Restaurant analyst does competitive eating on the side
Writing about restaurants as much as I do, it’s a good thing I like to eat.
I’ll watch competitive eating contests and TV shows, but I don’t think I would ever take part in one.
But in talking to Darren Tristano with Chicago-based research firm Technomic Inc., for a story in last week’s print edition about Izzy’s, I learned that restaurants and food are more than just work for him.
Tristano serves as a restaurant industry analyst and specializes in major national restaurant chain concept and menu development and smaller, emerging chains.
But he also enjoys a food challenge.
He’s eaten the 2-pound burger at Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, called the Quadruple Bypass Burger.
“They even wheel you to your car in a wheelchair,” Tristano said.
Now, he’s interested in tackling Izzy’s 110 Reuben. After discussing the attention an appearance on a show like “Man v. Food Nation” can have on a restaurant, Tristano asked me to send him a link to the Izzy’s challenge.
Based in Chicago, it’s kind of a long trip to get to Cincinnati to try the monster reuben and potato pancake sandwich. But, Tristano said he was going to be in Toledo soon, so a trip down Interstate 75 wouldn’t be too bad.
