Rock Bottom, BOKA Group Ring in Spring With Chili Cookoffs

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 30, 2010 7:20PM

chili

There are separate chili cookoffs tomorrow and Thursday that are very budget conscious. Tomorrow Rock Bottom Brewery (1 W. Grand Ave.) hosts a firefighter chili cookoff from 6-8 p.m. 25 firefighters will be serving up their best chili recipes and vying for top honors from a judges panel that includes Audarshia "312 Dining Diva" Townsend, former Chicagoista Lisa Shames and me. Bottomless cups of chili are $5; $10 gets you the bottomless chili and a Rock Bottom beer of your choice in a souvenir glass; we recommend Fire Chief Ale. Proceeds from this cookoff will benefit the Chicago Fire Department's charitable endeavors.

Thursday the BOKA Restaurant Group will host its own chili cookoff and keg party at Landmark (1633 N. Halsted St.) from 8:30 p.m. - midnight. The chefs of all the BOKA group properties - BOKA's Guiseppe Tentori, Landmark's Kurt Guzowski, Ryan Poli of Perennial and Stephanie Izard of Girl and the Goat - will prepare a chili for this competition. Tentori is slated to dish out venison chili spiced up with chipotle and bourbon, while Guzowski will be serving smoke beef brisket beanless chili. A special vegetarian chili will also be available on request. $20 gets you unlimited chili and a cup good for 25-cent Dogfish Head draft beers.