Chowdafest founder remembered in community
NORWALK — Jim Keenan signed off all his emails with the same signature: Chowder on!
His voicemail ended with the same message. Chowder, the Seattle Seahawks and golf were Keenan’s three passions in life, according to his wife Mary Ellen Keenan.
Keenan died late last month at age 60 of complications from a stroke, but his love of chowder is his lasting legacy. The Norwalk resident started a tiny chowder contest in his Westport church 13 years ago that grew into Chowdafest, the region’s top chowder competition that draws eateries from around the country.
“He didn’t have blood in his veins, he had chowder,” said Stephen Carpentieri, owner of Dunville’s Restaurant in Westport and a Chowdafest participant. “It was a passion of his. He was so excited seeing the turnout and seeing everyone enjoy it and certain restaurants gain notoriety for it. He smiled inside a lot watching other people’s successes.”
Mary Ellen said it was hard to pinpoint when exactly over the course of their 34-year marriage that Jim’s love for chowder began. But when it hit, it hit hard. He would carry sample cups in his car and pockets to try the chowder at every restaurant he visited. He would also pitch Chow-dafest to restaurant owners and talk with them about how to improve their chowder recipes (even though his wife said he had no culinary background).
“It became an obsession,” Mary Ellen said. “Everywhere we went, he had to try the chowder.”
Chowdafest began in the basement of the Unitarian Church in Westport as a way to help promote restaurants and help local charities, according to the Chowdafest website. Jim was inspired to start Chowdafest after attending a similar competition in Maine.
The event grew rapidly. Within five years, it went from being hosted at Bedford Middle School in Westport to Harbor Yard Amphitheater in Bridgeport. By year two in Bridgeport, event organizers turned away 3,000 cars because they had run out of space at the arena. That’s when the event had to move outdoors, first to Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk and then to Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, to accomodate all its attendees.
Jim’s long career in marketing and knack for creativity lent itself to the event becoming a success. He also created the sister event, The Great Mac n’ Chili Challenge.
“He just liked to talk,” Mary Ellen said. “He loved restaurants. He liked the socialness of it all. He liked the creativity of running the event, working with the sponsors and extending the brand to get an official salad and beverage. He would call it experiential marketing. It’s what he was into.”
From having a Chowdafest mascot to finding big sponsors, those who participated over the years were in awe of how it grew.
“He had a great sense of marketing,” said Bryan Malcareny, chef and owner at Rory’s Restaurant in Darien which has been participating in Chowdafest from the early days. “He did a tremendous job turning that into a huge event. He took something that was a little soup tasting in a church hall into an event that backed up traffic on (Interstate) 95 and he did in a very short span of time.”
Chowdafest was not limited to Fairfield County. Restaurants from all over the state and country were invited to compete — and competitors saw the impact. Matt Pearsall, co-owner of Our House Bistro in Winooski, Vt., said his restaurant has won Chowdafest five times and gone on to launch a retail line of soups now sold in local stores.
“I couldn’t have done that without Jim,” he said.“This guy was 100 percent chowder, 100 percent of the time.”
It wasn’t just the chowder that Jim cared about — the proceeds from Chowdafest benefited local charities, primarily the Nowalk-based Food Rescue U.S., which combats food insecurity by matching places with surplus food with social service agencies that need donations.
Jim volunteered with Food Rescue U.S. on a weekly basis as a food rescuer, going to pick up surplus food and bringing it to organizations that fed the food insecure. He also served on the Board of the Friends of Sherwood Island and on the Norwalk Seaport Association.
“Jim was a really special guy,” said Carol Shattuck, CEO of Food Rescue U.S. “He was very committed to helping end food insecurity in our community. ... I was wowed by the work he did and that he selected us as beneficiary was a huge deal for us. He’s going to be missed.”
Between COVID-19 and Jim’s death, the future of Chowdafest is up in the air for now. When Chowdafest 2020 was canceled due to gathering restrictions, Jim, along with Pearsall and Our House Bistro co-owner Maggie Barch, worked to put together a chowder club where participants could get two chowders a month from Chowdafest competitors.
Pearsall and Barch said they are now working with the Keenan family to continue Chowdaclub in the meantime. The club embodies the spirit of what Pearsall said Keenan loved about Chowdafest: Promoting local restaurants.
“When COVID happened and Chowdafest was canceled for 2020, Jim came up with this idea for Chowdaclub mostly to keep Chowdafest on people’s minds,” Barch said. “This was to give notice to local restaurants who participated in Chowdafest. The one thing he kept saying to us (was) ‘I really want to help you guys.’ That was one thing he said more often than not.”