Are you fan enough to eat six pounds of beef in 48 minutes?
Real Sports Bar and Grill has introduced a competitive meat-eating challenge (stretchy pants not included)
After closing over the summer for renovations, Real Sports Bar and Grill is having its grand re-opening as our city enters new levels of jock-mania: the Jays are heading to the playoffs, the Leafs and Raps are about to start their seasons, the Argos are hoping to stay alive, the Toronto Scepters are hitting the ice next month—and some yet-to-be-identified sports fans are about to enter the annals of competitive beef consumption.
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The No-No Challenge is one of the new items on RSBG’s newly refreshed menu. It invites diners to consume five-and-a-half pounds of barbecue braised beef, one pound of fries, one pound of coleslaw, four buttery biscuits and six onion rings. If you can do it in 48 minutes (which is the playing time of a regulation NBA game), the food is free. But is this even humanly possible? (Hint: no-no.)
The platter’s name comes from a common basketball diss where defenders wag their fingers and mouth “No-no” after blocking a shot. In terms of this particular challenge, the most obvious shot-blocker would be stomach capacity. Or maybe gag reflex? For reference, an average hamburger is about one-third of a pound of beef. So we’re talking 16.5 burgers—and that’s before you account for the carbs and the coleslaw. We checked in with the Real Sports team to see if anyone has yet to attempt the feat. The answer: not yet—but that’s likely to change with the coming onslaught of drunken sports fans.
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And so we sit and wait until the Vladdy of beef-bingeing reveals themselves. Pretty sure this isn’t what the Jays are talking about with their new “Want It All” slogan, but it does fit perfectly.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
