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Competitive eater Joey Chestnut declared Long Island’s bagels “might be the best” after chowing down on a sampling of local bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches — which he washed down with 26 bowls of soft-serve ice cream.
The perennial Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champ’s frank admission could spark some red-hot debate in the Big Apple, where confident New Yorkers might toast his buns for daring to claim there are better bagels outside of the five boroughs.
“Long Island bagels, I feel like they might be the best,” Chestnut, 42, told The Post after his BEC-on-bagel tour of the island in April. “You’re getting a little different, little bit better … It’s kind of cool.”
But the Kentucky native and California-raised consumer claims that any local rivalry between the burbs and the boroughs means very little outside of the Empire State — where outsiders would view them all as simply “New York bagels.”
Chestnut’s unannounced April trip through Nassau and Suffolk included stops at four breakfast spots: Dominick’s Deli in New Hyde Park — a spot also well known for its chicken fingers — along with Syosset’s Bagel Master, Kerber’s Farm in Huntington and Wally’s Bagels of Babylon.
He received a hero’s welcome.
“Competitive eating — it’s kind of weird. We all know this,” Chestnut laughed. “But the people who really think it’s weird, they don’t recognize me, the people who do recognize me, they’re always good people, and they’re happy, and I’m just super lucky.”
When it comes to Chestnut’s BEC order, he rarely goes outlandish and typically stays in the respectable realm of adding just salt, pepper and hot sauce.
Sometimes he’ll toss on avocado, which is also a polarizing favorite of Islanders phenom Matthew Schaefer.
“I love a good garlic bagel … sometimes an everything bagel,” Chestnut said.
Hot doggin’ it
Chestnut was lured out to the island by GOAT USA clothing co-founder TJ Cristina of East Williston, who first caught the competitive eating GOAT’s attention online by streaming a small staff hot dog eating contest in 2019.
“He answered our DMs and said, ‘Guys, this is unbelievable, ‘” Cristina recalled.
After years of back and forth, they were finally able to schmear a little love on LI’s bagel and food scene in person.
“We know that Long Island is putting out the greatest of all time bagels,” said Cristina, whose brand will be selling bacon, egg, and cheese shirts this summer.
Chestnut finished his day at the GOAT USA Riverhead outlet store, where he participated in a friendly vanilla soft-serve ice cream eating contest against four workers.
“I didn’t know how seriously he was going to take it … but five minutes before we started, he was doing these warm-ups for his jaw,” said Robke’s owner, Louie Selvaggio, who officiated the competition.
“He took it as seriously as you could. He went all out.”
Chestnut downed 26 bowls in six minutes — other competitors combined for 25.
“They almost beat me, and it was fun,” Chestnut claimed, adding that ice cream is a heck of a lot harder to scarf down than hot dogs, as “it changes your body temperature.”
“My throat was hurting. My stomach was really cold for a while,” Chestnut added, saying that packing down the dairy after for BEC sandwiches “wasn’t the worst” flavor crossover.
“It’s just weird to eat ice cream fast. Your whole life, you eat it slow. So it’s weird to eat ice cream with a sense of urgency.”
Selvaggio described Chestnut’s determination — he previously set a record for 25.5 ice cream sandwiches in 2018 — as like nothing he had ever seen in his entire life.
What kept Chestnut from freezing up on the big Long Island stage was that “you find reasons to do it, instead of finding reasons not to do it,” the pro eater said of playing through the pain.
“Actually, I had ice cream last week,” he chuckled.
Next, Chestnut will turn his attention to what will be an especially patriotic Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest on America’s 250th birthday on Coney Island.
“Even though I’m 42, I’m still going to be trying hard to make a record,” said Chestnut, who downed a historic 76 hot dogs at the 2021 event.
He’ll be practicing on Thursday with 75 hot dogs, video work, and have a couple friends over to yell at me and not let me get lazy,” he said.
“I need to bring it,” Chestnut said. “You have to be willing to go farther than anyone else in order to do what nobody else can do.”
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