One of the jewels in the crown of Fat Guy achievement is Matt's heroic consumption at Famous Dave's Barbecue on Andy's birthday. It was truly a night no one will ever forget, a Fat Guy's wildest dream come true. After making the hour-plus pilgiramge from Lansing to Grand Rapids, we arrived just in time for Matt to use his EMT skills in helping a lady who wasn't feeling well and had called an ambulance. The Fat Guys benefited from Matt's selflessness by all receiving a boost up the wait list. The night continued to improve from there. As the Fat Guys (and some of us girls too) waited eagerly for their extra-large portions to arrive, the order got mixed up, and by divine intervention Matt ended up with TWO full-size orders. Mounds of rib tips slathered in sauce, complete with double helpings of all the fixins. I made the fatal mistake of suggesting a to go box. It was all over from that point. In an unparallelled display of Fat Guy valor, Matt stripped down to his t-shirt, unbuckled his belt, stuck a napkin in his collar, and went to town. We were all mesmerized with his voracious devouring of pounds of cow, wresting the meat from the bone with a relish and tossing the remains aside. Hands splattered with Sweet and Sassy spoils of barbecue sauce, he paused for a moment and then dove into the fixins. When it was all over, I ceremonially placed a napkin over the glistening mound of bones and fat and asked the waitress to give it a decent burial. Altogether Matt managed to consume about three pounds of meat plus two helpings of baked beans (which those of us riding in the car with him discouraged to no avail) and nearly everything else on the plates. As he was reclining in stupor after the feat was completed, the waitress came up and put the veritable cherry on top of the sundae. His Fat Guy evening was capped by the presentation of a gift certificate for a free dinner for four, due to his helping the lady earlier in the evening. I won't go into detail about the pain Matt (and the rest of us) were in on the ride home and how he remained motionless on the couch for quite a while after our return. But I will say that such an achievement elevated him to Superior Fat Guy status for quite a while.
