Free 72 oz. Steak proclaims billboards for hundreds of miles on every road leading to Amarillo, Texas. The Big Texan is an old style tourist trap-a place with a gimmick and a ton of odds and ends for sale. In addition to a large dinning room reminiscence of Gunsmoke’s Long Branch, there is a pretty large gift shop filled with all manner of western themed items. Among the more interesting things was a series of mugs in the shape of rattlesnakes, one of them just like the one Craig Ferguson has on his desk on the Late, Late Show.
The Free 72 oz Steak challenge was on Man vs Food and they now have a Man vs Food meal on the menu.
The Wife found a coupon for half off a chicken fried steak and that is what I had. My two sides were mashed potatoes with gravy and fried okra. The Wife had some kind of steak and seemed to enjoy it. I am not really that big on regular steaks myself. The food was good.
No one attempted the Challenge while we were there, though the six seats on the raised dias were ready should anyone choose to go for a free 72 oz steak dinner. We heard that the dinner cost $75 if you don’t finish it off it under sixty minutes. According to the menu one man finished it in 8 minutes and one tiger finished it in 60 seconds.
The Big Texan also has a motel with an old west theme and a lot of bright colors. Also in the parking lot is a large steer, a windmill, and a number of limos that taxi people back and forth in a kind of 1980s style.
There was also fudge, all kinds of fudge. It was buy one pound and get a half pound free. So we got six 1/4 pound squares of different kinds of fudge. So far my favorite was the Mint Fudge which was bright green and a good strong mint flavor. I grew up with Pecan Fudge, so I’m sure I will like that one as well, once we dig into it.
They had a shooting gallery as well, but the one I tried just stole my fifty cents. Oh well.
There was a rattlesnake in one corner with a do not disturb sign on his cage. There was Habanero flavored pralines, which I didn’t try. There was a giant rocking chair which I was tempted to try, but decided not to. And there were all kinds of the usual souvenir stuff like magnets and postcards and t-shirts galore. They even had some of those giant coins that I found irresistible when I was a small child being drug to random tourist traps.
None of this was all that cheap. Our dinner was a bit over forty dollars and the fudge was about 13 dollars. But then, we weren’t just paying for the food. We were paying for the legend. The endless stuffed animals that lines the walls, the horn chairs, the staff all wearing western wear and rushing here and there with giant potions of steak and potatoes of one sort or another. By the time we left there were even three old guys wandering around singing songs like Waltz Across Texas and Ghost Riders in The Sky. They were pretty good. So yeah, it was worth it.
