Lifestyle

A man walks into a bar... swallows a toe in Yukon, Canada

Mike Gallagher

Aug 28, 2013 - 09:48

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A man walks into a bar... swallows a toe in Yukon, Canada

The Downtown Hotel in Yukon, Canada. Picture: Facebook

A MYSTERIOUS man paid $500 to swallow a toe in a Canadian bar.

Wait, what?

Let us break this down. There was a toe. In a drink. A man drank the drink and swallowed the toe. And then he paid the bartender $500.

The incident occurred last Saturday night in a bar in Yukon, Canada, the National Postreported. The Downtown Hotel has a weird tradition of serving a drink, called a Sourtoe Cocktail, containing pickled human toes.

Most people just touch the toe with their lips while drinking their drink, and receive a certificate and membership card for their trouble.

There is a $500 fine for swallowing the toe, to deter people from doing it.

But that didn't stop one mysterious American, who swallowed the toe, washed it down with beer, then slapped $500 on the bar.

"It's bragging rights, is what he wants," said Terry Lee, the bar's official "toe captain".

"The more we downplay that, the better, because we don't want to give him any credibility whatsoever."

Mr Lee witnessed the whole incident.

"I said 'Where's the toe?' and he says 'I swallowed it,' and then immediately headed over to the bar and started bragging."

The man disappeared before a toe-retu deal could be negotiated.

The toe drink tradition originated in 1973 when former Yukon riverboat captain Dick Stevenson found the preserved toe of the bar's former owner, who lost it to frostbite in the 1920s.

The bar and its bizarre ritual has since become a major tourist attraction.

The bar gets its toes from "living donors" after they suffer lawnmower accidents, diabetes amputations and inoperable cos. They mummify the toes by storing them in salt.

But the Downtown Hotel currently has no toes to spare, much to the dismay of its staff.

"It's revenue loss," said Mr Lee. The toe-swallowing fee has now been raised to $2500.

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