Panchero's 'burrito war' brings out crowd in Iowa City

IOWA CITY - Just in time for the beginning of the school year, and with a nod to a football rivalry, two respective Panchero's Mexican Grill locations went head-to-head in a "burrito war."

The franchise's original store, at 32 S. Clinton Street, Iowa City, and one store located in Ames, battled from 2:00-4:00 p.m. on Tuesday to see whether Hawkeyes or Cyclones could eat more one dollar burritos.

Last year was the first year of the competition, and the University of Iowa won bragging rights by beating Iowa State by a margin of 1,344 to 988.

"We train out here at Panchero's for this day every night on the weekends," University of Iowa business student Michael Silverstein, 21, said. "The line speaks for itself - we've got this competition in the bag."

Iowa City resident and UI student Elizabeth Oyarzun, 20, stood at the back of the line at 1:30 p.m., chatting with her friend and self-proclaimed Panchero's connoisseur, 20-year-old Emily Panther.

"We have Hawkeye and Panchero's pride here in Iowa City so there's no way we aren't going to win," Oyarzun said. "We have to do better [than Ames] here in Iowa City because this is the original store," Panther added.

According to "Burrito Relations Specialist" Jay Goodvin, the Clinton Street store had over 1,000 pounds of ingredients delivered on Monday and have been preparing employees for the mad rush for quite some time.

"Our employees are pros at this," Goodvin said. "We don't want the students graduating without dreaming about burritos and bleeding queso - we're ready for 'em today."

Sponsors of the event hope to have final burrito numbers - and a declared winner - by Wednesday.