Kansas City Blog

Imagine this sandwich, just 179 times bigger.

​You might have smelled it all the way up I-70 as volunteers at the fifth annual Tomato Fest in St. Louis put together the world's longest bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich last weekend. The mammoth BLT stretched 179 feet and two inches.

Five-hundred pounds of bacon and 1,280 pounds of tomatoes were stuffed inside pan-sized pieces of bread in an effort led by Tom Coghill, owner of the Iron Barley restaurant.

The previous record had been set last month by the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce at the 53rd Annual Pink Tomato Festival in Warren, Arkansas. That 168-foot, 5-inch long sandwich only had 300 pounds of bacon and 60 pounds of tomatoes by comparison. (Lest you worry that any went to the waste, the Chamber assures everyone that some 6-inch segments of the sandwich were sold afterwards.)

Prior to Bradley County's effort, the record was 146 feet -- that number stood for less than a year. 

As for Guinness World Records, there appears to be only one relevant food category. The largest sandwich on record (by weight, not length) tips the scales at 5,440 pounds, made by Wild Woody's Chill and Grill in Roseville, Michigan. 

It's been a big year for bacon records -- with the fastest trek across Antartica being powered by deep fried bacon, cheese and hunks of butter. So heavy bacon consumption can be used to stay alive in the frozen tundra or as a weekend snack for the citizens of St. Louis.