Blue Ash Chili "No Freaking Way" challenge

Over the weekend a couple of followers on Twitter asked if I would try the Blue Ash Chili "No Freakin' Way" challenge. My answer is simple: No Freakin' Way!!! In this challenge the customer has to finish and 8 pound 4-way. If you finish you get the usual T-shirt, spot on the Wall of Fame and a free meal. Kudos to anyone that can even come close to finishing this gargantuan meal. On the other hand, if someone creates a cheese coney challenge, I may consider it.

Close up photo of the 4-way: http://masonbuzz.com/photos/photo/6129218638/no-freakin-way-challenge.html

In other news, apparently the Darkside enjoys Gold Star Chili: http://twitpic.com/6itatn

Win Gold Star Chili for a year

The best chili is of course free chili. Here at Cincinnati Coney Quest we like to inform our readers of opportunities to acquire free chili. For those who believe Gold Star Chili is the "Taste of Cincinnati", we found a promotion you might be interested in. Gold Star is currently running a contest where one lucky Cincinnati chili lover can win free Gold Star for a year (it's really a Gold Star gift card for $350). There are also weekly prizes ($50 gift cards). You can also earn a free cheese coney for inviting friends to enter. The sweepstakes run from September 6 - September 30. Visit http://www.goldstarchili.com/winchili to enter.

Blue Jay Restaurant Review

Just a couple of storefronts down from Park Chili is another Northside institution, Blue Jay Restaurant. While its not a chili parlor, it is a restaurant that serves Cincinnati chili dishes. Blue Jay is your classic greasy spoon breakfast and lunch diner. Along with the chili the menu features standard diner fare. While we were there most were enjoying breakfast dishes that looked quite tasty.

Blue Jay opened in the late 60's and does not appear to have changed much since its open. The walls feature wood paneling and wall paper with an outdoors theme. Newspaper clippings along with photos of Cincinnati and of the restaurant are hung up around the dining area. We arrived around Noon on Saturday and the place was packed. We took the only booth available and could tell right away that Blue Jay is a neighborhood favorite.


Alison's Review

Blue Jay offers a great coney for people who love the chili piled on thick. Surprisingly unmessy, this cheese coney was filled to the top with a warm, flavorful chili sauce. There was so much of it, I thought at first they had forgotten to put a hot dog in my coney! The buried hot dog was fine but not the best we've had. The bun was not the softest, but it held up impressively well against all that chili.



The cheese was clearly fresh grated, a little heavier than usual in consistency, but still very good. The onion and mustard balanced the overall flavor perfectly. Overall, this coney could have been one of my favorites if it had a better hot dog. Still, for a restaurant that is not mentioned a lot when it comes to Cincinnati Chili, Blue Jay pleasantly surprised me.

I'm giving the Blue Jay Restaurant cheese coney a 3.6 out of 5 stars.


Clint's Review

When arriving at Blue Jay, I wasn't sure what to expect. Since chili is not their specialty I did not know if they would treat the chili as an afterthought or if it would be a pleasant surprise. It had been a while since our last stop so either way I was eager to find out. After the first bite you could tell they don't skimp on the chili. Each coney was filled to max capacity with chili. As Alison pointed out this is a good and a bad thing. Can't complaint too much about a nice sized portion but it does overwhelm other coney ingredients, especially the hot dog. I enjoyed the chili flavor, it was a sweet and savory blend, it also had a good texture.

To once again echo Alison's thoughts, the buns did a great job holding that much chili. I enjoyed the freshly grated cheese, I felt it was a little sharper than your standard coney cheese. I thought there could have been a little more of the cheese. Slightly less chili and a little more cheese would give the coney more balance. The hot dog tasted ok, but needs to be a little larger or have more flavor.

Overall the Blue Jay Restaurant cheese coney was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed it more than the cheese coney at neighboring Park Chili. I give Blue Jay Restaurant a 3.5 out of 5.

Blue Jay Restaurant History

Like most of Cincinnati's mom-and-pop chili parlors, Blue Jay Restaurant was founded by Greek immigrants. Danny and Kathryn Petropoulos traveled to the U.S. in 1959. For the better part of that decade they worked odd jobs such as making golf clubs at MacGregor. By 1967, though their English was rough and they were beginning to raise a family, the Petropoulos's decided to open a restaurant. Blue Jay, simply named after Danny's bowling team, was founded in the heart of Northside on Hamilton Avenue. Now, 44 years later, the Petropoulos family is still running the restaurant. They stopped serving dinner about 10 years ago, but Blue Jay is still a Northside staple when it comes to breakfast and lunch.

Adam Richman visits Camp Washington

As most know by now, Adam Richman (of Man vs. Food fame) has been in Cincinnati since last week filming segments for a Cincinnati episode of Man vs. Food Nation. Some of the Cincinnati food institutions Adam has visited include Findlay Market, Izzy's, Senate and Tom & Chee.

Of course the big question many have did he go to a chili parlor? Of course he did! It was assumed he would visit Skyline, but the Enquirer's John Kiesewetter reports Adam visited Camp Washington Chili. Kiesewetter wonders if a food show will ever visit Gold Star or Skyline. Personally, I am happy that smaller parlors such as Camp Washington and Blue Ash have been featured on national food programs. Everyone knows about Gold Star and Skyline, its nice to see the "little" guy get the spotlight for once. Plus, Camp Washington is currently in our Top 3, so Adam made a wise decision.

Image tweeted by @AdamRichman

The Cincinnati episode of Man vs. Food Nation will air in October.

Shelf Stable Skyline thoughts and Delhi Skyline

Thoughts on the shelf-stable Skyline Original Chili

As previously mentioned, we received a box of the new shelf-stable Skyline product. The box contained 2 of the Original Chili product and 2 of the Chili Spaghetti product. This week we decided to try one of these products. We went with Original Chili, we don't really eat Cincinnati style chili in a bowl like regular chili so we decided to make some Skyline dip.

Overall it tasted pretty decent, not as good as what you would get at the parlor but good for a quick at home meal. Wine Me Dine Me also thought it was pretty good but a little too salty and messy, we agree with both points. I'd assume the high salt is necessary to make it shelf stable, but if possible it would be nice if the salt level could be decreased. The Skyline dip we created with it tasted good as well. If you try the shelf-stable version I'd recommend stirring well and letting it sit for a couple of minutes so it can be less soupy.

Delhi Skyline promotion

I know our readers love a chance to win free chili. The Skyline Chili in Delhi wants to reward their loyal customers and is giving away a $20 gift card in a new promotion. Here is the info if you are interested in entering the contest:

Where has your Delhi Skyline T-shirt been?

Show us where your Delhi Skyline t-shirt has been and receive $20 worth of Delhi Skyline gift cards. Simply take a picture wearing your Delhi Skyline T-shirt (available at 5137 Delhi Pike) against a unique backdrop, and email it to lambrinides.delhi@gmail.com along with your name photo description. In return, you’ll receive a $20 gift card and a chance to see your picture on display at the restaurant as well as on Delhi Skyline’s Facebook page. Delhi Skyline logo must be visible in the photo; t-shirts have logos on the backsides.

Canned Dixie Chili

Up first in our "Canned Chili Challenge" is Dixie Chili. This was the first time we have had Dixie since our visit very early in the quest. We both enjoyed Dixie so we looked forward to trying their canned product.

What we used:

Dixie Chili
A block of Kroger Mild Cheddar Cheese (which we shredded)
Blue Grass hot dogs
White onion
Kroger yellow mustard
Butternut Golden Honey hot dog buns

We both enjoyed our homemade attempt of recreating the Dixie Chili product. The canned product tasted very good and brought back fond memories of our Dixie visit. However there were some aspects we can definitely improve on as we continue this challenge. The cheese tasted fine, but the texture wasn't the best. Next time we will try freezing the cheese for a half hour before shredding to help reduce the clumpy texture. The Blue Grass dogs tasted great, but are larger than the typical coney dog so we couldn't pour on as much chili as we would have liked. The buns were fine, but we will try other brands. Alison thought the onion was too strong and will try a vidalia onion next time. She thought the mustard was fine.

Overall they were tasty coneys but not quite as good as a parlor made coney. If you are fan of Dixie Chili we recommend buying the canned product if you want to make your own coneys (or -ways) at home. The chili was tasty.  Hopefully we will make the appropriate tweaks along the way and come close to recreating that delicious parlor coney. Of course we welcome any suggestions.