Go on, guess what this gourd weighs

If you're really good at guessing the weight of pumpkins, stop by Tommy's Italian Beef, Etc., in Mount Prospect before Saturday night.

If you guess correctly, you'll receive the massive gourd, which took three men to carry into the restaurant lobby.

Or if that's simply too much of the fruit for you, a $20 gift certificate will be your reward for guessing the correct pumpkin poundage.

The restaurant, which opened about a year ago at 712 E. Northwest Hwy., is holding its first pumpkin contest.

The competition is expected to be fierce. Already 200 people have put in their best guesses, said Tom Pelletiere, owner.

So far, the low guess is 28 pounds sent in by a 5-year-old boy and the high is 2,000 -- a vote by an elderly woman, he said. The only hint he'd give to the true weight is that the number is somewhere in between.

The contest deadline is 8 p.m. Saturday. He will determine the winner, who will receive a call from him to set up a Sunday delivery.

His friend Tony Schimka of Des Plaines and his younger brother Vito, also of Des Plaines, will help him hand off the pumpkin that he picked out from the selection at Mundelein's Country Bumpkin Garden Center.

Pelletiere said he had the opportunity to pick even bigger pumpkins at the garden center, some of which weighed almost twice as much as the one he finally settled upon.

However, he found those monsters to be a bit misshapen and opted for a smaller, more rounded pumpkin, which stands about 3 feet tall, he said.

"Those bigger pumpkins looked morphed and distorted -- didn't look like a real pumpkin." he said. "But with this one, you can carve a face on it really easily."

To enter the contest, stop by the restaurant and tell the manager that you want to guess the pumpkin's weight.

"It's free to guess," Pelletiere said.

For more information, call (847) 398-6800.