Category: Food & Drink

Joey Chestnut took out a protestor at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest (and still won by 15 dogs)

Chestnut had to throw a trespasser out of his way … and still crushed the field.

Joey Chestnut was struggling at the corner of Surf and Stillwell this Fourth of July. The combination of sunny 80 degree temperatures and a leg injury that led him to wear an air cast on stage at the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest slowed America’s most prolific professional eater at the event he’d won 14 times prior.

Chestnut had broken his own world record the year before by scarfing down 76 hot dogs and buns in only 10 minutes. This year, however, the Wayne Gretzky of tube steaks struggled to his worst showing since 2015; only 63 dogs. But in the process, he casually tossed aside a protestor who tried to steal the spotlight in the middle of the contest:

In a span of five seconds, Chestnut identified the interloper in the Darth Vader mask, threw him in a chokehold, tossed him to security, and continued eating like nothing happened, all despite arriving on stage in crutches. While limped to the finish relative to his past performances, he still managed to smoke second-place Geoffrey Esper, who set a personal record Monday, by more than 15 hot dogs and buns.

It was a Michael Jordan flu game type performance for a competitor who’d hobbled his way to the stage to defend his crown. And while he may not have lived up to his own lofty standard of gluttony, he still managed to claim a 15th mustard yellow belt while shunting aside a trespasser all in the same 10 minute span.

Why Joey Chestnut is on crutches at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest

Chestnut is playing injured.

Joey Chestnut is an unstoppable force in the world of competitive hot dog eating. He’s won the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in 14 of the last 15 years, including six straight.

He’s likely to make that seven straight years on Monday, but there will be one small obstacle he’ll have to deal with first. Chestnut has a ruptured tendon in his right leg.

Playing through the injury, Chestnut is taking the Nathan’s Famous stage on crutches. It’s unclear how much the injury will hinder his ability to gobble down a bunch of franks, but he’s apparently up to the challenge.

Chestnut sets a record almost every time he does this contest, so I’m not about to bet on some crutches stopping him from doing it again.

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Beverage of the Week: Simply got spiked lemonade (almost) exactly right

The regular lemonade is… whatever. The flavored versions, however, completely rule.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Like I’ve said before, I’m open to trying just about anything. But after being tricked into sipping sunscreen salad dressing (TikTok’s healthy Cokes), I needed a win.

Simply Spiked Lemonade was already on my radar after hearing good things about their foray into the world of adult beverages. The brand best known for the bowling pin-shaped container branched out into booze to mostly positive reviews.

Would it be the new hotness in a market that’s turned hard to beer alternatives in the summer months? Or would White Claw’s unfortunate foray into lemonade be the template for disappointment?

Beverage of the Week: Schöfferhofer is a great beer for when you don’t want a beer

Schöfferhofer’s line of radlers are more fruit drink than beer. Sometimes that’s just what you need.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Living in Wisconsin has made me intimately familiar with shandies, the beer-lemonade (or other fruit-based beverage) mix that permeates the summer. This is thanks largely to the constant presence of Leinenkugel’s flagship beer in the Badger State. What started out with lemon has now expanded to roughly a dozen flavors, of which maybe three are any good. I remain bitter that for several years I could get an orange shandy (terrible) but couldn’t find Sunset Wheat anywhere (it is, fortunately, coming back this fall).

This left me sorely lacking in radler knowledge, however, until I made the trip out to Munich for Oktoberfest.

Roughly six days in and in desperate need of hydration, I turned to the half-beer, half-soda mix that’s roughly one Euro more per liter than a Diet Coke on its own. My brain, polluted by a mother who’d grown up poor and simultaneously respecting the restorative “hair of the dog” wisdom passed down to me by an older cousin who only drank liquor from plastic bottles, opted for these hybrids in hopes of nursing my body back to half-speed.

This was a wonderful decision, as the helles/lemon-lime tincture not only restored my ability to form (mostly) coherent sentences but also created a calm port inside a stormy stomach tossed by marzens and a diet made up entirely of sausage, sauerkraut, and doner kebab. I rode that horse all the way through the rest of my vacation in Germany. Then I went to Scotland and had the same exact damn problem courtesy of whiskey because I. Do. Not. Learn.

This left a high bar for Schöfferhofer to clear. While it doesn’t say “radler” anywhere on the bottle/can, the description makes it clear this is a beer/”flavored drink” mix and, since it checks in at 2.5 percent ABV and is German well, yep, that’s a radler.

Schöfferhofer sent me a lovely bouquet of these beer/soft drink mixes for a taste test. Let’s see how they are.

Beverage of the Week: Spritz Society is the summer drink your aunt’s been waiting for

It’s a wine spritzer. In a can. Big divorced mom energy shining here.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

I am not a wine guy.

This may be an attribute of family gatherings where boxed Sunset Blush was the fanciest offering and children were given small glasses in an effort to scare us straight from the world of booze. It may be from a summer in college where my alcohol stash was greatly supplemented by warmed-over bottles of leftover chardonnay as a gondola attendant on the Providence River. Either way, old grapes burrow into a very specific niche in my brain that just flashes “YUCK” spelled out in old-timey light bulbs each time I taste it.

So, not my jam.

I had reservations when Spritz Society offered to send out a four-pack of its wine-based sparkling cocktail for review. Then I remembered I drank vinegar last week (three times!) and felt much better about this exercise. I still didn’t feel great about it — I hadn’t had a spritzer, as far as I can tell, in my life. I don’t believe I’ve heard one ordered anywhere in years (though I live in Wisconsin and if there were some kind of brandy-old-fashioned spritzer it would be a cultural phenomenal akin to the Beatles in 1964).

The marketing materials for this just say, “Welcome to Spritz Society.” Not “the” Spritz Society. Not “a” Spritz Society. This is Spritz Society, and if we want you to put on an owl mask and watch a series of high-stakes toddler fights, well, dammit, you’re gonna watch or have your membership revoked.

The mansion where Society holds its scandalous meetings smells strongly like peach, which gives off a nice summer-y feel to begin with. Once you take a sip the wine base is unmistakable. I couldn’t tell you *which* white wine we’re dealing with here, but it quickly overpowers the peach to fulfill the “spritz” part of the bargain. Unlike the hard seltzers that have been a mainstay in this column throughout the spring, the carbonation isn’t really there. There are a few bubbles, but nothing especially sparkling.

The end result is a light fruit wine, and to its credit, it doesn’t taste cheap. Despite my lack of grape accolades, I’ve had my share of bum wines — an amount of MD 20/20 I would never disclose to my health insurer — and this is considerably better than that.

It’s refreshing enough but not really something I’m into. The fruit fades quickly, but it’s not sickly sweet and is dry enough to be a nice complement to the light booziness that follows. It gets better as it goes on, but the light bitterness of the grapes remain, giving this all a very different taste than any of the hard seltzers with which it’s likely competing.

Which is the point, but it’s betting hard on people having strong feelings for a drink that traditionally pairs better with macrame vests and jigsaw puzzles than a tailgate or brunch. This is very much a wine spritzer, just dolled up for a new generation. Throw all the hashtags on it you want — deep down, this is a beverage that tastes like it drives a Subaru Outback and adopted too many dogs.

That said, this whole idea was apparently crowdsourced through Instagram, so there’s probably a much bigger audience than someone’s dad taking a break from New Glarus beers in Wisconsin.

Wine drinkers might feel differently, but it feels like there’s something missing. A little sweetness. A little carbonation. Something along those lines. It’s entirely drinkable, but at 8.4 ounces per can, 6 percent ABV, and $17 for a four-pack there are better options out there. If you like wine — if you like spritzers! — don’t listen to me. The peach is delicately placed and tasty. The whole drink is relatively pleasant.

But if you’re looking for something refreshing on a hot day, you’re probably better off with a light beer or a hard seltzer.

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Here’s how to get Popeyes chicken for just 59 cents (!) starting Sunday, June 12

What a deal!

That is not a typo with the headline at the top of this post.

You can actually get Popeyes chicken for 59 cents starting on Sunday, June 12.

But why is that date so significant? It’s because in 1972, per the chain, Alvin C. Copeland Sr. opened the first Popeyes (fun fact: Did you know that was named after Popeye Doyle in The French Connection? I just learned it!) in New Orleans.

How much did he sell fried chicken for? You guessed it: That would be 59 cents.

Here’s how you can get some very affordable chicken: You can get a two-piece chicken by spending at least $5 with an order through the Popeyes app or through the site on June 12 with the offer available through June 19. Seriously: What a deal!

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