 "Photo: Courtesy of Will Spade")
If you're hungry, and regular food simply won't do, Pittsburgh is the city for you. In fact, the city offers plenty of places where you can challenge your stomach's capacity and your ability to extreme eat.
The three-pound burger
The Pittsburgh Steak Company, located on the South Side, offers a food challenge that will send all but the toughest home licking their wounds. To complete the three-pound burger challenge, you must eat a three-pound cheeseburger, a plate of fries, and veggies in an hour.
The entrance fee for this challenge is $35, but if completed, the fee is refunded and the combatant is awarded $25, a T-shirt and everlasting glory on the restaurant's wall of fame.
According to the wait staff, the challenge has been around for a year and one half and has attracted more than 100 hopeful contenders, but only one has tasted victory so far. Bob Kuhns, one of the first to attempt the challenge, was able to crush the burger in only 24 minutes.
The burger is so large that the restaurant needs two hours of advance notice to cook and served it up, so be sure to call ahead if you plan on taking on this challenge.
The atomic wings
Oakland's Quaker Steak and Lube challenges the daring to a task that doesn't have a time limit, but it is instead a test of survival. There's no monetary reward for eating the restaurant's atomic wings, just the glory of victory.
What the challenge lacks in quantity, it makes up for in spiciness, said restaurant manager Tony Work.
"Once people start, they don't stop. But once they're done, they say ‘never again,'" Work said.
The wings are so spicy that any person hoping to complete the challenge has to sign a waiver releasing the restaurant from any liability.
According to Work, about 10 to 20 people attempt the challenge each week. He has seen a whole spectrum of hopeful victors enter the ring.
"I'll see a big, muscular guy come in and say it's the hottest thing he's ever eaten," Work said. "But I've also seen a twelve-year-old girl eat them and say it's nothing."
The 36-ounce steak
At Jerome Bettis' Grille 36 on the North Shore, there are plenty of menu items to help stave off hunger for those with the largest of appetites: the "Mammoth XXL Turkey Leg" and "Ginormous BLT Double Grilled Cheese Ranch Burger" fit the bill. But the modestly named "The 36" tops the list at $55.
The 36-ounce steak wins first in both the portion and price categories, but quite a few customers still order it, said Alecia Stevens, a hostess at Grille 36.
"A lot people see it as a contest," Stevens said. And "a lot of people come really close to finishing it," but few do.
The four-foot pizza
If you want to host a party or feed an army, Mandy's Pizza on the North Side offers a "monster menu" that includes a 50-inch cheese pizza. This challenge weighs in at $43, but toppings can load up the price.
Making a pizza the size of a child requires some advanced notice, so Mandy's asks customers to give them an hour and a half warning.
The restaurant also offers a one-pound burger and "monster fries" — over one pound of French fries topped with bacon, cheese and sour cream.
The one-pound fish sandwich
If your stomach is in the mood for something huge, but your wallet doesn't want to suffer for it, Wholey's Seafood in the Strip offers their "Whaler" sandwich.
This sandwich offers one whole pound of filet of whiting fish for $7. The low price won't leave you hurting so badly if you can't finish; you'll only have lost your pride.
Wholey's sells about 250 Whalers over a weekend, but might only sell 30-50 on a weekday, according to Matt Johnson, kitchen manager.
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