By Seren Morris
Freelance SEO Writer
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An influencer was kicked out of a Colorado restaurant after the owner accused her of being a professional competitive eater trying to scam them.
On Sunday, Raina Huang, a YouTuber based in Los Angeles who makes competitive eating videos under the name 'Raina is Crazy,' went to StevO's Pizza and Ribs to take on the OMG 28" pizza challenge. The challenge sees two guests try to eat the entire pizza in one hour with no breaks to win a $100 prize.
Other challenges hosted by the restaurant include the WTF Wing Challenge, which challenges competitors to consume chicken wings made with ghost pepper and habanero in under ten minutes, and then wait another ten minutes before taking a drink.
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The BBQ Challenge encourages guests to eat a "giant plate" of ribs, brisket, hot links, wings, fries, and a pulled pork sandwich in one hour with the hopes of winning $100. The website does not specify who can and cannot enter the challenges.
According to Denver 7 News, surveillance footage of the incident sees Huang ask the restaurant owner, Steve Wieand, if she can film herself competing in the challenge. When asked if she is a professional eater, Huang told Wieand that she competes in challenges and makes videos for YouTube.
Huang later uploaded a teary video to social media in which she said she was kicked out of the restaurant and called a liar by the owner. According to Huang, Wieand also threatened to call the police.
Following news of the incident, the StevO's Pizza and Ribs restaurant was flooded with negative reviews on Yelp.
Now, the review section of the Yelp page displays the following message: "This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news.
"While we don't take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we've temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate [whether] the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events."
In an Instagram story posted on Monday, Huang said: "Huge shoutout to all the support I got from everybody, thank you so much for that. I feel a lot, lot better. But I'm not going to let this little mishap get in the way of me doing my food stuff.
"So we're just going to move on forward and have a good time, continue eating amazing food."
Although Wieand has not yet commented on the incident, his daughter, Stephanie Wieand, told Denver 7: "I think that it could have been handled better. All I want to say is that I apologize to Raina and to everyone."
Newsweek has contacted Raina Huang and StevO's Pizza and Ribs for comment.
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