Burger Shack - BURGER CHALLENGE

What you are about to read is why this blog exists.  I know I said that I wanted to talk about the food I eat and the cool things I try while traveling for work, but the reality of the situation is I wanted to attempt ridiculous food challenges in hopes of beating them and achieving eternal glory.  Looks like you're up Burger Shack!

I heard about this place from my coworker Dan who went here last year and had a normal sized burger.  He told me about the challenge when he got back to the office and I've been waiting to go to war ever since.  Before I really get into it, let me just make it clear that I thought this was a Burger Challenge.  I thought I was walking into a giant burger and had to eat it in a specific amount of time... WRONG!  The Burger Shack Burger Challenge is a 48 ounce (3 pound) burger that's complete with 2 buns and 12 pieces of cheese as seen here:

Sounds like a lot BECAUSE IT WAS.  You're looking at 6 1/2 pound patties (again, 3 pounds), with 2 slices of cheese on each patty (2 x 6 = 12 slices of cheese for those mathematically challenge readers) with a bun at the bottom of each massive pile.  The thing needed to be split in half and staked so it wouldn't fall over...

But, the fun doesn't stop there my friends.  I soon found out that I had to eat a large order of chili cheese fries in addition to that massive meat monstrosity.

Any competitive eater (not to say I am one) knows that the fries are the toughest part and this challenge came with plenty of them covered in meat and cheese and beans.  Good thing that was the only curveball I had to deal with.  OH WAIT, let's add something else!  How about a large chocolate milkshake?

I love me a milkshake, but not when I'm trying to complete a burger challenge!  So what I thought was a doable "burger" challenge soon turned out to be a full fledged death trap of a challenge, but I ordered it anyways and took a shot at taking it down.  Here's what it all looked like snuggled up together:

So again, I had to eat a 48 ounce burger (6 1/2 pound patties) with 12 slices of cheese and 2 buns, a large order of chili cheese fries, AND a large chocolate milkshake within an hour.  Sweet Jesus.  When this was all placed down in front of me I felt just like Michael Scott when he found out Toby was back.  NO GOD!  PLEASE NO!  NO!!!!

I gave it a shot, but in the end I came up short.  The food was delicious (until the end when I hated life) and I would absolutely go back to have a normal meal there, but more than likely try the challenge again.  Could I have eaten more when I tapped out?  Yes.  But I had a college fair to go to at night and didn't want to throw up on students.  Hilarious as that sounds, probably not a good look for me.  But this is what was left (2 patties) after I ate 4 patties, 8 slices of cheese, a bun, all the chili cheese fries, and the large chocolate shake.

In the end it was a failure, but I did get my money's worth in napkins.

I just want to point out that I did feel like absolute death afterwards.  Not a great feeling to have when you still have to go to work at night, but I did what I had to do.  And even though I failed and looked like an idiot, at least the girl at the front desk said I still look good to her!