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.

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A post on the the new forum at supersizedmeals.com hints that Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub will announce a new giant burger some time next week.

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Reports from last weekend’s bike rally to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA, along with some nice pictures of the PA mountains can be found in this forum thread. I don’t think any biker made a serious attempt at one of Denny’s larger burgers, but at least one group ordered a 96er which they split.

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According to sport-touring.net, a motorcycle rally to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA will take place this weekend. Currently 75 bikes from 6 states are expected. Could this be the start of the next big gathering of bikers?

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Megamunch has done further analysis on the picture of Eric “Badlands” Booker wearing a helmet. The photograph with the helment and without the helment are exactly the same except for Booker’s head. The odds that large areas of two pictures taken at different times would be exactly the same are miniscule, but other unlikely things have happened at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub.

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Dave Shoffner of the megamunch blog has posted rather conclusive evidence that the famous picture of Eric “Badlands” Booker eating Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound burger in a helmet decorated with a cartoon dog was modified.

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The Penn State student paper reports The Are U Hungry? restaurant is having a “Fat Bitch” sandwich eating contest with a $1,000 first prize. The contest will have a tournament format, so it will be inconvenient for someone living outside the Penn State area to win. Potential entrants will be timed eating a sandwich and the 64 fastest eaters will make the field.

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It has now been 1 year since Kate Stelnick conquered Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s massive 96er burger and no other finishers have been announced in that time despite that restaurant receiving a tremendous amount of publicity. Even if Denny’s made Kate a slightly smaller burger because they thought she had no chance at completing it, as some commenters on this site have stated, finishing an 8-9+ pound burger in her first attempt is an extremely impressive accomplishment.

It would be extremely interesting to see where Kate could have gone in competitive eating if she had decided to pursue it. Even if she has no desire to compete in head to head eating contests, she probably could obtain endorsements and tv appearances solely by destroying restaurant’s eating challenges. Hardee’s thought enough of her feat that they alluded to it in their commercial about Denny’s 4 pound sourdough burger which has never been finished (because it is not on the menu) so Kate herself should probably be able to land appearances in advertisements. A spinoff of Food TV’s Eating with Rachel Ray on $40/day called Eating with Kate Stelnick on $400/day 🙂 could also be envisioned.

Kate’s desire to withdraw from competitive eating is understandable considering her consumption of the 96er resulted in only winnings of $75 (which she donated for tsunami relief) along with a lot of unwanted publicity and numerous rude posts made about her on internet forums (which I hope were not repeated to her face.) If Kate has competed in her last eating contest or challenge, I would like to thank her for showing the world her amazing ability on one instance and wish her the best in her future plans.

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On Thursday it will be one year since it was announced that Kate Stelnick, a TCNJ student weighing less than 120 pounds, was the first person to finish a 10-11 pound 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA in under 3 hours. Ms. Stelnick claimed to have no previous competitive eating experience or training and has not attempted another eating contest or challenge since that time. The new poll question is designed to determine how legitimate the competitive eating community considers Kate’s feat.

Updated 1/10 2:56 pm I have started a new poll given that Kate Stelnick’s comment on this entry makes this question moot.

Previous poll results: Who will be the top ranked US eater at the end of 2006

Joey Chestnut -> 55%
Other -> 29%
Sonya Thomas -> 17%

Total Votes: 42

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katestelnick.com has a video clip (2.4 MB 4:27 low quality) from Food TV’s Unwrapped about the Ye Olde 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Pub in Clearfield, PA. That sandwich is generally listed at 11 pounds, but it actually weighs in at 10 pounds when it is placed on a scale. The clip shows how the 96er is constructed and it also has footage of an AICE contest held at Denny’s in the summer of 2004 that in which “Chowhound” Chapman and Coondog O’Karma participated. Seeing the clip last January reportedly inspired Kate Stelnick to be the first person to complete it in under three hours several days later.

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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.

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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

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