Quest Stop #22, Queen City Sausage Festival and Wait...What?

Quest Stop #22
It has been a while since we have held an actual drawing to determine our next stop on the quest. We are now in the portion of the quest where most of our remaining parlors are only open during lunch and have limited weekend hours. So we have had to plan out our recent stops, but I always liked doing random drawings so I brought it back for stop #22. I chose three parlors that I knew would fit in our schedule and the winner is...

Park Chili! This is not our first attempt at visiting Park Chili. If you don't remember, Park was actually going to be our 5th stop of the quest, however we got there too late...or did we? It was a strange experience, hopefully we have better luck this time.

Queen City Sausage Festival
Ok, go ahead and get your giggling about the name out of the way now...we good now? This weekend at Newport's Riverfront Levee is the Queen City Sausage Festival. According to their website the festival will feature "Over 15 delicious ways Queen City Sausages can be enjoyed. Brats, metts and more, including creative dishes will be sold by the area’s best food vendors!" The reason we are mentioning it here, according to the Enquirer's Polly Campbell, one of those "creative dishes" will be an Italian Sausage Coney. Not sure if we will make it down to the festival, but if we do, we will try an Italian Sausage Coney and report back.

Wait...What??? (c) Norm MacDonald
While doing some research for the blog I stumbled across this recent blog post from another blog. Hmm, looks pretty familiar. (Note: Aside from that post, I actually find their blog interesting.)

Quest Stop #17 Drawing

We did not make a Coney Quest stop this past weekend and instead chose to stuff our faces at Taste of Cincinnati. Even though it was a very hot weekend, we both enjoyed ourselves during our multiple visits to Taste. It does kind of surprise me that there is no Cincinnati chili to be found at Taste, but it doesn't really upset me either since if there was a Skyline or Gold Star booth I would make fun of it like I do the LaRosa's booth (nothing against LaRosa's, but people should branch out and try the other pizza joints there). I do think one of the smaller chili parlors could do well at Taste, but I am sure there are logistic and costs reasons why they don't.

I could on and on but what I did and did not like at Taste, but this blog is about cheese coneys, so lets get back to that. Stop #17 will take us to the furthest eastern location of the Quest: Moon-Lite Chili in Batavia. Moon-Lite finds themselves in a good spot as they follow the Mike's Chili disaster, we can only go up from there!

***UPDATE*** We planned on going to Moon-Lite Chili this past Sunday, it is located in Batavia, which isn't very convenient to us, so I decided to call to see what their hours were. I tried a couple of times but no one ever answered. Since so many chili parlors are family owned it can be risky to plan a quest stop on a Sunday when many family owned restaurants are closed. We really wanted coneys on Sunday so we decided to choose a different parlor to go to. The one chili parlor we knew for sure would be open was Skyline, thus we postponed Moon-Lite and made Skyline our 17th stop on the Quest. We will have a history post and review posted sometime this week. If anyone knows the hours Moon-Lite is open please pass them along, I will try calling them tomorrow afternoon.

In one more chili related note, be sure to check out the Puddintopia 3-Way Thursday posts, as they are out to find the best 3-way in Cincinnati. They recently made their first stop at Empress and had some of the same thoughts we had during our visit.

Quest Stop #16

For the past couple of Quest stops we just chose where we were going based on convenience. For stop #16 we decided to go back to the random drawing to determine our destination. There is a big addition to the drawings: Skyline Chili. We had avoided Skyline since we were so familiar with the taste but enough time as passed since our last Skyline experience we figured it was a good time to add them to the mix. Barring any last second discoveries, we are down to 9 chili parlors on the quest.

Cincinnati Coney Quest stop #16 is:

We are heading back across the river this time to try out Covington Chili. Surprisingly, despite my many adventures in the Covington area during my college years I know very little about Covington Chili. We look forward to seeing if its a diamond in the rough or if there is a good reason I don't know much about them.

Quest Stop #14

For Quest Stop #14 we will return to Glenway Avenue, aka The 3-Way Highway. West Side Chili Parlor is our 14th destination. West Side is known for their variety of chili options as they serve Regular, Spicy Regular, Tex-Mex, Vegetarian and Spicy Vegetarian. We are looking forward to sampling their twist on Cincinnati style chili.

Quest Stop #13

The next stop on the Quest is lucky number 13. Typically we do a drawing to determine where we will go, but not the case this time. We have a pretty tight schedule this weekend so we needed a parlor that is nearby. This means we will head back to Newport to visit Gourmet Chili on Monmouth. This is located very close to one of our favorites, Dixie Chili. We look forward to see how Gourmet stacks up to their neighbor.

Quest Stop #12 and other chili tidbits

It has been a busy week at the Coney Quest and we wrap it up with the announcement of the next quest stop and two news items.

• For the 12th Quest Stop drawing we added one new chili parlor to the mix. A follower of ours on twitter told us about Cretan Grill in Carthage. Based on my research it appears they sell chili, unfortunately their hours are not very convenient (M-F 9am-2pm) but we will have to find some time to make the trip there. We also added one parlor that we thought we already had on our list, Moon-Lite Chili in Batavia. They are on my map of chili parlors, but somehow escaped our list. This now brings our total to 24 chili parlors. The selection for the 12th stop on the Cincinnati Coney Quest is Sam's Chili. Coincidentally this is also located in Price Hill, very close to Price Hill Chili. Which brings us to our next topic.

• During our trip to Price Hill Chili we noticed there appeared to be a lot of chili parlors along Glenway Avenue. Alison did a little research and found out that Glenway is considered the "Route 66 of cheese coneys". Once again Cincinnati Magazine has an interesting article about Cincinnati's chili history, this article focuses on the chili parlor history of Glenway Avenue. The article is titled "The Three-Way Highway" which I recommend reading if you have some spare time and want to know a little more about our chili history.

• Do you love cheese coneys? Do you love the Cincinnati Reds? If you answered yes to both questions you might want to head to Tina's (located Downtown on 4th and Central) on March 20 at 1PM. Tina's is holding their 3rd annual cheese coney eating contest and the winner receives tickets to Reds opening day! The first to eat 10 cheese coneys wins a pair of opening day tickets. Last years winner wolfed down 10 coneys in 2 and a half minutes. If you are interested in competing you might want to head to Tina's ASAP as they limit the contest to 10 entries. And no, I won't be competing, I have a half marathon to run the next day, I love coneys but they are not great pre-race food.

Reminder: you have until Noon today to enter our Gold Star Chili gift card giveaway.

Coney Quest Drawing #10

Tonight was time for one of our favorite parts of the quest, the drawing of the next location! With this upcoming weekend being a 3-day weekend, we plan on making our next stop on President's Day. Clearly George Washington would have wanted us celebrating his birthday by eating one of our favorite foods.

Without further adieu, stop number ten on the Cincinnati Coney Quest will be...

Cleves Chili!

This is one of the latest additions to the quest. Before embarking on our journey I have never heard of Cleves Chili but came across it on the chili parlor listings on the Chilitown USA website. I cant even recall a time that I have been in Cleves, so we look forward to making our trip out to the western most location of the quest to experience Cleves and their chili.

Quest Drawing #9

We were just laying around having a lazy Saturday and decided it was time for the next drawing of the coney quest. This drawing included the restaurants we added to the quest yesterday (Christofields, Cleves and B/G).

And Coney Quest stop #9 will be...

Gold Star! We will be trying "The Flavor of Cincinnati" for stop #9. Gold Star is one of the largest chains in town and has a very large following. We will find out if it belongs in the upper echelon of Cincinnati chili.

Quest Stop #8

Our last stop on the quest was an impromptu visit to Pleasant Ridge Chili, so it had actually been a while since we did our last drawing. There were not any new entries in this drawing, however, there are some restaurants that I have found in my research that may serve Cincinnati style chili, I just need to call them to see if they A) still are in business and B) do serve coneys. If those new places check out, then there will be more than 20 restaurants on the quest!

And now for the drawing of Cincinnati Coney Quest stop #8...

We will be heading west to Delhi Chili for our eighth stop. I can't recall many times I have been in Delhi, look forward to going there and trying their chili!

Coney Quest Stop #6

Today was the first drawing of 2011 for the Coney Quest. Five new parlors were added to the drawing: Mr Gene's Dog House Weenies on Wheels, J and J's Restaurant, Gourmet Chili, Sam's Chili and one of the Cincinnati Chili heavyweights: Gold Star Chili. It has been a while since I have had Gold Star, so we felt enough time has passed to add them into the mix.

And Cincinnati Coney Quest stop #6 will be:

I know some people from St. Bernard who swear by Chili Time, so we look forward to visiting their neighborhood parlor and seeing how it stacks up to the competition.

Coney Quest Stop #5 Roadblock

Originally we had planned on making Park Chili in Northside our 5th stop on the quest. From the research we did it appeared they were open til 7PM during the week. We arrived at 6:10 PM and doors were locked. There was someone at the counter and two other people, not sure if they were customers or workers, hanging around as well. We shook the door, tried to get their attention and they saw us, but decided to just give us a blank stare instead of notifying us they were closed. So as we walked back to the car I decided to call to see what the hours were, after 7 rings someone finally answered and the convo went like this:

PC: Hello, Park Chili *in a not very pleasant voice*
Me: Hi, I was wondering what your hours were?
PC: Sorry we are closed for the night.
Me: Oh ok, tha *PC hangs up phone* nk youuuuu.

This put us in a slight bind since we did not have a back up plan, silly us thinking a restaurant would honor its hours. Then we remembered Camp Washington Chili was nearby, open 24 hours, and on our list. We will return to Park Chili another day, most likely for lunch and will definitely call ahead. Park Chili might have gotten off to a bad start, but we are forgiving people and will still to go Park with an open mind (and belly).

This week stay tuned for the Camp Washington history post and our review.

Coney Quest Stop #5

Last night we held our weekly drawing for the next stop on the Cincinnati Coney Quest. The next location will be...

Park Chili in Northside.

Admittedly, neither one of us had heard of Park Chili until a week into the quest when we came across a cincinnati.com best chili parlor poll. After doing a little more research we are definitely looking forward to trying it! With this weekend being Christmas weekend, I don't know when we will make it there, I'm guessing sometime next week. Stay tuned.

Coney Quest Stop #4

The fourth stop on the quest has been drawn. Not exactly sure when we will be visiting this parlor, we will be monitoring the upcoming SNOWMAGEDDON, and making our plans from there. Once again this week all parlors but Skyline and Gold Star were eligible to be drawn. In two weeks we will introduce either Skyline or Gold Star into the mix, and the other one will get introduced later in the quest.

And now onto the selection:

We are definitely looking forward to visiting Blue Ash Chili, as it has received a lot of buzz the last couple of years, including a visit from Guy Fieri for his hit television show Diners. Drive Ins and Dives.

Cincy Coney Quest Stop #3

Once again we threw chili parlor names in a hat and selected one to decide what our next destination would be on our quest to find the best coney in town. We did withdrawal Covington Chili from consideration this round to eliminate the chance of going to Northern Kentucky again, nothing against NKY, just wanted to mix it up a little. Anyway, the next stop on the quest will be:

U-S-A! U-S-A! I think I will play the Team America theme song many times to get me extra psyched to try US Chili.

Cincy Coney Quest Stop #2

For the most part the process of choosing what order the Cincinnati Coney Quest will go on is random. We put all the chili parlor names on slips of paper and draw the name from a hat. Only exceptions to this are making Empress stop #1 and planning on doing Gold Star and Skyline later in the quest since we are more accustomed to that taste.

Today was the first drawing of the quest...

...and the 2nd parlor will be:

Quest stop #2 will once again take us across the border, to try out Northern Kentucky's very popular Dixie Chili.