A regional social media celebrity was in St. Lawrence County last week.
Anthony Tringale travels New York State, especially Upstate, wearing a navy blue mechanic’s shirt and taking short videos of himself eating at as many restaurants as he can. Posting as Eat Local New York, he’s racked up more than 300,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Anthony Tringale of Eat Local New York worked the room at Barking Dog Saloon in Parishville. Photo: David Sommerstein
He launched a tour of seven restaurants in St. Lawrence County last Wednesday night with a stop at Barking Dog Saloon in Parishville. Tringale says it’s his favorite place to get chicken wings in all of New York State.
Kelsey Cobb of Heuvelton was out with her lady friends at Barking Dog. Her husband texted her that he saw on Instagram that Tringale would be there. “He was all pumped up, jacked. He was excited,” Cobb said. “I think he was a little jealous of the fact that I’m here and he’s not.” She even got to take a group photo with him.
David Sommerstein’Eat Local New York’ is putting North Country restaurants on the social media map
Tringale calls himself a “restaurant promoter”. He told David Sommerstein Eat Local New York started ten years ago. He was doing social media consulting as a side hustle, and he met a restaurant owner who was struggling to stay afloat. Their conversation has been edited for clarity.
ANTHONY TRINGALE: She was a great cook, and she loved to cook, but that’s kind of where her knowledge started and ended for the restaurant industry. I met her as she was on her way out of business, and I gave her a bunch of advice on marketing and social media. As I was leaving that meeting with her, I thought man, if I had an Instagram account with a following and I could get fifty people to show up [at the restaurant], I’m not going to keep her in business, but I could give her some hope. So, I went home that night and started the Instagram account.
DAVID SOMMERSTEIN: What do you think it is that excites the imagination and gets people following you so much?
TRINGALE: Man, I wish I knew that answer. I don’t know. I’m still shocked. It doesn’t happen all the time, but I’m still shocked when a restaurant tells me they got really busy from me posting about it.
I’m just going out there and trying food and trying to give my honest take on it. I try to make sure I don’t overinflate what it is. But yeah, it’s still surprising when people go out to the restaurants I post about.
Anthony Tringale, from Syracuse, drives all over New York State to take selfie videos of himself eating at local restaurants. Photo: David Sommerstein
SOMMERSTEIN: You’re going to local restaurants. You’re not going to chains. You’re going to down-home places, places that are beloved in the community, that kind of thing.
TRINGALE: Yeah. So my dad is an industry guy. He went to school for hotel and restaurant management back in the 1970s and he’s owned a couple of restaurants. When I was maybe 10 years old, we grew up in northern Kentucky. My parents opened a 50s-style diner, and they were going out of business from the day they opened. You know, it’s a struggle. And I remember being 10, I was home-schooled at the time, which meant I was just up there at the restaurant with the family 24/7.
But I remember the challenges that they faced when I was that young. And so it’s just nice to be able to help out other families who are running restaurants today. It’s always a struggle to be an independent restaurant owner. Sometimes it’s a fun struggle, but it’s always a struggle. So, it kind of feels like I’m helping my parents out.
SOMMERSTEIN: A lot of people must ask you this question. How do you survive eating all this food?
TRINGALE: I’ve got a personal trainer who’s really good. I’m with him twice a week. Tonight’s a little different because I’m really here [at Barking Dog Saloon] just because I love the wings and I’m in the area. But tomorrow I’ll be going to five different restaurants in Potsdam and filming, and I’ll have a bite or two at each spot.
When I’m not filming, I’m home just eating, not to make content. I just try to take in a lot of protein. I don’t eat a lot of heavy carbs or sugar or drink too much.
SOMMERSTEIN: Do you buy all the food or do you get comped sometimes?
TRINGALE: Yeah, it varies. It depends on what we’re doing. This is an interesting trip because I’m coming up here to make content. So, we’ll reach out to the restaurants and say, can you supply a dish? If I ever go to a place and I don’t like the food, then I don’t post that video, and then I pay for the food. And I give them my advice and tell them why I didn’t like it.
But I’ve got a master list of about 500 restaurants on my phone that I want to get to one day, and a lot of times I’ll just pop into those places, buy a meal, and go sit in my car and make a video.
SOMMERSTEIN: How do you get your recommendations? How have you compiled that list of 500?
TRINGALE: It’s a combination of places I found online, followers who have sent me recommendations, we have a hotline where people can call in and leave me a voicemail to recommend a restaurant, and also restaurants that have reached out over the years.
SOMMERSTEIN: So, you’re going to go to five places in St. Lawrence County tomorrow. What are the five places?
TRINGALE: I know it’s the Blue House, Hoof & Horn, a coffee shop next to the Blue House called Grass River Grind coffee shop, Hardy’s Kitchen and Bakery in Massena, and then there’s another diner that the people who used to own Sabad’s reached out and asked me to come out.
SOMMERSTEIN: And so when you go there, you have a crew, or is it just you? You’re taking the videos, like taking selfies, and doing it?
TRINGALE: Yeah, I’ve got a little tripod and a light and microphone, and I just sit down and do it myself.