Chowdafest Announces Its 2016 Winners
Westport, CT – The people have spoken. Thousands of discernible foodies traveled from all over New England and beyond to attend the 9th annual Chowdafest competition, presented by Stop & Shop on Sunday Oct. 2nd to determine who had the best chowder, soup and bisque in New England. Over 2,000 gallons were consumed in the process.
“I'd rather vote for chowder than the presidency right now,” said one bystander smiling as she enjoyed another sample. Once again, the voting was exceptionally close as the process has attendees rate everything they try on a scale from 7 to 10.5 with half point intervals. Thousands of ballots were tabulated throughout the event by BlumShapiro, the official accounts and ballot sponsor to ensure the validity of the results. “It's no surprise the results are so close when it's a battle among the best of the best,” said Jim Keenan, event director.
Pike Place Chowder from Seattle, Washington successfully defended their title of best New England clam chowder. The restaurant competes in chowder competitions from coast to coast and has earned the reputation as America's best chowder. “When someone outside New England can come here without a home field advantage, it means they're really good and we in New England have to up our game,” said Bryan Mulcarney of Rory's in Darien, a local favorite in the category. “You have to admit, serving samples in mini bread bowls was a nice touch,” he added. Coming in 2nd place this year was first time entrant 250 Market from Portsmouth NH and Take Five Cookery of Hartford made the podium in 3rd place as a first time entrant as well.
The reigning 2015 creative chowder champion, Our House Bistro from Winooski, VT, wasn't sure if they would repeat but had 2016 Chowdafest Champion t-shirts hidden under their famous VT Flannel shirts just in case. When it was announced they had won again, the shirts went flying exposing their winning t-shirts!
“We weren't being cocky,” said Chef/Owner Matt Pearsall. “We were ordering regular tee shirts for the event and we were told we needed to order more to make the minimum order amount so then we thought, what the hell, let's do it. We can always keep our shirts on if we lose.” Our House Bistro also unveiled their new booth which included an incredible replica of their house logo. Their fried seafood and sweet potato chowder was the 2nd highest rated chowder overall, regardless of category.
The second place finisher is the 2016 Saratoga Springs Chowderfest champions and were looking to win the next big title. Not to be outdone by the Our House Bistro tent, Gaffney's had their own incredible booth, leveraging Saratoga's Springs heritage for horse racing. Serving from stable windows, their Southwest shrimp and corn chowder with fried wonton poppers brought them down to the wire but they finished 2nd in a photo finish. Rounding out the podium was Smithsonian Chowder House from Northhampton MA with their competition seafood chowder that is now on their menu. It was their 2nd straight 3rd place finish.
CT is gaining the reputation of being the chowder capital of New England and CT restaurants dominated the soup & bisque category once again. The Crab Shell restaurant, from Stamford, ran away with the championship with their lobster bisque. The Crab Shell has won this title in both 2012 and 2013 but had not competed since then. “Chowdafest has grown exponentially,” said owner Dick Gildersleeve. “Winning for a third time against this kind of competition and in front of so many people is really gratifying."
Old Post Tavern's truffle mushroom bisque was predicted to do well after hearing their bisque was one of the best things at the Big E when Chowdafest promoted their event their a week ago. The Fairfield restaurant did indeed do well, claiming 2nd place. Sam's American Bistro, relatively obscure to local residents being in the Stamford Marriott, certainly made people take notice with their spiced chocolate bisque. “We've never had a desert entry before,” said Keenan. “It really showed the culinary creativity found at Chowdafest”.
In the traditional chowder category, which is reserved for clear broth Rhode Island and tomato based Manhattan chowders only, one of Connecticut's popular seasonal clam shacks found themselves atop of the podium. Donahue's Clam Castle won for their RI clam chowder in convincing fashion. “We've invited them for several years and they have usually declined participating as they close for the season this time of year. However, they saw the value of possibly opening up next spring being voted the best in New England and as luck would have it, they will," Keenan noted. Donahue's has already said they'll be back to defend in 2017.
Last year's champion, Dunville's of Westport, finished in 2nd place this year. Dunville's is always to be reckoned with as they have placed first, second or third in all six years in the competition. An unexpected tie occurred as both Chef's Table of Fairfield and Parallel Post of Trumbull had identical scores and the same number of votes which is the tie breaker. Chef's Table entered a RI chowder while Parallel Post entered a Manhattan clam chowder.
“We don't have attendance or donation figures to share yet but the general consensus is that the event felt larger and the energy was higher than last year which is saying something,” said Keenan. “With the help of our amazing volunteers, I think we definitely lived up to Yankee Magazine naming us a top event of the season." Attendees also enjoyed sampling chips, salsa's, breads, pasta sauces, cheese, ice cream, cookies, yogurts, teas and sparkling beverages. Stop & Shop unveiled their new Nature's Promise soup and chowder line which hit stores the day after.
Keenan announced the date for 2017 has already been set for the first Sunday in October again which is October 1st. Sherwood Island State Park will once again host the event. “It's an idyllic shoreline location that can accommodate our growing event. We're honored to showcase the park to so many who have never been there and we so appreciative to their staff who makes it a pleasure to hold the event there.”
For additional information about Chowdafest, please visit www.chowdafest.org or email event director, Jim Keenan at chowdafest@gmail.com
Chowdafest is presented by Stop & Shop and sponsored by: AAA, Aquafina, Bigelow, BlumShapiro, Cabot Creamery, Chabaso Bakery, City Carting, CT Bites, Dannon, D'artagnan, The Farmer's Cow, First Data/Clover, Frontera Foods, Galilean Seafood, HamletHub, Hotel Zero Degrees, Jersey Italian Gravy, Kids Helping Kids, Local Food Rocks, Lowe's, MasterCard, MINI of Fairfield County, New Milford Farms, Norm Bloom and Son, Ocean Spray, OmnomCT.com, Schweppes, Sustainable America, Tate's Bake Shop, WEBE 108, Westminster Bakery, World Centric and Yankee Magazine.