Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1376344
PHOTOS: CRAIG PETERSEN REAL PROGRAMS Successful programs to consider adopting REAL PROGRAMS Meat Cutting Competition S OMETIMES, IN ORDER TO GENERATE NEW CUSTOMERS—and excite the current ones—you have to think outside of the box. This can lead to some pretty incredible and unique events, to say the least. Thinking outside of the box in 2012 is exactly what yielded us at Mullet Ice Center in Wisconsin, and at other ice rink facilities around the country, a facility-hosted event unlike any other: the Texas Roadhouse Meat Cutting Challenge. What is it? Those of us who have been fortunate enough to host a Texas Roadhouse Meat Cutting Challenge have had good experi- ences with this special event that brings positive publicity and community aware- ness to our facilities. So why our ice rink industry for this event? A Texas Roadhouse meat cutter's job is to cut meat 40 hours per week in coolers that maintain temperatures between 34 and 38 degrees. Ice rinks, as we know, are natural coolers, and a sheet of ice allows 15 to 25 meat cutters the ability to com- pete side by side in a similar environment that they are used to working in. Cutters are judged on a sirloin, a filet and a ribeye and have one hour to make sure the length, width, height, and weight of each cut is perfect, with the size being within a 1/16 of an inch of their specs. 46 / MAY.JUNE.2021 USICERINKS.COM by CRAIG PETERSEN, CIRM Meat Me at the Blue Line Hosting a Texas Roadhouse Meat Cutting Challenge