The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Chili Fest has grown to Chili Week
Pandemic has moved event inside restaurants this year
OLD SAYBROOK — There are no crowds for the town’s popular Chili Festival this year, and while it looks a little bit different, the goal remains the same.
And, like last year, there’s plenty of chili to go around.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event now named Chili Week, which previously was held as a one-day festival on Main Street, now takes place over the course of a week at participating restaurants. While there is no competition between eateries over who makes the best chili, they will serve up their own version of the spicy, Mexican-inspired dish to patrons.
Judy Sullivan, executive director of the Old Saybrook Chamber of Commerce, said the organization holds the event to raise money for the C.W. Hunter Scholarship Fund.
“In a normal year, if we weren’t under public health guidelines, we would have had the event this Saturday,” she said. “We had upwards of 3,000 people that come and taste all the chilis. Normally, they would vote for their favorite.”
This year, Sullivan said, the chamber abandoned the voting system, since they don’t know how many people will taste each chili.
“The event will still support the chamber scholarship,” she said. “That’s what it does. We’re asking folks to try some chili and, perhaps, donate to the scholarship, too.”
Sullivan said C.W. Hunter was the executive of the chamber of commerce and a public figure in town in the mid-80s. She said the chamber distributes four to six scholarships each year to graduating high school seniors who fit the requirements.
“There’s an application, obviously, and they supply their resume and an essay about why they need the money and how they are going to use it,” she said. “Often times it has to do with community service, so we like to support those kind of kids.”
Sullivan noted that participants in chili week can try different chilis at the restaurants involved in the event, adding that establishments give out chili pepper bead necklaces.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “In years past, when you bought a ballot for $10 and tasted as many chilis as you liked, we would give out a chili bead necklace.”
Sullivan said the event also helps support local businesses.
Sullivan said 16 businesses are participating in the event, all of which can be found on the chamber’s website. She said the event is going well so far and continues through Saturday.
“We just got a call from one restaurant requesting more beads, so that means that they’ve gone through some already — only two days in,” she said. “I got word (Monday) that one of our local banks were all having lunch with [a local establishment’s] chili.”
Participating restaurants included Fresh Salt, Little Pub, Liv’s Oyster Bar, The Monkey Farm, Parthenon Diner, Penny Lane Pub, Pursuit of Pastry, Tea Kettle, Cuckoo’s Nest, and Dagmar’s Desserts, all in Old Saybrook; in addition to Chow in Clinton and The Red House in Deep River.