At Rozzi’s — a small, unassuming bar in Colchester — customers can compete for a unique sort of glory.
That is, eating an extremely large bacon cheeseburger, plus fries, in 30 minutes or less.
If you finish this herculean task, known as the Dozer Challenge, you get a free T-shirt. Vermont Public’s Erica Heilman joined reporter Liam Elder-Connors on a recent Sunday evening as he tried to achieve this feat.
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Liam Elder-Connors: It’s a lot of meat. This is a bad idea.
Erica Heilman: Liam and I met in the parking lot at Rozzi's out by the dumpsters. Rozzi's is a bar and restaurant in Malletts Bay in Colchester — a friendly, low key place. They make a really good hamburger.
Liam grew up in Colchester. He went to college in Colchester at St. Mike's, and now he works at Vermont Public, in Colchester. Liam has long considered taking on the Dozer Challenge here at Rozzi's — and now, at the age of 32, and two weeks before his wedding, he feels like it's his time.
The Dozer is two 1-pound burger patties, eight strips of bacon and eight slices of cheese, served on a cornbread roll, also a pound of fries. He has 30 minutes to clean the plate, but if he succeeds, he gets a Rozzi's T-shirt.
I sat and I talked with Liam for a few minutes in my car about how he hopes to learn and grow through this challenge, and also why he's been reticent about coming to Rozzi's until now.
Liam Elder-Connors: So I've always wanted to come here, but I have never come here because I thought I'd run into somebody that I know. It's more me. It's like about me not wanting to think about that I'm not that far from where I grew up.
Erica Heilman: What's the problem with not being that far from where you grew up?
Liam Elder-Connors: Well, it feels like I'm a failure. I think. Or at least I think I used to think it meant failure. It's like this idea of growing up in one place and never leaving it, and I've only ever lived in Vermont and around the same couple of mile radius of Colchester. So it's like, I don't want somebody who only knew me when I was 18 to see me now, when I'm 30 something, and be like, "Hey, remember what high school was like?"
Erica Heilman: OK, so you really, you want to make a good first impression at Rozzi's, because you've sort of been reticent about hanging here because of all that you've just described. So the way to sort of make your entrance is to eat an extremely large hamburger?
Liam Elder-Connors: Yeah, I guess so, which is really leaning into, like, being from a place, right?
Erica Heilman: I think it is.
Liam Elder-Connors: I think it's, it's pretty close.
Erica Heilman: Liam and I joined his financée, Chelsea Edgar, at a picnic table outside Rozzi's, and then Joe came out and took our order.
Liam Elder-Connors: I'll just have some water for now. Thank you.
Erica Heilman: Anything that you want to tell us about the challenge? Statistically, how many people succeed?
Joe: I would say maybe 5%. Not a whole lot.
Erica Heilman: Why?
Joe: Well, it's kind of like overwhelming. I mean,
Erica Heilman: It's the size of my head.
it’s eight pieces of cheese. You gotta have a pound of fries, and then you got the burger itself, and it's on a cornbread roll. So it's, it's pretty large.
Erica Heilman: Let the games begin.
Joe: All right, I will be back with your Switchback and your water.
Liam Elder-Connors: Thanks.
Erica Heilman: All there was to do now was wait and drink beer and talk about the wedding. And then — the Dozer arrived.
Waitress: Who's doing the Dozer?
Liam Elder-Connors: I guess that's me. Thank you. Wow, that's beautiful. Thanks.
Waitress: You've got 30 minutes starting now.
Liam Elder-Connors: Great. Thank you.
Waitress: Yeah, of course.
Liam Elder-Connors: That's pretty big.
Erica Heilman: The Dozer does not disappoint. A pound of fries, two enormous burgers hanging well outside their cornbread roll with strips of bacon and cheese, a large steak knife running through all of it sort of holding it together. The Dozer is approximately the size of my head. Liam talked strategy.
Liam Elder-Connors: So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna eat some french fries, because I have to eat the french fries. There’s like, what, 10 hamburgers in here? Who am I to think I could eat that much?
More from Vermont Public: A supposedly fun thing Erica Heilman will never do again
Erica Heilman: After five minutes or so, Jordan, the line cook, came out to see how Liam was doing.
Erica Heilman: What do you talk about back there when you know someone's out here and gonna try this?
Jordan: Usually one of our favorite things to speculate is how skinny the person actually is, because the last probably seven challenges have been guys that are 90 pounds soaking wet, and they finish it with like, five minutes to spare.
I do get a little bit of sick enjoyment when somebody comes in and doesn't even finish half the burger. But I mean, I'm always very pleasantly surprised, especially when I see somebody get as far as he's getting.
Erica Heilman: How would you assess how he's doing right now?
Jordan: I don't know how much longer you guys are at time for, but I mean, he's definitely chugging away at it.
Liam Elder-Connors: This half will be a lot harder.
Jordan: Oh, for sure. But I mean, I got confidence in you, kid.
Erica Heilman: We were at the 15 minute mark, and Liam had eaten fully half the Dozer. But he was slowing down. He was changing up his strategy, and to be honest, things were feeling a little tense between Liam and Chelsea.
Chelsea Edgar: You’ve got to cut it open. Cut it.
Erica Heilman: Commit to the cut.
Chelsea Edgar: Just cut it. That's all you're committing to.
Liam Elder-Connors: There’s so much.
Chelsea Edgar: Just cut it.
Liam Elder-Connors: It's very easy for you to say that.
Erica Heilman: There were only 10 minutes left. Liam was just starting on the second half, and he was becoming philosophical.
Liam Elder-Connors: The human should not eat this much hamburger. I think what I'm realizing is, it's like one thing to read it, it's another thing to see it, and then it's actually another thing to start eating it. There's like three levels. It's not just the seeing on paper, seeing in person, eating it, and then to be eating it, you have to think, "I have to keep eating when I'm not hungry, I'm full."
Erica Heilman: It's called discipline. It's this kind of a sport that you've agreed to engage in.
Liam Elder-Connors: I'm tired of looking at it. I'm tired of thinking about eating this hamburger. Have you ever gotten to that point?
Erica Heilman: No, because I've never done the Dozer challenge.
Liam Elder-Connors: Want to take a bite?
Erica Heilman: In the end, Liam finished around 53% of the burger and approximately 61% of the fries.
Erica Heilman: Don't you feel a little bit like you're gonna be letting down your town?
Liam Elder-Connors: I'm trying. One fry at a time.
Erica Heilman: Liam, better luck next summer.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
