MONTAGUE — North Grove Brewers introduced their “knockout challenge” a few months ago, and until competitive eater Randy Santel arrived, it had proven to be nearly impossible to finish.
With only two groups having unsuccessfully attempted the challenge to date, co-owner RJ Nordlund had the idea to submit the challenge to Santel, who has 1.67 million subscribers on YouTube and over two million on Facebook. Santel narrowly completed the challenge Monday evening, finishing with only 20 seconds to spare: 44 minutes and 40 seconds.
The challenge consists of four full-sized pizzas of the challenger’s choice and the brewery’s Rocky IV sandwich. (The names of menu items incorporate the popular boxing movie series throughout, with character names and references.) Santel dedicated the final pizza of the challenge to the memory of Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in the series and passed away Feb. 1.
If the challenge is completed, the challenger gets a series of prizes, including a $50 gift card, and their name on the Knockout Wall of Fame, along with their meal being free.
“It’s hard,” Santel said. “Not just the 45-minute time limit, but the amount of pizza and food in general, it’s a lot of food. They said it was about seven and a half pounds, and I feel every ounce of it. It’s definitely a challenge. I don’t know how beatable it is for normal people, but as we showed today, it is winnable.”
Santel was joined in the challenge by fellow competitive eater Wayne Johnson. Johnson completed just over half of the challenge (two pizzas and the grinder), but waved the white flag. He has only been eating competitively for less than a year, but had to take a recent hiatus due to surgery. This was his first challenge back since recovery and although he did not complete the entire thing, the diners of North Grove cheered him on every bite of the way.
Santel started eating competitively in March 2010 and has successfully completed approximately 1,225 challenges. He got his degree and became a licensed dietitian last November. When he completes 1,500 challenges, he plans to retire from competitive eating, and teach his current online audience about nutrition and weight management. He has completed challenges in all 50 states and 40 countries. He’d like to visit 10 more countries before retiring.
“I think this restaurant and brewery is really neat,” said Santel. “It’s a big atmosphere. Sometimes I do food challenges with a lot of people that they fit into a small space. This had a big area, and everybody was able to sit comfortably and watch.”
