Brighton Review

I love the smell of hot dogs in the morning. Especially these Vienna Beef Woody's Chicago Hot Dogs. Each one is a foot of all-beef deliciousness with a nice snappy natural casing.

T-bonz, Mommye and I got to the Main Stage at the Brighton Culturefest about 11:30. Great day for a hot dog eating contest. There were 12 contestants competing including the defending champion from last year (he won with 6 1/2). Going in I did not know who the 10 others were, but I knew something was up when earlier in the week I contacted a marketing guy at Woody's about the competitors and he "wasn't prepared to name the contestants at this time". Menchetti? Maybe. Boone? With the satellite WLOCE office in Boulder and with him having competed 2 weeks ago in Boulder: Perhaps.

I got the answer when I arrived on scene and saw Boone. Exchanged pleasantries, and then waited to sign in. And got a look at the dogs and buns.

Sign up. Woody's got it right. On the form our name, address, dates ... already filled in. We just read and signed. The goddamn form everyone had to completely fill out before every IFOCE event always pissed me off. They know who is coming. Have the forms ready for Pete's sake! IFOCE, AICE, WLOCE, learn that, do that, show some class.

We were called up on stage by our shirt numbers. 12 to 1. The defending champion got #1. I do not know how 2 to 12 were decided, but I was #3 and Boone was #4. Each of us has a plate with 8 foot longs. 3 bottles of water.

Contest time: 10 minutes. No dunking, but you could separate the dog and bun. I did that - dog, bun, dog, bun, etc. The dogs were OK - good temp and actually still kind of juicy. The buns were quite unlike what I would have expected. Dried out, firm, and crumbly. Stale toast? I don't know how Boone choked down 9 of them. The 2nd place guy downed 7. In 3rd was the defending champ with 6. My 5 was tied 4th. Followed by a few trailers. 3 guys bowed out around the 5 minute mark.

I was pretty disappointed in my 5. But if I didn't win the Hawaii trip, I did win by not being in 2nd or 3rd. The Hawaii trip was for 1st, then both 2nd and 3rd scored sign William "Refrigerator" Perry jerseys and signed baseballs. That seems to be a pretty dramatic separation of prizes between 1st and 2nd.

Aloha, Boone. See you next year Brighton for the Woody's Chicago Style 4th Annual Footlong Hot Dog Eating Competition!

See all the photos and a slideshow here.