Cincinnati Regional Cuisine - Chili Challenge

 Cincinnati, OH

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*Photo Not Chili Related

Chili Challenge*  

*My opinions do not reflect the opinions of Google Blogger or Francis

Today we talk about Cincinnati Chili, how people eat it and where people get it.  Chili is EVERYWHERE with major chains and mom and pops servicing up the sauce (soup?) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You can't drive but a few miles without seeing chili being served on Spagetti with cheese (3 way), chili being served on a hot dog with cheese (Coney), and chili being served on fries or a steamed potato or any other number of things.  Chili in Cincinnati is popular!

Skyline Chili

Skyline Chili is probably the biggest chili chain in Cincinnati and the surrounding area.  It isn't the original, that would be Empress Chili, but it is the oldest still in Cincinnati (Empress Chili only has one location in Kentucky).  Skyline is everywhere.  We can walk to 2 locations from our Airbnb. It's also on many of the Interstate Exit signs where they talk about what services are available on that exit.  Last week we walked to Skyline to enjoy the experience. You can read about that here.  

At Skyline we each got a Coney and we split a 3 Way.

I believe the key to any Coney or 3 Way is the cheese (oh BTW, never say the key to a 3 Way is the cheese in any other area than Cincinnati). The Cheese needs to be freshly grated so it isn't dried out and so it doesn't have corn starch or some other powder to keep it from sticking together (like they do in grocery stores, never buy pre shredded cheese).  It also needs to be shredded as thinly as possible.  The cheese at Skyline was perfect.  We also liked the fact that the Coney was small.  You can always order more, but you can't order less than one.  The small Coney avoids the, "I'm eating fast food that isn't good for me guilt".  Donna says the Coney doesn't last long enough for the guilt to set in.  The third thing that we are looking for is a very soft bun.  I think Skyline steams their buns so they are incredibly soft and moist (also don't talk about moist buns in public).  All of this made for an excellent dining experience.

Root Beer Stand

The 2nd place we went to for Coneys was The Root Beer Stand in Sharonville, OH.  This place is a "Cincinnati" institution (not actually located in Cincinnati). I heard it mentioned in a few places and it made quite a few best of lists so we decided to stop by to experience The Foot Long Coney!

My Foot Long and My Chili Cheese Fries (I am surprised they don't have a cool word for Chili Cheese Fries like a 3 Way Fried Potato or something).

Root Beer Stand was cool.  It's one of those Route 66 esque places with a neon sign and history built right in.  We went on a weekday just after noon but parking was packed so we had to park across the street and hope we didn't get towed (you can read the real post here).

Our findings were that The Foot Long was too much.  I would just order 2 smaller Coneys (not conies) if I wanted that much Coney.  The cheese was perfect, just like Skyline and they actually had Chili Cheese Fries which was a plus because Skyline had them on the online menu but the place we went to downtown didn't have them.  The weak part about Root Beer Stand was The Chili.  It just wasn't very good. As far as I can tell, it wasn't really chili.  It was more of a Chili Sauce without meat.  The consistency was more like watered down refried beans.  Both Donna and I were let down by it.  It wasn't bad but we wouldn't go for the chili again.

Gold Star Chili

At this point in our stay we thought we were done with Coneys and 3 Ways but my brother-in-law, Josh, (seen here), texted me from an Arizona Diamond Backs game and asked if we had experienced Cincinnati Chili.  I mentioned the 2 places above and he said, "buddy says to try Gold Star & let him known which you like better between that & Skyline".  Apparently he was at the game with a Cincinnati Expat that wanted our opinion.  I had seen Gold Star places during our drives but there isn't one walking distance from us so it wasn't really on our radar.  Well all of this changed in that instance when I started looking for Gold Star locations.  Donna had mentioned that she loved the Coneys so I figured she would be down for a taste test.  She was!  I found a Gold Star just over the border in Kentucky and it was on the way to Comics2Games (read about our visit here).  I had wanted to go to Comics2Games again so I made a plan and we executed it.  We would cross over into Kentucky, go to Gold Star, drive down US 25, The Dixie Highway (an unfortunate name), and then stop by Comics2Games.

Gold Star with our van in the reflection of the window.  Was the OP sign foreshadowing that Gold Star was Over Powered?  Read on to see.

Keep Calm and Coney On!

Both Gold Star and Skyline has table service which I thought was interesting for such a casual place.

Chili Cheese Fries and a Coney!

Gold Star also served Chili Cheese Fries which was another plus!  They were fantastic!  The cheese was perfect and the chili was delicious.  The fries were crinkle fries, which aren't my favorite, but they went well with the chili and cheese.  The Coney was also fantastic!  The cheese was perfect, again the chili was delicious, and the bun was very soft and nice.  We also split a 3 Way (not pictured), for science as Donna put it.  The 3 Way was also great.  The Cheese and Chili were perfect and the noodles were cooked just right.  Was it better than Skyline and Root Beer Stand?

Results!

So, let me start out by saying we enjoyed all 3 of our experiences for different reasons.  But you all clicked for opinions so I will give them to you.

Skyline

We liked being able to walk to Skyline.  It would be a great place to go after having a couple of drinks.  The fact that they had Chili Cheese Fries on the menu but didn't serve them takes away points but then we wouldn't have had a 3 Way so I guess that is a happy result.  The Coney was our slight favorite due to the bun being perfect.  Not sure if it will always be that perfect though.  I am sure the window for bun perfection is pretty small.  The chili was good but not as good as one of the other places we went to and that is what you are going for so all in, Skyline was our 2nd favorite place to eat Coneys.

Root Beer Stand

Root Beer Stand had the coolest Neon sign and the coolest space.  It is a great stop if you are in Sharonville on your way to anywhere.  The chili was the weak link here and it was so weak, in our opinion, that we couldn't go back for Coneys.  The Root Beer was really good and I would stop for a Root Beer Float if I had never been.  If you want to say you have been to The Root Beer Stand get a float and enjoy it.

Gold Star

This leaves the last and the best in our opinion, Gold Star!  The chili here really shines and makes everything great.  The bun wasn't as perfect as Skyline but it was so slight that it didn't really didn't change our opinion.  If you go to 1 fast food chili chain in the Cincinnati area, go to Gold Star.  

There are more places that serve Coneys so if you want a bigger sample size than 2 people going to 3 places go to a bar and ask the locals.  I am sure they will give you their opinion.

That's it for today.  If you missed my previous post, The American Sign Museum, check it out.  We saw neon signs that we saw growing up in SoCal.

I played this pin at Comics2Games as well as having The Best Chili in Cincinnati (according to me and Donna).

The American Sign Museum

 Cincinnati, OH

Sign Selfie!

The American Sign Museum

Today we went to The American Sign Museum.  It's a small but cool museum and we got in with our NARM pass!  The museum has a ton of signs and gives history on sign making and they have a collection of sign making books and guides that people would have used.  They also have a working Neon shop.  It was a fun stop and we even got to see some signs we remember from Orange County.

The Carpeteria Genie welcomes you.

They have all kinds of signs, not just neon

These signs remind me of the American Pickers show

This one was really cool looking in person.

One of the signs I remember from Orange County

Now I want pizza!

The Neon Shop

A display of the different colors you can get with neon

I also remember Kona Lanes, I might have even bowled there.

That was it for today.  It was a low key day.  I also played some pinball and got my Foo Fighters Badge for the day.  Stern is running an event through October so I hope to get a few of the badges up for grabs during this time.  

If you missed 2nd Longest "Sandwich" of the Trip So Far, check it out.

2nd Longest "Sandwich" of the Trip So Far

Sharonville, OH

Safety First!

3rd Time Was  A Charm

This morning we decided to walk over to Ziegler Park and swim in the public pool.  We tried once before, here, but it wasn't open for the season yet.  It costs $4 each so I took enough cash to get us in and we walked over.  When we got there we were told it is credit only so we walked back to drop off the cash and get a credit card.  On our 3rd attempt we got in.  We changed plans a little bit today because noticed kids and parents holding balloons at the school and that led us to believe that today might be the last day of school so we wanted to check it out before it was filled with kids. The water was the perfect temperature once you got used to it and both Donna and I used their diving board.  I don't recall the last time I used a diving board.  After our short-ish swim we continued on with our normal plan for the day. 

The Root Beer Stand

Today we took a drive up US 42 to The Root Beer Stand.  It's an institution for the area and a place Cincinnatians travel to from time to time.  It was hopping at lunch time so we had to park across the street.  We went to have more Coneys.  The Root Beer Stand boasts a Foot Long Coney so that is what we each got.  I also got a Root Beer and we split a chili cheese fries.

There were a bunch of hats.  Not sure where they come from.

My Root Beer didn't seem as sweet as the Root Beer from Carl's Drive In.

I couldn't wait for my food to come so my Root Beer is almost gone.

This is my foot long. It is 12 inches and not as long as my 36 inch Po Boy in Baton Rouge.

It has a great neon sign.

Caesar Creek State Park

After lunch we continued up US 42 until we got to Caesar Creek State Park.  Our trip took us through 2 new counties and saw a few good birds.  By the time we got there it was pretty hot and we were pretty tired so we didn't spend a lot of time there.  Swimming kind of took it out of both of us.  

The Visitor Center seemed to be closed so we just walked a trail that went around it.

Thrifting

We also stopped by a Goodwill on our drive.  We were both looking for clothes.  I wanted to find some local T-Shirts and Donna likes to rotate out her clothes but we didn't find anything clothing wise.  I did find one thing that I was going to buy new so cool!  I bought Roller Blades.  The reason will become more clear next month.  It will make for a good blog post so keep checking back.

This shirt is far away from home.  It says Spokane WA on it.

Did an orthopedic shoe store go out of business?

My skates that are well loved and 1 size too big.

BUT, they were only $4.99!!!!  I think they will do the trick for what we have planned.

That was it for today.  We have a few more things planned for Cincinnati and we have just over a week to do them.  If you missed Cincinnati Union Terminal check it out.  It's a cool old train terminal with museums in it now.