Youtube star to attempt Big Berty Challenge at Sycamore’s Dirty Bird restaurant

SYCAMORE – Only one person so far has prevailed over a Sycamore restaurant’s Big Berty Challenge – 5½ pounds of deep-fried, cheese-smothered food that must be eaten in a half hour.

On Sunday, YouTube star and competitive eater Randy Santel will take on The Dirty Bird 815′s dare himself.

Josh Smith, the owner of The Dirty Bird 815 in Sycamore, said the Big Berty Challenge was created to generate business. He’s just now learning that the fun feasts generate a select group, too.

“I didn’t even realize there was a whole bunch of people that just go around and do food challenges,” Smith said.

Santel, from St. Louis, Missouri, is known for tackling and completing food challenges at restaurants across the country, according to his website. He’ll have 30 minutes to eat 2½ pounds of fries, a pork tenderloin, five fried chicken strips, two quarter-pound cheeseburger patties, and a half pound of pulled pork – all covered in house queso cheese sauce – if he wants to add the Big Berty Challenge to his long resume.

Santel and The Dirty Bird have invited the community to come witness the challenge at 4 p.m. Sunday. The event is expected to be live-streamed on Santel’s and the Dirty Bird’s Facebook pages.

The professional eater is expected to arrive to the Sycamore chicken joint, 124 S. Maple St., at 3 p.m. to set up, and be on hand to do a meet-and-greet, sign autographs and take photos.

Santel has successfully completed 1,212 food challenges in establishments across all 50 states and in 40 different counties, according to his website. Those challenges can be found on his Youtube page, Randy Santel, where he has 1.67 million subscribers, or his Facebook page, where he’s racked up more than 2 million followers.

He’ll spend the weekend attempting more than just Sycamore’s food challenge across northern Illinois. Santel has stops planned at Roadhouse 47 in Yorkville, Flapjack Brewery in Berwyn and Caliendo’s Restaurant and Bar in Winfield, according to his itinerary.

If he’s successful Sunday, Santel won’t be the first to complete the Dirty Bird’s challenge, however. According to the restaurant, Eli Lessig beat the challenge Dec. 16 with less than a minute to spare. Lessig is the only one so far to take on Big Berty and win.

“So most people that try to and actually start out trying to do it in half an hour, about 20 minutes in they’re done. They don’t have anymore room to do it,” Smith said. “And the one guy that did complete it, he was at about 29 minutes when he got it done.”