Sorry NYC, Joey Chestnut declares Long Island…
Competitive eater Joey Chestnut declared Long Island’s bagels “might be the best” after chowing down on a sampling of local bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches — which he washed down with 26 bowls of soft-serve ice cream.
The perennial Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champ’s frank admission may spark some red-hot debate in the Big Apple, where assured New Yorkers may toast his buns for daring to declare there are better bagels outdoors of the 5 boroughs.
“Long Island bagels, I feel like they might be the best,” Chestnut, 42, told The Post after his BEC-on-bagel tour of the island in April. “You’re getting a little different, little bit better … It’s kind of cool.”
Competitive eater Joey Chestnut, seen with Robke’s proprietor Louie Selvaggio, GOAT USA founder TJ Cristina, declared Long Island bagels “might be the best” after a latest tour. GOAT USA
But the California native shopper claims that any local rivalry between the burbs and the boroughs means little or no outdoors of the Empire State — where outsiders would view them all as merely “New York bagels.”
Chestnut’s unannounced April journey through Nassau and Suffolk included stops at 4 breakfast spots: Dominick’s Deli in New Hyde Park — a spot also well-known for its chicken fingers — along with Syosset’s Bagel Master, Kerber’s Farm in Huntington and Wally’s Bagels of Babylon.
He obtained a hero’s welcome.
“Competitive eating — it’s kind of weird. We all know this,” Chestnut laughed. “But the people who really think it’s weird, they don’t recognize me, the people who do recognize me, they’re always good people, and they’re happy, and I’m just super lucky.”
When it comes to Chestnut’s BEC order, he hardly ever goes outlandish and usually stays in the respectable realm of including just salt, pepper and sizzling sauce.
Joey Chestnut takes a chew out of a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich while holding another wrapped in foil. GOAT USA
Sometimes he’ll toss on avocado, which is also a polarizing favourite of Islanders phenom Matthew Schaefer.
“I love a good garlic bagel … sometimes an everything bagel,” Chestnut said.
Hot doggin’ it
Chestnut was lured out to the island by GOAT USA clothes co-founder TJ Cristina of East Williston, who first caught the aggressive eating GOAT’s consideration online by streaming a small employees sizzling canine eating contest in 2019.
“He answered our DMs and said, ‘Guys, this is unbelievable, ‘” Cristina recalled.
After years of back and forth, they had been finally in a position to schmear a little love on LI’s bagel and food scene in particular person.
“We know that Long Island is putting out the greatest of all time bagels,” said Cristina, whose model can be promoting bacon, egg, and cheese shirts this summer season.
Chestnut completed his day at the GOAT USA Riverhead outlet store, where he participated in a pleasant vanilla soft-serve ice cream eating contest against 4 employees.
“I didn’t know how seriously he was going to take it … but five minutes before we started, he was doing these warm-ups for his jaw,” said Robke’s proprietor, Louie Selvaggio, who officiated the competitors.
“He took it as seriously as you could. He went all out.”
Cheatnut, 42, will next compete in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island. GOAT USA
Chestnut downed 26 bowls in six minutes — other opponents mixed for 25.
“They almost beat me, and it was fun,” Chestnut claimed, including that ice cream is a heck of a lot more durable to scarf down than sizzling canines, as “it changes your body temperature.”
“My throat was hurting. My stomach was really cold for a while,” Chestnut added, saying that packing down the dairy after for BEC sandwiches “wasn’t the worst” taste crossover.
“It’s just weird to eat ice cream fast. Your whole life, you eat it slow. So it’s weird to eat ice cream with a sense of urgency.”
Selvaggio described Chestnut’s dedication — he beforehand set a report for 25.5 ice cream sandwiches in 2018 — as like nothing he had ever seen in his whole life.
What stored Chestnut from freezing up on the big Long Island stage was that “you find reasons to do it, instead of finding reasons not to do it,” the professional eater said of enjoying through the pain.
The champ toured Nassau and Suffolk, downing 26 soft-serve bowls after his bagel feast. GOAT USA
“Actually, I had ice cream last week,” he chuckled.
Next, Chestnut will flip his consideration to what can be an particularly patriotic Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest on America’s 250th birthday on Coney Island.
“Even though I’m 42, I’m still going to be trying hard to make a record,” said Chestnut, who downed a historic 76 sizzling canines at the 2021 event.
He’ll be practising on Thursday with 75 sizzling canines, video work, and have a couple buddies over to yell at me and not let me get lazy,” he said.
“I need to bring it,” Chestnut said. “You have to be willing to go farther than anyone else in order to do what nobody else can do.”
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