How many Krystal Burgers can you eat in 94 seconds?

It’s not time for the annual Krystal Square Off yet, but if you live in the Tampa Bay area then you won’t want to miss the chance to get your Square Off fix at the 94-second Krystal Burger Eating Contest taking place this Sunday, March 7 from noon – 2 p.m. at the new Bradenton, FL Krystal on 3108 First Street West.

That’s right. Krystal Lovers from across the Tampa Bay area will go head-to-head for 94 seconds straight to see who can put down the most Krystal Burgers and win a $100 Krystal Gift Card and two tickets to WILD 94.1’s Wildsplash concert.

The competition is free and open to all Krystal Lovers who arrive at the Bradenton Krystal Restaurant before the event time and who are at least 18 years of age with a picture ID. And according to Weather.com, the forecast is showing mostly sunny skies with a high of 68 degrees, so gather up all your friends and head on over this weekend for a Sunday Funday with fellow Krystal fans.

Good Luck!

We’re less than three weeks away from Nathan’s World Hot Dog Eating Championship, which means that The Krystal Square Off isn’t far behind (hint: think August). To help you get in the spirit, we wanted to highlight the Major League Eating’s (MLE) current Top Ten Eaters on the circuit worldwide. And, for a quick introduction and description of each, check out this article on Examiner Atlanta.

Top Ten Eaters:

Stay tuned for information about Krystal’s upcoming KSO VI to learn about dates, qualifying tour locations, new competition highlights and much more!

To see MLE’s top 50 list and to learn more great eater stats, visit http://majorleagueeating.com.

Here at Krystalist, we’re familiar with many of the great professional eating competitions such as Nathan’s World Hot Dog Eating Championship, the Buffalo Wing Festival, Three Brothers Pizza World Pizza Championship and best of all, the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship. However, we had never heard of The Burrito Mile eating contest until last week.

On Feb. 18 Gazette.net, a community newspaper in Gaithersburg, MD, informed readers about this new type of competition that involves more than fast eating – fast running. Organized by the students at Walter Johnson High School, The Burrito Mile requires participants do just what it sounds like – eat a burrito and run one full mile, without a “reversal of fortune,” as they say like to say on the circuit.

This unique eating contest takes training to whole new level because there are two sports involved, not just one. According to 17-year-old junior Sean O’Leary, “The running means nothing if you can’t eat fast.” Typical thinking from a track athlete who has the running portion in the bag, but most professional eaters would say the opposite.

We’re guessing that the runners have the advantage in this race, but it’s good training for those interested in a real eating championship. Some of these high school students just might make it to the IFOCE’s annual Costa Vida World Burrito Eating Championship to steal the title from 2008 winner, Tim “Eater X” Janus, a Krystal Square off veteran.

And, you never know, the folks at Krystal could put a similar twist on this year’s Krystal Square Off to include a swim across the Tennessee River. We’re thinking triathlon. Now that would be fun to watch!

As host of the annual Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship, Krystal has become an avid fan of the famed competitive eating greats and loves to give a shout out when possible. Luckily, we’re not the only ones!

Eat Feats recently posted the following poll: Top Male & Female Competitive Eaters of 2008 and the votes are in. However, after much debate the top spot is still undecided. Nominees include:

Male
•    “Furious” Pete Czerwinski
•    Joey “Jaws” Chestnut
•    Bruce “The Hangman” Pobanz
•    Takeru Kobayashi “The Tsunami”
•    “Beautiful” Brian Seiken
•    Don “Moses” Lerman
•    “Crazy Legs” Conti
•    Tim Janus “Eater X”
•    Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman
•    “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti
•    “Pretty Boy” Pete Davekos
•    Brad “Old School” Sciullo
•    Rich LeFevre “The Locust”
•    Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti

Female
•    Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas
•    Natsuko “Gal” Sone
•    “Little” Tomoko Miyake

We can already think of a few food major-leaguers that aren’t on the list. And, is it just us, or do we need some more women in the game? Tell us who you think deserves the title of best competitive eater.

Take a look at the video below of competitive eating greats Joey Chestnut, Sonya Thomas, Eric “Badlands” Booker and more chowing down at Artie’s Deli’s annual turkey-eating contest in 2005 in New York City.

At only 100 pounds, Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas beat out seven men for the title. Now that’s some stuffing!

Of course, we prefer watching these expert eaters compete at the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship, but on Thanksgiving – turkey trumps beef.

I wonder what these guys will eat for Christmas…

Thanksgiving Turkey Eat-Off

Want to see more competitive eating footage?  Check out the Krystal Square Off competitive eating videos.

The folks at The Florida Times-Union know how to have fun while raising awareness and money for a great cause.

The Jacksonville-based newspaper has been hosting a full week of employee activities to benefit the United Way, and they’re capping the week off with an employee carnival complete with games, entertainment and a speed-eating contest emceed by Krystal Square Off competitor Hall “Hoover” Hunt.

The amateur gurgitators competing today all contributed to the United Way fund in order to participate, and they will have one minute to consume as many Krystal hamburgers as possible. Hoover, who holds the Jacksonville Krystal-eating record (60 in eight minutes), will be on hand to provide tips before the contest and will start the countdown to begin. He will also announce the winner, who will have the choice of either two Jacksonville Jaguar game tickets or an iPod.

We’re hoping to have video of the event early next week. For now, check out www.liveunited.org to find out how you can get involved with the United Way today.

According to Eatfeats, Brad Sciullo, a 21-year old chef from Pittsburgh, recently became the first person to finish the Denny’s Beer Barrel Bellly Bruiser, a burger with a 20.2 pound total weight.

Sciullo, who according to MLE.com announced his retirement from the sport of competitive eating earlier this year, finished the mammoth burger in just 4 hours and 39 minutes, 21 minutes under the 5 hour time limit.

And while that’s no small feat, the 20.2 pound burger equals out to approximately only 154 Krystal burgers.

ONLY a 154 Krystals you say?

Well, keep in mind that’s just 51 more than Joey Chestnut’s current world record 103 Krystals, which he downed in just 8 minutes!

Still, congrats to Sciullo. For more photos, head over to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub.

Krystal Square Off Champion Joey Chestnut downed 45 slices of pizza in 10 minutes yesterday.

Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Champion Joey Chestnut can now add Pizza Champion to his long list of titles.

On Sunday, Chestnut downed 45 slices of pizza in 10 minutes during the Famous Famiglia Pizza Eating contest in Times Square.

According to Eatfeats, Pat Bertoletti came in second with 43 slices and Humble Bob Shoudt was third 41.

Head over the CNN for an article about yesterday’s compeititon.

Pat Bertoletti moves up to second place in the Major League Eating Eater's Poll after coming in second at the Krystal Square Off V, defeating Takeru Kobayashi who came third.

Krystal compeititive eater Hall Hunt has posted the October edition of the Major League Eating Eater’s Poll on his blog.  This poll is the first to come out after the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship.

Joey Chestnut remains at the top of the list with Pat Bertoletti moving up one spot to claim second.  Takeru Kobayashi moves down one taking third.  “Humble” Bob keeps his fourth place ranking and Hunt himself moves up to fifth from seventh.

The complete list of the top 10 are below.

1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut
2. Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti
3. Takeru Kobayashi
4. “Humble” Bob Shoudt
5. Hall “Hoover” Hunt
6. Tim “Eater-X” Janus
7. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre
8. Sonya “The Blackwidow” Thomas
9. Eric “Badlands” Booker
10. Juris “Dr. Bigtime” Shibayama

For a complete list of the top 25 eaters, head over to Hunt’s blog.

We don’t think we ever got around to posting some of our favorite photos from the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship, so here they are.

And no, we’re not crying, we just have something in our eye.  Ok, ok, we may be crying just a little, but looking at these makes us a little sad that we have to wait an entire year for the next Krystal Square Off. Stop laughing!

For more Krystal Square Off photos, head over to Flickr.