If the folks at On the Grill have their way, this storefront Israeli spot in Forest Hills may become to Queens what Nathan’s Famous is to Coney Island. The restaurant's chef Tzur Kalaf has no intention of giving up his Glatt Kosher certification and serving hot dogs, though. Instead he’s launched what he calls "The Great Falafel Eating Contest", which started Monday and lasts until Feb. 28.

The rules are pretty simple: Any participant who eats five falafel sandwiches in 29 minutes gets their meal free and wins a $50 gift certificate to On the Grill. If a contestant doesn’t eat all five sandwiches in the allotted time, then they pay for the number that they polished off. On the Grill's falafel sandwich consists of five falafel balls, humus, tahini and Israeli salad packed into a pita. When asked whether contestants can get his incendiary homemade shoug on their sandwiches, Kalaf responded, “Sure you can get hot sauce on it. You’re gonna eat them, not me.”

Gothamist has already concluded that we’d never be able to eat five of Kalaf’s sandwiches, even if we were given 29 minutes. For those who can’t read the sign’s last line, it says, “Only 1 win per contestant entrant during contest duration.” According to the restaurant’s manager Barry, “We have a lot of guys who come in here who could do it. They’d be leaving with a $50 gift certificate every day.”

Thus far nobody’s taken the challenge. “A lot of people have been asking about it and everybody volunteers somebody else,” Kalaf quipped. Which is precisely what we did when we told him that he might be getting a visit from our friend Crazy Legs Conti, a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Nobody at the restaurant had ever heard of the IFOCE, but nevertheless they’re prepared to host some major eaters in the coming weeks and said there’d be no problem even if a 100 contestants showed up at the same time.

Incidentally, 29 minutes is an eternity to "gurgitators", as these athletes like to call themselves; IFOCE contests run from as short a period as 8 minutes to as long as 12 minutes, the duration of Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. None of this fazed the jovial Kalaf; when asked whether he could envision ever becoming the Nathan’s of Forest Hills, he responded, “We want to be the Nathan’s of Queens, my friend."

According to IFOCE Chairman George Shea, such promotions have been around for years and there's an informal circuit of folks who travel the country to consume such oddities as 11-pound burgers. Shea says these "locusts" do it not for prize money, but often just to see a simple Polaroid of themselves tacked to the restaurant wall. "I have no idea how much falafel our guys could eat, but one of them ate 20 pounds of grits."

On the Grill, 98-102 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, 718-897-4829