Food Challenges in Chicagoland

Watching Man Vs. Food go to all these other cities and thinking I'd like to try the challenges he does. I did do one in Atlanta once which was really easy; eating a 1 LB (precooked weight) hamburger and sides and my prize was a picture with a Marilyn Monroe standup that was posted on the wall. After I ate all of mine I ate my wife's fries and half of her burger. I could have easily done the 2lb burger, maybe even the 3lb.

Are there any of these challenges in Chicagoland?

How about the Triple (or bigger) Undisputed at GNR Wiener & Still Champion?

Wiener & Still Champion
802 Dempster St
Evanston, IL 60202
(847) 869-0100

Rocks has a burger challenge - quadruple cheeseburger with fries and a time limit on how fast it has to be consumed.

Adam filmed his challenge at Lucky's and it aired on his Chicago episode:

http://www.luckysandwich.com/Wrigley/ContestRules.html

Hi- Apparently Adam is not doing the challenges himself anymore. He now has a volunteer do the challenge. They show reruns of the show on Saturday mornings.

I saw Bricks Pizza on a Heat Seekers episode. Pizza with a bunch of different peppers and hot sauce. It was too hot for both of them.

Pho's Hot & Spicy Thai in Lakeview.

Order any spicy dish "5x spicy" or above and get your picture with the chef on the wall. Your free to go as hot as your willing to challenge yourself. I believe the record is still 18x; have at it, because 8x was definitely a struggle for me, and I can handle my heat. The hardest part is when you start to get full... I'd be able to handle > 18x if it where a reasonable portion that didn't bust my pants open.

Up until eating 8x at Pho's, the hottest thing I've ever chowed all the way down and completed was the Phall Curry challenge at Brick Lane Curry House in NYC. Pho's is much hotter than that was.

5x is my take-out Red Curry standard, I can't go without eating it for more than a week 1/2. It's probably my favorite Red Curry in the city. Nothing fancy, just a really standard Thai Red Curry containing the usual suspects of ingredients, done right, every time, at any heat level desired without ever being questioned. One of my favorite comfort foods for sure.

-B


Pho's Hot & Spicy Thai
3332 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
Phone number (773) 755-1995

One of my clients is The Fifty/50* -- an upscale sports bar in Wicker Park -- and they have "The Fifty/50 Ultimate Eating Challenge" on the menu. Down 50 menu items in 50 minutes or less and the meal is free, you get a tee shirt, and your photo on the wall of fame.

The challenge includes:
30 buffalo chicken wings
5 strips of bacon
5 onion rings
mac n cheese
half rack of ribs
"Triple Secret" burger slider
turkey burger slider
pulled pork slider
duck breast slider
crab cake slider
grilled cheese slider
pb&j slider
50 ounces of draft beer

I've personally seen Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti (then ranked the No. 2 eater in the world) and Tim "Gravy" Brown (then ranked the No. 2 eater in the world) each take down the whole challenge in 9:30 and 12:30, respectively. You can watch that video here:
http://www.redeyechicago.com/videogalle ... -challenge

This challenge has been around for a little over two years and to the best of my knowledge outside of Bertoletti and Brown only one other person has completed it. And I know there's been at least fifty people that have tried it. While this challenge doesn't seem like a ton of food, people just can't complete the wing part. The wings at The Fifty/50 are pretty massive -- an order of eight bone-in wings weighs 1.5 pounds.

Anyways, you can check out the menu that has the challenge here:
http://www.thefifty50.com/pdfs/fifty50_dinner.pdf

The Fifty/50
2047 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
773-489-5050

* I am the publicist for The Fifty/50

Great Sea Chinese on Lawrence has a Wall of Fame in the front entry way for those who have conquered a high number of their spicy chicken wings (which are legendary in their own right).

Great Sea
3254 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL
(773) 478-9129

Bad Happy Poutine's Triple-Double Challenge is amazing for the sheer awesomeness of gluttony that involves overeating and gravy...The Poutine's are excellent as well

The Triple-Double Challenge
​​​
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Take down a triple BadHappy Sauce Burger (18 oz), two full poutines, and a milkshake (12 oz) in 30 minutes or less.

If you complete the challenge (and 9 guys have so far)​​, the meal is free and you get a BadHappy t-shirt and a sticker on the wall of fame. If you don't finish it in time, you gotta pay $30 and walk it off.

Bad Happy
939 N. Orleans St.
Chicago, IL 60610
312-890-2165

Phil's Last Stand Fatso's Po'Boy Challenge has been mentioned before:

[you have 60 minutes to devour this truly beastly Po’Boy and a humongous side of fries and down it all with a 32 oz. soda. This sandwich has a healthy slab of special sauce on the bottom half of the bun topped with tomato and pickle slices. It may sound like finger food so far, but there is more.
The two pounds of famous jumbo fried shrimp, coleslaw, and mound of shoe string fries make this more than finger food and a mere handful. To top it all off, the top side of the hoagie bun is drowned with cheddar cheese sauce. To put a finer point on it, this amalgamation of the most contemptible gluttony Fat Phil could contrive is three iPhones in length, one iPhone in width, and an iPhone in height.

Link

SSDD

Rudy's Bar and Grill
69 E. Madison Chicago, Il 60603
Rudy's
Rudy's Famous Challenger Burger – Try it if you dare.
5.5 LBS of food served in a skillet. Finish in under 30 minutes: get a t-shirt, a $100 gift
certificate and we’ll buy THE CHALLENGER. Can only win once. SIGN THE WALL. $33.00

There is the Paddy Long's Bacon Bomb Challenge. I think Adam Richman took on that one also. No, he didn't. Why didn't I click through and check?
Here is a World-Wide Web site (not affiliated with any TV show or network) which annotates all the restaurants depicted on "Man v. Food", and thirty-six other shows.

Chicago Food Challenges

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-mcd ... 50711.html

Funk Dracula wrote:Pho's Hot & Spicy Thai in Lakeview.

Order any spicy dish "5x spicy" or above and get your picture with the chef on the wall. Your free to go as hot as your willing to challenge yourself. I believe the record is still 18x; have at it, because 8x was definitely a struggle for me, and I can handle my heat. The hardest part is when you start to get full... I'd be able to handle > 18x if it where a reasonable portion that didn't bust my pants open.

Up until eating 8x at Pho's, the hottest thing I've ever chowed all the way down and completed was the Phall Curry challenge at Brick Lane Curry House in NYC. Pho's is much hotter than that was.

I like to think I can take a decent amount of spice, but I find even the Medium at Pho's to be pretty powerful (certainly more so than any other Medium I've had). I can only imagine what 8x or 18x would be like.

Tambreet wrote:

Funk Dracula wrote:Pho's Hot & Spicy Thai in Lakeview.

Order any spicy dish "5x spicy" or above and get your picture with the chef on the wall. Your free to go as hot as your willing to challenge yourself. I believe the record is still 18x; have at it, because 8x was definitely a struggle for me, and I can handle my heat. The hardest part is when you start to get full... I'd be able to handle > 18x if it where a reasonable portion that didn't bust my pants open.

Up until eating 8x at Pho's, the hottest thing I've ever chowed all the way down and completed was the Phall Curry challenge at Brick Lane Curry House in NYC. Pho's is much hotter than that was.

I like to think I can take a decent amount of spice, but I find even the Medium at Pho's to be pretty powerful (certainly more so than any other Medium I've had). I can only imagine what 8x or 18x would be like.

Can anyone speak to whether or not the heat at Pho's is achieved through the use of actual peppers as opposed to powdered chemical capsaicin?

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My kid has been watching "Man vs. Food" and he says he's interested in doing one of these (someday). In the meantime, he wants to visit a place that does them. Do any of you know of food challenges in the northern suburbs, other than Wiener & Still Champion?