ANNA MARIA – Professional eater and bodybuilder Randy Santel is bringing his competitive eating talents to Harry’s Grill in Anna Maria.
As part of his 2021 February Florida Food Challenge tour, Santel will appear at Harry’s Grill on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. Harry’s Grill is located at 9903 Gulf Drive.
Mark Labriola and his wife, Jan, have owned Harry’s Grill since 2014 and they’ve never done anything like this before.
“When we first bought Harry’s, we would watch all the food shows on TV. We were fascinated with all of the variety and we ran into these shows where people were taking on these restaurants’ food challenges. We don’t have a food challenge to speak of, but we do have a nice variety of food,” Mark Labriola said.
“Randy’s an international competitive eater, like you see on ‘Man vs. Food’ and other TV shows,” he said.
“A lot of restaurants around the county and around the world feature these eating challenges – like eating a 72-oz. steak in less than an hour and that kind of thing. There’s a whole circuit of people like him that go around doing this. Randy’s in the Tampa area and his agent called me and wondered if I’d be interested in featuring him. I said yes and we set it up,” Labriola said.
“We’re going to feature a round of Harry’s favorite foods. We haven’t confirmed it yet, but we’re thinking of including our Harry’s Pounder (a burger featuring two 8-oz. beef patties), our prime rib, our chicken wings, our shrimp and things like that. With sides included, it’s going to end up being more than 6 pounds of food – and he’s going to do it within an hour, that’s the challenge.”
“Stone Crab” Steve Arvey will provide the live music that evening, but he will take a break while Santel does this thing.
“We expect it to last an hour and we’re asking folks to make reservations if they want to be part of the show. We’re actually going to be taping it and they may even do a livestream. He has two million viewers on YouTube and people follow him, so he is a big deal in his own circuit,” Labriola said.
As part of the event-related marketing package, Harry’s Grill will receive a video recording that can be used to further promote the popular Anna Maria eatery.
Accomplished eater
According to his website, www.RandySantel.com, Santel has won more than 920 food challenges in all 50 states and in 37 countries around the world. His February tour is part of his ongoing pursuit of 1,000 food challenge wins. Santel is also the owner of www.foodchallenges.com.
Santel teaches others how to train, strategize and win food eating challenges; and he teaches restaurant owners and marketers how to design and promote successful food challenges based on their geographical area and clientele.
“Randy is a huge supporter and advocate for the importance of nutrition, which is why he is able to stay lean while still averaging over 100 food challenge wins per year,” his website says.
The website notes Santel won the Men’s Health Spartacus Body Transformation Challenge in 2010. In 2019, Santel earned from Missouri State University his second bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics.
To make reservations for Thursday’s event call 941-567-5999. For more information, please visit www.HarrysGrillAMI.com.
