SAPHIRE CAFE - Steak and Cheese Eating Contest - Results

While walking through Bethesda today I was drawn into South Street Steaks on Cordell Avenue. With the best Steak and Cheese served outside of Philly, I couldn't resist having lunch there. In Philly lingo - I had a cheese steak wit onions - CheezeWiz - plus sweet peppers on top. Wow...delicious.

While there the owner asked me if I was covering the WHIZ BOWL IV. A Steak and cheese eating contest? Wow...I was intrigued.

So, here I am at the Saphire Cafe @ 7940 Wisconsin Avenue waiting for the festivities to begin. With three whole steak and cheese subs lined up ready for consumption, the contestants cannot possibly imagine the world of hurt they will be in when it is all over.

For the first prize of $250, is it worth feeling miserable for the rest of the night? God help the 2nd and 3rd place contestants!

The contest started with everyone pounding down the cheesesteaks. After the first few were consumed, it became a two man contest. Both guys were eating faster then we could keep count. To keep tally, there was a female judges behind each contestant with crude paper signs indicating how many subs were consumed.

When the 15 minutes were up, the final tally for the winner was EIGHT and one half subs. It is hard to fathom how someone can consume over 8 subs, when the small sub I consumed four hours previous was still making me feel stuffed.

Congratulations to Phil "The Fury" Fiore. Tall and skinny, I don't know where this kid put it. A University of Maryland student from Randolph New Jersey, he was slightly behind until the last few minutes. When the final seconds ticked off, he was crowned the winner. I am just wondering how all of the contestants are feeling this morning.....Yikes!