Pat Bertoletti’s twitter reports that he won today’s Krystal qualifier in Chattanooga by eating 42 regular Krystal burgers and 5 Angus burgers worth 5 points. “Wild” Bill Myers was second.

George Shea’s twitter has the top 5:

1. Pat Bertoletti 67 points
2. “Wild Bill” Myers 34 points
3. Rick Petralia 31 points
4. “Chef” Mike Nafziger
5. Paul Barlow

update The Krystal Square Off blog already has full results

update Aug 25 The Chattanoogan has a gallery

update Aug 26 Flickr has galleries of the qualifier, running of the grill and media event.

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The twitter for Kooky Kanuck (formerly Big Foot Lodge) reports that Pat Bertoletti will attempt the Kookamonga (formerly Sasquatch) burger challenge tonight at 8 pm (9 pm eastern). After completing the burger, he will attempt the 18 scoop Avalanche sundae.

update The Kooky Canuck twitter reports that Pat Bertoletti finished his Kookamonga burger in 7 minutes and 15 seconds, breaking Joey Chestnut’s previous record by 21 seconds.

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The twitter for KookyCanuck reports that Pat Bertoletti will attempt to break Joey Chestnut’s record of 7:36 for the Kookamunga Challenge on March 20.

The Memphis restaurant is also developing a 12 pound burger and a burger with pizzas as buns.

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• Joey Chestnut wants to drop below 200 lbs. before resuming eating contests
• Hungry Sisters look back on their 2008 competitive eating goals
• Music City Bowl rib eating contest between members of the Vanderbilt and Boston College football teams
• Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 6 pound burger serves 17
• Videos from the Minnesota Chicagoland Nathan’s qualifier
• IGreggor attempts the Muddy River Smokehouse Challenge and dedicates it to Furious Pete’s charity challenge
• Hot dog eating challenge at Philadelphia Eagles game
• Furious Pete wants a big facebook group to promote his charity stunt
• Cartoon about eating as a sport from Will Millender

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The Memphis Business Journal reports that The Big Foot Lodge in Tennessee has changed its name to Kooky Canuck to settle a lawsuit from a California restaurant with the same name. The Sasquatch Burger challenge has been renamed to the Kookamunga Challenge.

The restaurant’s website has been redesigned and the URL has changed to KookyCanuck.com from eatatbigfoot.com

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Here is some additional information about the challenges featured in the Man vs. Food episodes which debuted on December 3:

Big Texan Steak Ranch 72 ounce steak Amarillo, Texas

• BigTexan 72 ounce steak statistics home page
• 72 ounce steak challenge webcam
• List of all finishers 1991-2005 in the eatfeats.com database
• BBC article about the Big Texan Steak Ranch
• Amarillo.com article about Joey Chestnut breaking the Big Texan’s 72 ounce steak record
• News video (without audio) about Joey Chestnut breaking the record
• Former Big Texan record holder Frank Pastore’s blog entry about Joey Chestnut breaking his record. Pastore was a Cincinnati Reds pitcher when he broke the record for the seventh time in 1987 and is now a conservative talk radio host.
• Video clip from 2000 episode of Ripley’s Believe it or not about the Big Texan starring Rich & Carlene LeFevre

Big Foot Lodge Sasquatch Burger Memphis, TN

update Dec 22, 2008 The Big Foot Lodge changed its name to Kooky Canuck and its challenge burger is now called the Kookamunga Challenge to settle a lawsuit with a California restaurant

• The Big Foot Lodge’s page about the challenge
• The Big Foot Lodge’s Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame. Joey Chestnut is the current record holder at 7 minutes 36 seconds. Roger Robinson has completed the challenge 3 times in 2008.
• Memphis Commercial Appeal article about Jeremy Payne becoming the second finisher of the challenge
• Memphis Flyer article about Pat Bertoletti becoming the first person to finish the challenge
• The picture of the burger below was photographed at a ball in Memphis, so it is probably the Sasquatch Challenge burger. According to the photographer, the woman holding the burger completed it.

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(From Kevin Ross email) A web page has been set up for the Travel Channel series Man vs. Food. The program will feature Adam Richman traveling around the country to attempt restaurants’ eating challenges. The first two episodes will be televised on December 3 and the locations will be Amarillo, Texas (Big Texan Steak Ranch) and Memphis (The Big Foot Lodge). A list of all locations is available on the website.

Earlier this year, a producer placed a casting call on eatfeats for a host for the show.

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• Picture of Juliet Lee at the Nashville qualifier
• Favorite KSO V pictures at Krystalist
• Kobayashi has some pictures from the Krystal Square Off on his blog
• Tomoko Miyake has posted a FAQ using questions sent by her fans (Her favorite baseball team is the Hanshin Tigers)
• Craigslist posting about Raleigh, NC wing contest Sunday

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Val Bromann has a blog entry and gallery about her trip to the Krystal finals. Her father drove her from Chicago to Chattanooga from midnight to Sunday morning.

Hall Hunt also has some pictures on his blog.

update Jamie of Hungry Sisters has a pre-KSO report which includes her selection as Kobayashi’s bunnette and several videos. (She will post a contest report later)

update #2 The trip report on hungrysisters has been extended to cover the contest and a gallery has also been uploaded.

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From the Krystal Square Off twitter:

1. Joey Chestnut 93 burgers
2. Pat Bertoletti 85 burgers
3. Takeru Kobayashi 84 burgers

update #4 Fox 61 video
blog entry by Kevin the Cool Guy
blog entry by unexpected spectator
youtube video recorded from the audience

update #3 A gallery of the finals is available

update #2 Times Free Press has an article
DNJ.com has a report on Dr. Big Time’s 10 place finish

Kobayashi has a blog entry which concludes (automatically translated)

First of all, I would from next year through the IFOCE, or do believe in freedom.

Of course, is also free to Nathan and Crystal would want to be a challenge.

update The Krystal Square Off blog has full results

IFOCE.com reports Kobayashi received a 2 burger deduction, which cost him second place and $5,000 in prize money

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WDEF has a blog entry about Kobayashi’s appearance today at a Chattanooga Krystal. Kobayashi has a message for Joey Chestnut in an embedded video.

Bodog is taking bets on Krystal Square OFF V. In addition to betting on the winner (the amateur is available at 99 to 1 odds) there are several proposition bets.

In other local television news, Pete Davekos will appear on the Fox 25 morning news to promote the Garlicky Greens eating contest at b.good.

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• Kobayashi checks into a hospital, but recovers and practices with 100 burgers and plays the MLE video game
• Articles in the UAB and UTC student papers about the Krystal Square Off
• Home page for Elliot “The Bone Collector” Rader, who has won several Chicago contests (from AICE news)
• Entry form for local competitors in the Garlicky Greens contest
• Competitive Eater Ben Griffith wins the trip to the Krystal finals
• Don Lerman is questioning his future in competitive eating

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• Videos and galleries of Birmingham and Memphis Krystal qualifiers available
• Brown students attempt Spike’s hot dog challenge
• Picture from eating contest held in Beijing during the Olympics
• Don Lerman gets an impostor on his own blog
• FutureFeed sees a “glass ceiling” in the fact that only 2 of the IFOCE top 50 are females (6 of the AICE top 50 are women)

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The Krystal Square Off twitter has the top 3 of this afternoon’s qualifier in Memphis:

1. Rich LeFevre 52 burgers
2. Juris Shibayama 51
3. Erik Denmark 50

If these are the official results the 3 wild cards will be:
1. Sonya Thomas 55
2. Juris Shibayama 51
3. Badlands Booker 51

If a fourth wild card is added Crazy Legs Conti or Erik Denmark would claim the slot with 50 burgers depending on whether Conti broke Denmark’s previous result of 43.

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The Krystal Square Off blog has a preview of today’s qualifier in Memphis. Listed ranked entrants include Rich LeFevre, Crazy Legs Conti, Juris Shibayama, Erik Denmark and Chris Abatsas, Damon Serignet. Juris Shibayama’s competing in a second qualifier will give him the tiebreaker over Badlands Booker regardless of how much he eats.

Sonya Thomas will get in unless the top four breaks 55. Booker will have to hope that the runner-up does not exceed his total of 51.

Erik Denmark has blog entries about last weekend’s jalapeno contest and Krystal qualifier in Memphis. He has the following account of the Krystal overtime in Memphis:

In the 10 burger overtime eat-off, Rich Shea announced clearly to keep the eating clean – Juliet did not, she continued to stuff multiple burgers in and around her mouth getting about half of them in and half of them on the table and ground. She raised her hands in the air when her 10 burgers were out of the boxes, the crowd booed and the judges told her to eat the mess she had made. She continued to sweep up the sloppy burgers from the table and with every sweep of burger mess in to her mouth she raised her hands again looking for victory and the crowd booed louder. This continued for about the next 60 seconds, the crowd was now hoping that either Badlands or Juris would get through their 10 burgers before Juliet was done cleaning her mess.

But it didn’t happen, Juliet finally ate enough of what she had spilled to get the decision. Not a popular decision at all.

Erik Denmark also says that Kobayashi’s bye slot in the Krystal finals will be filled by an amateur pulled from the crowd and not a fourth wild card entrant.

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• Article in UT newspaper about Steve Spinosa which reports he finished fourth in the Knoxville qualifier and beat Bill Myers when he actually tied for 6th place with Myers
• Video of Erik Denmark’s salmon record attempt
• More Old Home Week pierogi contest pictures
• NYC oyster eating contest Saturday
• Kobayashi is concerned about US crime

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BeautifulBrian.com has the top 6 from today’s Krystal qualifier in Knoxville

Tim Janus 63
Crazy Legs Conti 50
Pete Davekos 32
Nate Biller 31
Dave “US Male” Goldstein 30
Wild Bill Myers 25

WBIR has an article and two videos: a contest video and an appearance by Crazy Legs Conti on the morning local news

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