(September 1995)
By GREGG KIRK
If you’ve ever been to Jim’s Steaks at the intersection of Fourth & South Sts. in Philly and glanced at the wall by where you order your sandwich, you’ve seen a sign that says: “Jim’s Steaks New Record Holder, Lynda Kuerth, 11 sandwiches – (1 ½ hrs.)”

For years, this sign has captured my imagination and raised a few questions. Who is this person, and more importantly, how big is she? When did she break the record, and has anyone attempted to dethrone her?

For our food issue we decided to find out. But as I was making the call to owner Abner Silver, I was struck with a better idea. Why not have someone challenge the record? Why not first call inveterate heavy eater and local scenester at large Jerry Lehane III and ask him to give it a shot?

Although Jerry was a little reluctant at first, I stressed that it would be all the steaks he could eat… FOR FREE, and he finally came around.

Jerry has a history of entering and winning eating contests. In 1988 he won a pie-eating contest at Newark Community Days, but he concedes, “I was against kids; it really wasn’t a fair match. It was obvious – I’m a 200-plus pounder and these kids were nowhere near 120 lbs.”

But the next year he was a runner up in the Taste of Wilmington’s first and only pie-eating contest. From there he went on to enter a handful of eating competitions, including a hot-wings eating contest that ended in disqualification for him because he drank a glass of water.

The people at Jim’s Steaks were a little reluctant as well. When I talked to manager Elie Rosenblatt, he flat out declined because they couldn’t hold a contest in their venue because they serve alcohol. It seems they ran into problems a few years ago when they held the original contests. Even though they closed their doors and did not serve alcohol during the competition, the liquor board gave them hell. After I explained to Elie that we were not interested in a contest… we had a man we wanted to pit against the record. – man against steak – he thought it over and called Abner. After talking with Abner, we sorted things out and actually got them into the spirit of the challenge.

We agreed that we would come in during their off hours. Jerry could have a “second” who would make sure the challenger had everything he needed like water, napkins, ketchup and mustard, and who would also order the steaks at the appropriate time. Jerry would be given two five-ounce steaks at a time, and he had an hour and a half to do his thing.

Two weeks before the challenge, Jerry “trained” by eating as many cheap, Pathmark cheese steaks he could get his hands on. Then a few days before the event, he began eating a diet of corn and coffee (as well as raisin brand and chocolate ice cream), to clean out his system. On the actual day Jerry came to meet me at the Big Shout office before heading up to Philly, he had only consumed a large cup of coffee.

Things got off to a bad start when we arrived an hour late and Elie and Abner considered scrapping the challenged because of the possibility it would conflict with their lunch hour. After a brief discussion, we decided to give it a shot anyway, and if things did get too hectic we would come back and try at another time.

Jerry was looking in fine form the day of his battle with the steaks. While we had joked on the way up in the car that we should have had a measurement and weigh-in like prize fighters do, he admitted that he was at his peak lifetime weight of 250 lbs.

As we prepared to start the event, Abner and Elie went over the rules with us. At this time Jerry divulged a plan of strategy to see if it would be admissible by the judges – he wanted to eat the steak first and then cut up and chew the rolls afterwards. According to Jerry, “When you eat a sub, the reason you’re so full is because the bread in your stomach expands, and you can’t eat another thing. I want to try to eat the meat first and put it at the bottom of my stomach.”

Abner and Elie took one look at each other and decided not to allow it. The current record holder had not resorted to such measures, and they wanted this to be on a level playing field. Without further ado, they positioned Jerry in a corner by the bathroom and partitioned him in with two garbage cans. Elie was posted beside him, Abner and manager Maxine Harley waited for orders behind the counter, and I stood by Jerry as his second. The competition was ready to begin.

At 11:45 a.m. and 15 seconds, Jerry took his first bite. In just 15 minutes he wolfed down an impressive four steaks, and everyone there began doing mental calculations to figure out how long it would take him to break the record at that pace. Sweat formed on Jerry’s brow and began to course down his cheeks. When I asked him if he was all right, he stopped chewing and said, “It’s just the coffee.”

At 12:15 p.m. Jerry was already starting to slow down. At the hour mark (after consuming six steaks) he decided to take a small break. He turned to Elie, and told him he needed to use the bathroom. Because it was against the rules to vomit during the challenge, Elie had to accompany Jerry into the facilities to make sure he didn’t disqualify himself. As it turned out, he didn’t’ – he just needed to go “Number One.”

But things had slowed down considerably for Jerry. It took him 15 minutes to eat half a steak. With just 15 more minutes to go, I got in Jerry’s face and said, “C’mon man, POWER EAT! Don’t even chew! You’ve got four more steaks to go!” But Jerry confided that if he ate another steak, all the other ones would come right back up. I took a few steps back and kept quiet.

When the clock stopped, Jerry had laid to waste seven steaks – an impressive showing, Abner and Elie admitted. At this time, Jerry slunk to the bathroom and barfed, while I asked Abner about the record holder. And after what I found out, Jerry should not be ashamed… apparently she is a world-class eater.

In 1978, in an effort to generate publicity for his establishment, Abner decided to have an eating contest. One night on the news, he saw a human-interest story on Olivet, MI native Lynda Kuerth who had just broken the Guinness Book of World Records title for banana-split eating. After making a few phone calls to the television station, Abner got in touch with Lynda and agreed to fly her to Philly and give her a place to stay for the competition. That year, Lynda ate 10 ½ steaks in an hour and a half, and later that year she appeared in Veteran’s Stadium and broke the Guinness Book of World Records in hot dog eating (without the bun). She ate 23 hot dogs in a minute and a half. The next year, she returned to Jim’s to break her own record by eating 11 steaks. No one has been able to come close since. Oh, and how big is Lynda who now lives a quiet life in Michigan with her husband and two kids? “She was about 5 ft. 8” and about 135 lbs.,” says Abner. “She had an amazing metabolism.”

Many thanks to Abner, Elie, and Maxine at Jim’s Steaks and to the challenger, Jerry Lehane III. Hey man, at least you got a T-shirt out of the deal!