The choices among the 50 restaurant booths at A Taste of Colorado included beef curry with coconut rice and 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 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.”
Not all of the thousands of people who visited the annual festival Sunday for the food and 270 vendors opted for such a fast and furious start to the day.
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 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 past 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.
Though Sunday night, the festival had drawn about 380,000 people, down a bit from last year due to the showers Friday night that thinned out what’s usually a banner night, a spokeswoman said. Organizers expect a big finale today with a free concert at 5:30 p.m. by Boyz II Men, pushing attendance to 525,000. About 550,000 attended last year.
Caitlin Gibbons: 303-954-1638 or cgibbons@denverpost.com
