Chilitown, USA - Zester Daily

Chilitown, USA

A Cincinnati chili chain launches a campaign to give the city a new moniker honoring its signature dish.

| Wednesday, 24 February 2010 | 19:46

Gold Star chili I first discovered Cincinnati-style chili on a layover. On the way to my connecting flight, I saw a restaurant in the food court advertising chili served on spaghetti. I didn't even consider that this could be a serious thing, I didn't stop to look, and I doubt I knew what connecting city I was in at the time. But it stuck in my head. Somewhere in this country people ate chili on spaghetti. What kind of chili? Under what circumstances?

The Greater Cincinnati area has more establishments serving chili in this manner (also known as chili parlors) than anywhere else in the country. Anyone hailing from this region probably considers this recipe part of his or her American heritage, and this National Chili Day, Feb. 25, Gold Star Chili, one of the major players in the Cincy chili game, will begin the initiative to make Cincinnati officially "Chilitown USA."

Gold Star Chili marketing director Charlie Howard says of the campaign, "Cincinnati-style [chili] is one of the defining characteristics of living in Cincinnati and in our opinion, something that our city leaders should embrace."

Fima Macheret, 26, a first-generation American who grew up with Gold Star in the fridge for easy weeknight dinners, professes this chili as his greatest comfort food. He craves it now that he lives in Minnesota. "I have to have it every time I come home [to Ohio], I can't leave until I have chili."

Macheret orders, as he's ordered for more than a decade, a four-way, extra oyster crackers on the side. Another way to order that would be the five-way without beans. The beans are the "five," you see. Five-way chili stacks up like this:

Chopped raw onions are four.
Cheese is three.
Chili is two.
Spaghetti is one.

And they must be layered on the plate in that order. The classic three-way, Gold Star's best-selling menu item, is thick, spiced beef chili over spaghetti, heaped with extremely yellow shredded mild cheddar cheese. It’s typically accompanied by a Coney, a stout hot dog in a bun with any combination of chili, mustard and extremely yellow shredded mild cheddar cheese. Cheeseconey.com, a celebration of Cincinnati chili, posts the "Cincy Chili Ritual" on its home page: "A friend, relative or business associate comes to town and 'What? You've never tried Cincinnati Chili?' And in 10 minutes you're seated in a place that looks and feels like an old fashioned diner, observing his or her FIRST TIME ..."

The number of people in southwestern Ohio who don't like their chili this way could probably fit inside your average elementary school gym (excluding vegetarians). This stuff is ubiquitous, but at first, I wasn't crazy about it. The chili's consistency was a little watery, the spaghetti pale and overcooked, and the cheese too mild to stand up to the vibrant spices. And then I realized there were vibrant spices. The meal was starchy and heartburny like a good regional specialty ought to be, and I felt full in a way I hadn’t been in a long time. My tongue was satisfied. The richness of cocoa powder and spicy cinnamon lingered pleasantly on the palate.

An All-Ohio favorite with Old World roots

I had to speak to someone about this. David Daoud, former four-star chef in Brazil and manager of a Gold Star Chili for more than a decade, helped me to fill in the gaps.

Cincinnati became host to a large population of Greek and Macedonian immigrants in the early decades of the 1900s. Two of these transplants, Tom and John Kiradjieff, started Empress Chili in 1922. Empress was the first chili establishment in the area, where the brothers brewed a thick concoction of ground beef and spices featuring cocoa, cumin and cinnamon and sold it as cheap Greek eats. They coined the term "three-way," before it meant anything beyond the coming together of three well-matched ingredients. Skyline Chili, currently Cincy’s leading establishment (though Gold Star boasts more locations), followed in 1949, and Gold Star came about in 1965 when four brothers from Jordan opened a small restaurant with a full menu. When chili proved to be their most popular order, they expanded to several locations and pared the menu down to the bestsellers: Chili and cheese on spaghetti or fries, and loaded Coneys. Today, the famous franchise brings in about $70 million annually, selling about 3 million pounds of chili.

"The recipe?" says Daoud, "I have no clue. It's guarded. Very, very few inner-circle people know the actual recipe. That’s OK with me though, cause if it ain’t broke, don't fix it. It's really very wholesome food, we keep our kitchens spotless, we have great service and the operation practically runs itself. It's hugely Cincinnati, there are always people in here." Daoud placed special emphasis on of the quality of ingredients Gold Star prides itself in using. "I see the ground beef every day, it is so clean, so appetizing, perfectly fresh and not an ounce of fat."

If Gold Star can collect 50,000 signatures in six months, it’ll be able to present its case to city leaders for establishing Cincinnati’s new nickname. However you feel about your spaghetti beginning a new relationship (try not to think of it as an affair), Chilitown USA makes a whole lot of sense to anyone who has been privileged enough to cover meaty perfection with curly shreds of cheddar and call it a three-way.

You can follow Cincinnati’s journey to becoming Chilitown USA on Twitter @chilitownusa.

Cincinnati's Gold Star Chili chain would like the city to be designated "Chilitown, USA"