'Freaky': What Route 66 travelers don't realize about the Big Texan steak challenge

(NEXSTAR) – It’s not an unassuming structure by any means. The large yellow façade of the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, would be hard to miss on its own, but it’s nearly impossible to ignore alongside the Big Texan Cowboy sign that towers over the restaurant.

“People think, ‘Oh my God, this yellow building, this fanfare — it’s a tourist trap,’” Big Texan co-owner Billy Lee told Nexstar. “They say they don’t expect it to be good.”

The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, as seen in a photograph taken in July 2003. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Lee’s father, R.J. Lee, originally opened the Big Texan on Route 66 in 1960, after visiting the area during a work trip (R.J. Lee had worked for Marriott) and “falling in love with the area,” Lee said. He soon moved his growing clan to Texas, where he enlisted their help running his new venture.

“He went ahead and opened a Western-style steakhouse. That’s where it all started at, on Route 66,” Lee said.

With Amarillo’s stockyards only blocks from the original Big Texan, the restaurant soon became a gathering place for local cowboys. R.J. cashed their checks, gave them beer, and — in a very wise business move — sat them in the center of the restaurant for any Route 66 travelers to see and hear.

R.J. was “smart enough to zip his mouth” and let the cowboys do the talking, Lee remembered.

The 72-Ounce Steak Challenge

As legend has it, R.J. often noticed the cowboys trying to out-do each other, so he invited them to partake in a 1-hour steak-eating challenge. And to his shock, the winning competitor ate four-and-a-half 1-pound steaks (72 ounces in total) along with a shrimp cocktail, a baked potato, a salad and a roll. The feat inspired R.J. to open a 72-Ounce Steak Challenge to anyone who wanted to try, and waiving the bill for those who manage to finish.

To date, nearly 100,000 guests have attempted the challenge, with just over 10,600 finishing. And as Lee tells Nexstar, the restaurant is proud to celebrate with the winners, even if they lose money on the deal.

“The value of someone [marking a victory] at the Big Texan … that’s a memorable thing,” Lee says. “People have put it up along their Harvard degree.”

Virginia resident Ben Abdurayimov, originally from Uzbekistan, attempts the 72-Ounce Steak Challenge at the Big Texan in November 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Folks across the world love to watch, too. The restaurant operates a 72-Ounce Steak Challenge livestream, where viewers can see the competitors try to best their massive steaks in real time.

“Bars [patrons] all over the world, they wager on who’s gonna win and who won’t,” Lee says. “If one of the [livestream] cameras gets bumped so they can’t see the stage, all of a sudden we start getting texts and emails.”

‘Lots and lots of freaky things’

Perhaps one of the most memorable attempts at the steak challenge — for TV viewers at least — was Adam Richman’s attempt during the very first episode of Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food.” As Lee remembers it, Richman was nervous about his chances.

“Just relax, have a glass of wine,” Lee remembers telling Richman before the latter’s (ultimately successful) attempt. “Just eat it, relax and have fun with it.”

Lee knows from experience, too. When he was younger, his father would often ask him to partake in the challenge himself, to showcase the restaurant for any “magazines or news teams” that dropped by.

“I could wrangle that thing down pretty easily,” Lee said. “It was never really a hard deal. When you work around it your whole life, you never think of it as a contest.”

That said, some of the competitors still blow his mind from time to time. Lee remembers Joey Chestnut breaking the record for fastest to finish the challenge in 2008, in just 8 minutes and 52 seconds. And years later in 2014, competitive eater Molly Schuyler smashed that record nearly in half, in only 4 minutes and 58 seconds. Schuyler then ate another whole 72-ounce steak (with sides) in another 10 minutes.

Schuyler returned in 2015 to beat her own record, finishing her first meal in 4 minutes, 18 seconds. She then ate two more meals — the second in 7 minutes, 29 seconds, and the third in 8 minutes, 13 seconds.

“We’ve seen lots and lots of freaky things. But that, for me, was the ultimate,” Lee said. (“If she blows up, what do we do?” he recalled thinking.)

‘A lighthouse in the middle of nowhere’

Most of all, Lee remembers how many challengers remark on the quality of the steak after they’ve finished their attempts.

“I think the most pervasive comment we see is, ‘It was a great steak’ [or] ‘We didn’t expect it to be this good of a steak.’ So that’s always a great compliment.”

The Big Texan Cowboy has welcomed visitors to the restaurant since the eatery’s early days. (Getty Images)

Lee says it’s imperative for the Big Texan to maintain that quality — a standard he’s worked to instill in the restaurant’s third-generation operators.

“That’s what’s important,” Lee says. “It’s like a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. They have a responsibility to keep it open for the travelers.”

The Big Texan Steak Ranch might not technically be on Route 66 anymore (it moved in 1970 to its present location along I-40 after traffic shifted away from the original location), but the Lee family won’t soon forget the road that helped establish the Big Texan as a landmark in Amarillo, and a fixture of Route 66 history.

“Route 66 was the road that brought the world to the Big Texan,” Lee said. “We’re so lucky to have what we have.”