Gold Star to expand outside of USA

Cincinnati style chili can be a hard sell to someone not from Cincinnati. It took Alison three tries before she fell in love with it. I know plenty of people not from Cincinnati that felt the same way Alison did, and I know many outsiders who just don't like it. We will soon find out how people outside the United States feel about Cincinnati chili. Gold Star Chili has announced they will open three stores in Beijing by the end of June. It's an interesting concept which apparently has worked for Papa John's Pizza.  Go here for the full story by the Cincinnati Enquirer's (and fellow graduate of the Walnut Hills High class of 2000) Laura Baverman.

Gold Star is also introducing a new line of Vegetarian chili to their menu, which will feature a bowl of veggie chili, veggie chili burrito, veggie chili burrito bowl and a veggie chili salad. These options are also vegan friendly.

Poll: How many chili parlors have you been to?

It seems like every week we come across new chili parlors to add to the list. Before starting the quest I had only been to three parlors (Skyline, Gold Star and Dixie) and Alison only one (Skyline). The latest poll question asks how many chili parlors (or restaurants that serve Cincinnati style chili) have you been to? Feel free to tell us which placed you have been to in the comments section.

The options for this poll will be:

1

2

3

4

5

6

More than 6

February 24th National Chili Day

Whether you know it or not, every day on the calendar is a holiday. We have our well known ones like the just celebrated President's Day and obscure ones like International Talk Like a Pirate Day and That's What She Said Day. February 24th is National Chili Day. We love our style of chili here in Cincinnati and we should all celebrate by having a coney or two. Gold Star Chili will be sending out their "Chilimobile" to the Newport Kroger (from 10AM - Noon) and the Forrest Hills Kroger (from 12:30 PM - 2:30) where they will be handing out free chili samples. I have not heard of any other parlors running any chili day promotions, if there are any please let us know!

Here are some interesting numbers about the impact of chili in the Cincinnati region*:

• Collective 200+ local chili parlors
• $48,000,000 payroll/2700 employees
• $45,000,000 spent with local food vendors for ingredients
• $38,000,000 spent with vendors for other operating expenses
• $12,000,000 spent to build & equip new stores
• $16,000,000 spent on grocery retail manufacturing and distribution
• $159,000,000 annual impact
• Greater impact that any other local restaurant concept

Other components of the cheese coney have their own days too: July 23 is National Hot Dog Day, January 20 is Cheese Day and August 4 is Mustard Day. Could not find an Onion Day but there is an Onion Ring day (June 22).

*Thanks to Gold Star Chili for supplying these stats

Cleves Drive-In non-chili review

The Cincinnati Coney Quest hit a slight road bump today. We went out to Cleves, OH to try out Cleves Drive-In, which formally was called Cleves Chili Parlor. A couple of weeks ago, before I was aware of the name change, I called ahead to see if they were still in business. Conversation went like this:

Employee: Hello, Cleves Drive-In
Me: Umm, is this Cleves Chili Parlor?
Employee: Yes it is.

Since the employee said that it was the chili parlor, I did not think I should ask if they served cheese coneys. Apparently I should have. Even though it used to be called Cleves Chili Parlor and the employees won't correct you if you call it that, they no longer serve chili. The cincinnatiusa.com description needs to be updated as well. It was disappointing to find out they no longer serve chili especially since this restaurant was the furthest away from us on the quest. If you are out there and really need chili there is a Skyline next door. We decided to stay at the Drive-In and have lunch there anyway.

It is a nice restaurant so even though our coney dreams were crushed we still got a decent lunch. I describe it as a more homey Bob Evans that really likes horse racing. There were a lot of horse decorations and the TV had on a horse racing station. I went with a cheeseburger and Alison went with the turkey club. We both enjoyed our food, probably not something worth going out of the way for, but at least it tasted good enough to make it worth our time.

We came home from Cleves and immediately drew a new location for quest stop #10, which will be JK's Chili.

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.

1978 Cincinnati Magazine issue about Cincinnati chili

From time to time I like to research the internet to find out more information about our beloved Cincinnati style chili. Today I stumbled across an issue of Cincinnati Magazine from 1978 which featured "The Red Hot Guide to Cincinnati Chili". This guide recounts the tale of how Empress Chili was founded, has short reviews (sometimes very snarky) of chili parlors, ties in politics and fashion and even shows you how to create your own chili parlor inside your home.

It is an interesting read, if you have some spare time or would like to read about how Cincinnati chili was viewed in the past, follow this link: Cincinnati Magazine October 1978

Poll results: Chain vs. Independent

The latest poll was not a close one. We asked our readers if they preferred going to one of the chain chili parlors in town (Skyline, Gold Star, Dixie or Empress) or one of the independent parlors. The chains won in a landslide earning 76% of the vote.

I'm not surprised that the chains won, when you think Cincinnati chili the first though many have is Skyline or Gold Star, but I'm a bit surprised It won by such a large margin. Places like Camp Washington, Pleasant Ridge and Blue Ash have a large following amongst the Cincinnati chili parlors, but obviously not as large of a following as the bigger parlors.

Later on in the quest we will ask what your favorite of the chains are and what your favorite of the independents are.