Monster of a Burger, Part One

Some challenges feel more like contests. Yankee Doodles, in Santa Monica, offers a stupendous burger challenge with a 15 minute time limit. You gotta eat it all to win: the burger, the fries, and a pitcher of drink.

Does it even seem plausible? That's a 24 oz patty smothered in cheese and vegetable toppings buried beneath a mammoth custom bun. The whole monstrosity straddles about 1.5 lbs of french fries. The pitcher of "drink" (soda, water, or anything else on the menu) couldn't be any less than 44 oz. It's a ton in 15 minutes.

The manager told me that they had run the challenge for five years. In those five years not one person even managed to finisher the burger. What's the story? An impossible challenge?

I started to wonder if they even kept champion t-shirts on hand. This looked like a solid bet for the House. Maybe they'd get $30 out of me too.