Texas Food Tourism

There is a famous restaurant in Amarillo that is a crazy, crazy place.  I have it on good authority that the only time locals go there is when they are escorting visitors.  It's called the Big Texan Steak Ranch and one of its claims to fame is a free 72 oz steak as you can see in the photo.  What you can't read in the small print is that you have to eat those 4 and 1/2 pounds of steak along with dinner fixings (salad, roll, baked potato and shrimp cocktail) in under an hour.

If you can do it, your dinner's free.  Otherwise, you pay.  In more ways than one, most likely.

The group I was dining with wanted someone to try the challenge while we were there.  We weren't sure whether we wanted the contestant to succeed or fail, but we were clear that we didn't want any vomit to mar our lovely evening.  (Apparently, that is a not uncommon side effect.)

We got lucky.  This young man from PA decided to go up to the stage and give it a whirl.  The timer is ticking away in the background.  He gave up after about 40 minutes, with little drama, saying only, "that's a lot of steak."  We heard from the waitress that he had managed to eat about 50 ounces of steak before quitting.

In addition to the free show of gluttony, there is a candy shop, gift store, shooting gallery, beer garden, maze, and gold panning station on the premises for anyone who gets bored of just eating.

So anytime you find yourself wanting to see the Texas equivalent of Wall Drug, head on down to the Big Texan.  You'll be entertained.