The choices among the 50 restaurant booths at the Taste of Colorado ran from beef curry with coconut rice to petite sirloin au jus de vin rouge — but Mark Sutherburg started his day gobbling up hot dogs.
Sutherburg’s aim was to chow down as many dogs as he could in three minutes.
More than 100 people gathered under the Culinary Showcase tent in the middle of the Civic Center park to watch nine people in the hot dog-downing contest, dubbed “Tube Steaks at the Taste.”
The hot dog contest was ringed by foodie-geared vendors such as Parallel Seventeen offering watermelon gazpacho and Elway’s serving barbecue lamb ribs.
Sutherburg ate five and a half ketchup drizzled Thurman’s dogs — still in the bun, no dunking allowed — for the win.
“It’s all about mind control,” Sutherburg said. ‘The payoff in the end outweighs any pain, knowing you can do it.”
The three-day Taste of Colorado draws about 500,000 people a year and about 270 vendors, event organizers said.
Joanne deCarteret said she and her husband Steve visited six food vendors in about three hours.
“We come to taste every year. It’s nice to be able to try some of the restaurants here that we might not go to,” she said. Sutherburg said the three minute contest was just a warm-up and he also planned on visiting other booths.
He said he started participating in eating contests three years ago after watching the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, on TV and joking to his wife that with his appetite he could win.
“She said, ‘well, if you think you can do it, you should,'” he said.
In the last three years, Sutherburg has participated in more than a dozen eating events, including three hot dog contests sponsored by Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs, in Denver — posting three third place finishes.
Sutherburg’s stiffest competition came from Andrew “A-Bomb” Lane, who regularly competes in local eating competitions.
Also in the hunt were Sutherburg’s 11-year-old daughter Heather and his grandson Dylan Cariker, 14, who both made their debut in eating contests.
“Training is called eating breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said Heather Sutherburg, who managed to eat about a dog a minute.
Cariker, took third place behind Lane, who won the contest in 2009.
“I’m ready for a rematch when we get home,” Carkier said.
Caitlin Gibbons: 303-954-1638 or cgibbons@denverpost.com
