Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Gold Star History

Gold Star Chili, the largest chain of Cincinnati-style chili in the world, was first established as a burger joint. In 1965 a restaurant named Hamburger Heaven in Mt. Washington was bought by four young Jordanian brothers of the Daoud family. With the purchase of the restaurant they also received a recipe for Cincinnati-style chili. They decided that this recipe needed some tweaking. "A pinch of this" and "a dash of that" ultimately lead to their family's fortune. The chili became the most popular item on the menu and Hamburger Heaven was soon thereafter renamed to Gold Star Chili.

The Daoud brothers opened two more locations within a year. Today there are nearly 100 Gold Star locations across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana and additional concession booths in multiple places such as Paul Brown Stadium and the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. They sell frozen and canned products in grocery stores throughout Greater Cincinnati, and their website offers worldwide shipping of cans of chili.

in 1999 Gold Star Chili unanimously beat out Skyine and Empress in a blind taste test conducted by Cincinnati Magazine in which five of Cincinnati's top chefs acted as judges.

1 comment:

  1. hope you went today... 99 cents cheese coneys :)

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