A Rising Star in Competitive Eating

After getting my feet wet at Valley Fair in the Funnel Cake Championships August 14th, and falling in love with every aspect of it, I was hell bent on finding another IFOCE contest, and SOON! I saw 5 Spots Cheesesteak Eating Contest pop up on the radar, and noticed that it was the same weekend as the Buffalo Bowl/Chili Spaghetti, I thought I'd toss  my name in the hat as an underdog.

I've got to give huge thanks to my buddy Jon, who chauffuered me around all day, and was an amazing host. I woke up early Sunday morning and drove to the airport, hopped on a plane and took off to JFK. Jon picked me up from the airport after a solid flight, and we went to the beach with his wife and kids for a couple hours.

The time came to head off to find 5 Spots, and on the way I have never seen so many traffic laws violated:ohmy:! NYC driving is insane, and something I was not accustomed to here in MN. The entire block was closed off, so we parked and embarked on foot to 5 Spot's, following the great music and smells.

We arrived at 5 Spots and I signed my registration, and took a seat in the back. Shredder, Pat Philbin, Beautiful Brian were all there, and I settled in and relaxed until game time. All of a sudden, about 15 minutes before competition, a knock out female made her way into the restaurant decked out in all red, a mini skirt and high heels....go figure, it was The Lovely Juliet Lee..! I was not expecting the #8 ranked eater in the world to show up in Brooklyn. Being a long time fan of CE, I was somewhat star struck at first, but then regained my composure and continued to focus on the task at hand..amazing cheesesteaks.

My introduction was to AC/DC's Hells Bells, and was pretty bad ass except for the MC calling me "Takedown"(my email) instead of The Icebox.

Here is the contest write up from the IFOCE website(http://www.ifoce.com/contests.php?action=detail&eventID=325):

As a late entry into the Five Spot Famous Philly CheeseSteak Fest, "The Lovely" Juliet Lee didn't disappoint by downing 4 1/3 10" Philly CheeseSteaks in 10 minutes in front of the energetic Labor Day Weekend crowd.

In what turned out to be a close race from the opening whistle, Juliet staved off competition to her left and right in the forms of Micah "Wing Kong" Collins and Pat "from Moonachie" Philbin. When the results were ultimately tallied, Philbin saw his hand raised as the 2nd place winner with 4 cheesesteaks and Wing Kong settled for third place after consuming 3 7/8 sandwiches. Up and comer, Jon "The Icebox" Lapolla out of St. Paul, MN just missed the money finishing in fourth place with a respectable 3 3/4 sandwiches consumed.

FULL RESULTS:

1-Juliet Lee - 4.33 10" sandwiches ($600)

2-Pat Philbin - 4 ($300)

3-Micah Collins - 3.875 ($100)

4-Jon Lapolla - 3.75

5-Allen Goldstein - 3.5

6-Yasir Salem - 3.25

7-Brian Seiken - 2.33

8-Tim Dickson - 2.25

T9-Bob Coccodrilli - 2

T9-Michael Pacado - 2

11-Jo Rose - 1.5

Beautiful Brian has a recap and a video of the whole contest here: http://beautifulbrian.com/cheese.html

I was initially announced in 3rd, but obviously it was a mistake..no hard feelings Damien! Afterwards, I shook Juliets hand, and congratulated the others, and then not wanting to make Jon sit around, we took off and got some NY pizza, and then he took me to the airport for my flight home.

Overall, it was an awesome experience, a great venue(www.fivespotsoulfood.com) and a great crowd with solid competitors. I am content with coming so close to not only placing in the money, but pushing for the 1/2 spots. Being only my 2nd contest, I can only plan on improving and becoming a better eater.

Until next time,

The Icebox

Hi all! This will be my permanent website to track my competitive eating career as well as bodybuilding, update photos and videos, receive feedback and stay in touch with my eventual fans. I will update as time permits! Thank you to anyone following along, and feel free to comment

"The Icebox" Jon Lapolla