Route 66 Caravan, Great Steak Challenge rolls into Granite City June 22
Watch as a local contestant tries to eat a four-pound steak dinner during event
It happens once every 100 years: The Route 66 Caravan is joining Big Texan Steak Ranch for a centennial celebration of the Mother Road and a challenge to see who can eat a 72-ounce steak in under an hour.
The caravan and the steak challenge roll in to Granite City, Monday, June 22 at the It’s Electric Neon Sign Park. The fun begins at 4 p.m.
This road show event celebrates the kitsch and Americana that is found across Route 66 and especially The Last 100 Miles of Route 66 in Illinois. The event is free and open to the public. Spectators are encouraged to bring their classic and vintage cars and join in the fun.
Cheer on Rodney Cox, an employee with the Granite City Public Works Department, as he attempts to eat a massive four-and-a-half pound steak along with baked potato, three shrimp, a side salad and roll in under one hour.
And if he succeeds? Cox will earn bragging rights, and his meal free of charge.
This is the first time the steak challenge has been held along Route 66.
“This is more than just a food challenge. It’s a celebration of Americana, tradition and the spirit of Route 66,” Bobby Lee, second generation co-owner of Big Texan Steak Ranch noted. “We’re bringing the legend to the road that made America mobile.”
Partnering with the Main Street of America Centennial Caravan and GoRoute66.com, a project sponsored by First Alert Four St. Louis, this road show brings the legendary Texas steak challenge to cities across the Mother Road in June. The Granite City stop is part of the show’s Rolla to St. Louis leg of the journey.
On Tuesday, June 23, the road show will leave Granite City and make stops at the Chain of Rocks Bridge, West End Service Station in Edwardsville, the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, Carlinville’s Cannonball Jail and Doc’s Just Off 66 bin Girard before ending the day in Springfield.
“We can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Mother Road’s centennial than with this fun, kitschy and larger-than-life steak challenge,” Cory Jobe, president/CEO of the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau said. “The It’s Electric Neon Sign Park is the perfect outdoor location for the giant steer and a competitor with a giant-sized appetite.”
Located in Amarillo, Texas, the Big Texan Steak Ranch has been a legendary Route 66 destination since 1960.
Provided photo.
