Competitive speed eater Joey Chestnut, who last week won the 2024 Ultimate Bologna Showdown, hung out this week on behalf of upscale retail developer and owner Festival Cos. during ICSC's annual industry show in Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, his appearance was tied to hot dogs.
Chestnut, known for holding the world record for eating 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes in 2021 and winning 16 Mustard Yellow Belts in the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest, showed off his championship belt to ICSC attendees who crowded into Festival's booth space to enjoy hot dogs with chili, cheese and jalapenos.
Festival Leasing Associate Joy Veeraplin, who's based in Honolulu, said Chestnut has been a celebrity draw at the Los Angeles-area firm's Hot Dogs and Coronas lunch at the annual ICSC industry conference. Chestnut posed for pictures with scores of attendees who stopped by for a hot dog or two and beer and an event T-shirt signed by Chestnut.
"We have been hosting our Hot Dogs & Corona event for over 10 years and have had competitive eater celebrity guests Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi for over 10 years as well," Veeraplin said in an interview.
Kobayashi is a Japanese competitive eating winner who's considered the godfather of that activity because he brought it early attention and won the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest six times.