Free breakfast offered tomorrow at Cowboys Dancehall

St. Phillip’s student Paul Menefee helps prepare chorizo during the Cowboy Breakfast last year. File

Nearly 50,000 people are expected to attend unofficial rodeo kickoff.

By Daniel Carde

dcarde@student.alamo.edu

The 37th annual San Antonio Cowboy Breakfast will take place 4:30-8:30 a.m. Friday in the Cowboys Dancehall parking lot at 3030 NE Loop 410.

The free breakfast will include tacos and biscuits and gravy, said Cowboy Breakfast Chairman Chuck Christian.

Volunteers began setting up the event Tuesday and will be needed until teardown is completed around 1 p.m. Friday, Christian said.

To volunteer, stop by the dancehall.

“It’s not your typical volunteer that comes out and helps,” Christian said.

Volunteering means working on a typical workday and very early in the morning, he said.

Guinness World Records named the event the World’s Largest Cooked Breakfast in 2001, according to the event’s website. It’s also the unofficial San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo kickoff.

“We have a 100 percent free event,” Christian said. The food is either donated or paid for with money from sponsors.

Volunteers will serve close to 50,000 tacos, Christian said. Nearly 50,000 people are expected to attend, depending on the weather.

According to the National Weather Service, the forecasted weather for the breakfast is 47-48 degrees at 5 a.m. with winds of 9-10 mph.

The donated money not spent on the event is used for scholarship funds, Christian said.

Last year the Cowboy Breakfast Foundation gave $12,000 to St. Philip’s College’s Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Department.

Donations may be made at www.thecowboybreakfast.com.

The event will have free parking, free mechanical bull-riding and free live music, Christian said.

He also said there would be an invite-only “Cow Chip contest.”

“Contestants take … a cow patty and throw it into a golden commode from a distance of 25 feet,” Christian said. The contestant with the closest cow chip wins a trophy.

Breakfast attendees can expect to wait 10-20 minutes for food, so he recommends arriving at 4 a.m.