2011 Rock The Tot

Three hours after finishing the Killer Burrito at Chile Red, it was time for a tater tot eating contest. The location was Bar Louie in Arcadia, some 30 miles from Rancho Cucamonga.

The contest is held annually in April at every Bar Louie location in the United States. Every location crowns a champ, and the champ with the highest total is declared the national champion.

The staff was incredibly pumped up for the contest. There was a small crowd gathered, and a long table across from the bar was arranged for the participants to stand behind. We would have 6 minutes to devour as many tater tots as possible. They provided us with ketchup, water, and a paltry amount of napkins.

The contest format played to the absolute opposite of my strengths. 6 minutes is a sprint. I'm more of a marathon runner, from an eating standpoint. All I could hope was that I would be able to outlast the local competition, and that there were no Johnnie Excels hiding in the woodwork.

As a side note, Excel dominated the contest at the Anaheim location with a winning total near 5 lbs. You can read a summary of his contest experience here. He had a close battle with Aaron Ybarra, another talented eater with speed skill.

So... 6 minutes to get through as many 1 lb baskets of tots as possible. That's the gist of it. The bell rang and we were off.

My strategy was CRUSH-BITE-DRINK-SWALLOW. The manager was doing play-by-play commentary during the contest and said he had never seen anyone eat the tots like that before.

Well, it worked for me that night. I was the only competitor (out of 8) to finish two baskets and start on the third. The winning total was 2 lbs and 6 ozs, a low figure when compared to other tot-rockers across the United States. Second place finshed two baskets (2 lbs), and third place was right on his heels.

The $250 Bar Louie gift card, restaurant t-shirt, and makeshift title belt were a nice score.

It was a very exciting night. And a damn close finish. I'm hoping to come back to next year's contest and put up a considerably better total in the 6 minutes.

No pre-contest burrito next time!