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Triple cheeseburger next to logo at Wendy's restaurant
It’s been more than two decades since the fast food industry was treated to a bit of a reckoning after the documentary Super Size Me made plenty of people reassess their eating habits. Most chains attempt to stray away from items that are an overt exercise in gluttony, but a lone Wendy’s outpost in Oklahoma has seemingly brought back a massive burger the brand “banned” in 2013.
In 2004, director Morgan Spurlock released Super Size Me (the upgrade he opted for every time an employee asked if he wanted to), a movie that chronicled his quest to discover what happens to your body if you eat nothing but McDonald’s for a full month.
That diet was painted as the culprit as Spurlock gained 25 pounds and showed signs of liver damage (although he later admitted he failed to mention the heavy drinking he engaged in during filming). The results of his experiment may have been scientifically dubious, but it still served as a wake-up call and a bit of a catalyst for fast food reform.
McDonald’s discontinued the Supersize option less than two months after the documentary came out, but it wasn’t the only fast food chain that had to recalibrate as many viewers became a bit more discerning while browsing their menus.
That includes Wendy’s, which put the squash on a supersized burger that popped up in Canada in 2013 and has apparently returned from the dead in Oklahoma.
A Wendy’s in Edmond, Oklahoma is reportedly selling the nine-patty T. Rex burger for an eating challenge
2004 was also the year an issue of Sports Illustrated was released with a Wendy’s ad hyping up the “T. Rex burger,” a gargantuan pile of beef boasting nine burger patties and the same number of slices of cheese.
It couldn’t actually be ordered at Wendy’s, but plenty of people attempted to do exactly that as it became an almost mythical item. In 2013, a Canadian franchisee with a store in Brandon, Manitoba attempted to capitalize on the lore by offering one for $21.99 in 2013, but corporate stepped in to yank it over what an employee described as “obvious reasons.”
Some people have gotten their hands on a T. Rex burger via a custom order, but if you’re looking to get one that’s sanctioned by the store, you’ll have to head to Edmond, Oklahoma, which AllRecipes says has placed it at the center of an eating challenge.
I cannot personally confirm the veracity of the Reddit post this development can be traced back to, but someone who visited the store snapped a photo of a sign that challenges anyone willing to drop $29.99 on the T. Rex to finish the entire thing (the price incldudes a t-shirt commemorating the attempt as well as an unspecified prize for housing it all).
The T-Rex Burger is really just an oversized version of a Dave’s Triple, which lands at the top of the list of the fast food foods that contain the highest number of calories at 1,195. However, it boasts six more burger patties (273 calories each) and slices of American cheese (42) that bring the grand total to a whopping 3,085 calories.
Something tells me this won’t be available for long, so you might want to head to Oklahoma ASAP if you feel the urge to prove something.