Steamed

happened to you.” He smiled at Josh.
    “Chloe, this is Stein. Stein, Chloe.” I gave him a little wave. “And Adrianna and Owen.”
    “What do you guys want to eat?” Stein asked us. I looked up at the menu posted above Stein and asked for pancakes, fried eggs, and a side of sausage. When everyone had ordered, we wove around the deli and grabbed a table together.
    “I’ve definitely seen Stein before. In fact, I think he’s been working every time I’ve been in here,” I said to Josh. Stein was built like a linebacker. I silently wondered how he managed to maneuver around in the skinny area between the counter and the grills.
    “Yeah, he’s hard to forget. And he works all the time.”
    “God, I’m starving.” Owen rubbed his stomach. “I don’t know how I can be after last night, but I am. And I have to eat a big meal now because I won’t be able to eat again until I get home from work.”
    “Where do you work?” asked Josh.
    Owen beamed. He loved telling people. “I work on a blimp- We do all the football games and stuff like that around Massachusetts. I’m actually going out later today to fly over a parade in western Massachusetts.”
    “No way!” Josh gave the typical reaction to hearing Owen’s unusual line of work. In other words, he barraged Owen with blimp questions.
    Owen looked over our heads at the wall behind us. “What are all these Polaroid pictures for?”
    The walls at the Eagle were plastered in Polaroids with personalized phrases written underneath.
    Josh laughed. “Oh, those are people who’ve eaten one of the big burgers here. You don’t know about the Riley Burger?” he asked Owen.
    Owen shook his head. Anyone with Owen’s appetite should practically have been born knowing this famous Cleveland Circle eatery.
    While we waited for our food, Josh gave us some deli history. “See, the owner, Robert Chiller? A while back, he came up with the idea for the Godzilla Burger, which is a one-pound burger with a pound of fries. Anyone who finished it got their picture on the wall. There’s no time limit, and that started to seem too easy, because too many people were doing it. So then came the Megaburger, a one-and-a-half-pound burger with fries. Then the Cowabunga Burger, two pounds of meat with two pounds of fries. Next, the ATB Burger.”
    “Let me guess,” Owen said. “Two and a half pounds of meat?”
    Josh nodded.
    “What’s ATB stand for?”
    “The Almost There Burger,” Josh answered.
    “Now, wait,” Adrianna said. “This isn’t one big, disgusting burger?”
    “No, no,” Josh explained. “It’s eight-ounce patties stacked on top of each other on one bun. But then there came the Riley Burger. This kid named Shawn Riley came in one day and said he could eat a three-pound burger with three pounds of fries. So Robert said that if Riley could do it, he’d name a burger after him. And the kid did it. So he was the burger champion for a while. Until the Collette Burger, which is three and a half pounds.”
    Even though the images of gluttony were making me queasy, it was still satisfying to listen to Josh recount the legends. Revolting though they were, they weren’t about anything he’d done, and his enthusiasm proved that although ; his own cuisine was just that, he was no food snob.
    He went on. “And the deli was on the Travel Channel, where this Collette kid ate his way through the burger. He did throw up, though. On the show, Robert said that anyone who could eat the biggest burger would have it named after them.” Josh paused. “Which led to the Paul Jones Burger. Four pounds. But Robert started getting too many people who could eat these huge burgers, so he created the Chillarama Burger, which is five pounds of meat, twenty slices of cheese, twenty slices of bacon, and five pounds of fries. No one’s eaten that yet.”
    I shook my head in disbelief. “No one has any business eating that much food. And, Owen, don’t even think about it.” I could see that Owen, deep in thought, was pondering the challenge.
    Josh got up to get us some coffee and check on our food. When he returned with Stein, both of them were carrying trays of food. Big Stein set pancakes down in front of Ade and me. “I made you the Mickey pancakes, even though you just ordered regular,” he said shyly. I looked down to see two pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse.
    “Oh, he likes you two.” Josh winked at us. “Not everyone gets the Mickey pancakes, you