Puzzle 31: Feast at the Palapa

Puzzle Walkthrough

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Start with the fixed anchors. Five plates goes with BBQ ribs. Finn’s time is 140 minutes. The diner at 150 minutes ate exactly one plate more than Dante and was not the ice-cream fan. Also, the 155-minute diner neither ate seven plates nor chose chocolate cake, and the ice-cream fan ate more than three plates and stayed longer than the ribs fan.

Use Cassidy’s relation to 135 minutes: she ate exactly two plates more than the 135-minute diner and she did not choose ribs. If Dante has five plates (the ribs), then the 150-minute diner must have six plates. Now check Cassidy’s two-more rule: the only way to be “two more than 135 minutes” without putting Cassidy on ribs is to make the 135-minute diner Dante with five plates and give Cassidy seven plates. That fixes Dante at 135 with ribs (five), the 150-minute seat at six plates, and Cassidy at seven.

Next, handle the nachos rule: the nachos lover spent less time at the table than Omar but ate more plates than Finn. The nachos cannot be Finn (it would claim Finn ate more than Finn) and cannot be Omar (you can’t be earlier than yourself). If Cassidy were the nachos at 145, Omar would have to be later than 145, but 150 is already taken and 155 is open; that would force Cassidy earlier than 150, clashing with the “150 has six plates” slot she doesn’t match. So the nachos must be the 150-minute diner with six plates, which places that seat earlier than Omar and above Finn in plates. Therefore Omar must be 155 minutes, and Finn’s plates must be below six.

Now bring in the “fast-vs-longer” comparison. Zoey’s feast lasted longer than Cassidy’s but she ate fewer plates than the cheeseburgers fan. With Cassidy fixed at 145 minutes and seven plates, Zoey must be the remaining 150-minute seat or 155; she can’t be 155 because that’s Omar, so Zoey is the 150-minute diner with six plates. That also fits the earlier deduction that the 150-minute diner is the nachos lover. Since Zoey ate fewer plates than the cheeseburgers fan and Zoey already has six, the only higher count is seven — so cheeseburgers must be Cassidy.

Finish the foods and counts using the remaining constraints. The ice-cream fan must be later than ribs and at more than three plates; the only unassigned later-than-135 seat that isn’t blocked by other foods is Omar at 155. Give Omar cookies & ice cream and set his plates to four (since 155 is not seven, and he must be less than Dante’s five). That forces Finn to the remaining plate count under six that isn’t already used — three — and leaves chocolate cake for Finn (because 155 cannot be chocolate cake). All clues now align: Zoey at 150 (six) is earlier than Omar at 155 and above Finn’s three; Dante at 135 has ribs; the ice-cream fan at 155 has four plates and stayed longer than ribs; and Cassidy at 145 with seven plates is the cheeseburgers fan.

Answers

Zoey spent 150 minutes, ate 6 plates, and favored Loaded Nachos.
Cassidy spent 145 minutes, ate 7 plates, and favored Cheeseburgers.
Finn spent 140 minutes, ate 3 plates, and favored Chocolate Cake.
Omar spent 155 minutes, ate 4 plates, and favored Cookies & Ice Cream.
Dante spent 135 minutes, ate 5 plates, and favored BBQ Ribs.

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