36 minutes. Blogger Baxojayz was present at Denny’s July 4th weekend when Ms. Weiss made another attempt at the leviathan. He said that she almost finished all the burger in two hours but does not provide her finishing time (or explicity state he saw her complete it).

If Lori Weiss did finish the burger, it is surprising that no media attention was paid to it at all since Kate Stelnick received a substantial amount of national publicity after her accomplishment. It is possible that she requested Denny’s to not inform the media about her feat, but she cannot be that extremely publicity shy since her record breaking attempt at the 3 pound burger was filmed for the Food Network in 2002.

It is interesting that the petite Pennsylvanian has apparently not competed in any contests or challenges outside of Denny’s since she seems to have world class eating ability in longer duration events and has the potential to give Sonya Thomas, if not Kobayashi a challenge. If AICE could get Ms. Weiss enrolled as a member, then that organization’s case that it is equivalent to IFOCE in restaurant’s eating challenges would be bolstered tremendously.

I wonder if Ms. Weiss will attempt Denny’s 15 pound Belly Buster burger. The article about her eating the 3 pound burger mentions that she ran four miles before attempting it (she might be able to singlehandedly finish the 50 pound “Mount Olympus” burger after completing a marathon.)

Updated 9/28 1:57 am Baxojayz says he was not there to see Lori complete the burger but she was almost finished at the two hour mark. He also said that she would not have set a record if she finished soon after because the record is below two hours. I was not aware that anyone had completed the 96er since Kate Stelnick finished it in 2:54 in January