I Didn't Throw Up

That’s about the only good thing I can say about Tuesday night.

That, and I defended my title at the Mezcal taco eating contest.


28 of us threw down. 28!

The contest was divided into 3 rounds. Round 1, we had 10 minutes to eat 15 tacos. Make it to round 2, you had 10 minutes to down 10 tacos. The final round was a 3-minute eat-all-you-can race.

Round 1. Kind of a crazy atmosphere with 28 of us, but we all got situated. When the plate of 15 tacos was put in front of me, my first thought was “holy crap, they’re big!”. The tacos for the last contest were tortilla, a little meat, and some cabbage. I’d say 2 ounces. These, 4 or 5 ounces, maybe? Same tortilla, bigger chunks of meat, more cabbage, and some pico de gallo. And some hot sauce. HOT. But we all had to handle the 15. I don’t remember too much about the eating, but I know I had to seriously stuff it in so I could have a clear plate at the end and move to round 2. Of the original 28 eaters, just 7 moved on to round 2.


Round 2. 10 tacos. Another serious stuff at the end. A couple of guys, who had finished their plate, puked. Some guy sporting a bandana named Damon, from New Orleans, claimed a 40-1 record in eating contests. Make that 40-2 now. Me and another guy (he had to be 6-8, maybe 260, a hulk) were the only ones to make it to round 3.

Me and the Damon guy

Damon puked at 22 or 23.

Round 3. The other guy was hurting, and so was I. We both just cleared our mouths from round 2 when round 3 began. He ate ½, and threw in the towel. Thankfully! I was thinking about taking the win and ending it too, but I didn’t. I at least wanted to up my taco record. I dug deep, and after putting down 3 more, I called it. 28 eaten. Upped my record from last time by 2. Him calling it after ½ was really, really fortunate for me. I was maxed.


Easily the most I’ve eaten. Easily. Between the tacos and water, no doubt about it.


The last taco eating contest at Mezcal was, comparatively, much easier. This one, not so easy. Without T-bonz, no way. I did the work, but she pulled me through. Everyone should get their own T-bonz.

Top 3:

1st - 28 - Me
2nd - 25.5 - Miguel
3rd - 22 - Roscoe

nightlifedenver.com has an awesome gallery of photos here.