Big Texan 72-ounce steak challenge comes to Gallup June 11
A Route 66 crowd-puller is heading to Courthouse Square, where Gallup locals can try to finish a 4.5-pound steak, sides and all, before the hour runs out.
Courthouse Square in downtown Gallup will host a crowd-ready eating showdown at 5 p.m. June 11, when the Big Texan Steak Ranch brings its 72-ounce steak challenge on the road as part of Route 66’s 100-year celebration. The stop gives McKinley County a front-row role in one of the state’s biggest centennial tourism pushes, with locals invited to test themselves against a contest that has long been tied to Amarillo, Texas.
The draw is as much spectacle as competition. Contestants have to clear a steak weighing more than 4 pounds, a baked potato, three shrimp, a side salad and a dinner roll in under one hour. The Big Texan says the official version of the challenge is normally held at its steak ranch in Amarillo, where diners who fail to finish owe the full $72 meal price. The ranch says the contest has been part of its identity for more than 60 years, and that the 72-ounce steak alone is 4.5 pounds of top sirloin.
For Gallup, the Route 66 branding matters because the city sits on one of New Mexico’s best-known stretches of the historic highway. New Mexico tourism officials have made the 2026 centennial a major showcase for communities along the Mother Road, and they say the state’s long Route 66 corridor gives towns like Gallup a chance to turn nostalgia into real visitor traffic. That same centennial focus is already visible in the Route 66 Centennial Traveling Exhibit, which is listed as stopping in Gallup from May 9 through Dec. 31, 2026.
The steak challenge is one piece of a broader New Mexico itinerary that also includes Grants, Albuquerque and Tucumcari. In Gallup, that means the square is not just a place for a single novelty contest, but a stage for a larger tourism season built around Route 66’s legacy, downtown visibility and the kind of event that can pull competitors and spectators into the same public space.
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