Day 295: Blues and Chili Festival

I first knew about this festival because one of the organizers came to the company I work at to rent some items. Because I didn't know about it last year, I thought it would be neat to check it out this year.

It took place today, Sept 19 from 11 am to 7 pm at the 200 block of Abbott St. There was a stage where they performed blues music. I have never really listened to blues music. It's pretty good as background music. I had a notion that it was depressing music. It's not all about being depressed. I don't think I would run out to go to a blues concert. But I wouldn't mind if I went to a restaurant playing blues music.



I knew there was a cost to trying the chili. Their tent didn't have real visible signage. I ended up asking some random people where to get the tickets. (I've been known to talk to random strangers.) The tickets to try the chili were 3 for $5 or 10 for $15. We were there to try the chili. There were 14 restaurants offering chili. We shared the chili that we tried. Luckily for us it stopped raining and it was starting to clear up. It was a good day to be outside in the afternoon. There were two restaurants that shared a 10 x 10 tent. I guess it would be kind of squishy for them. That's why they ordered the skinny tables from us.

I never really tried chili before. I don't think Wendy's chili counts. It was very interesting. Each restaurant made chili a little bit different. One restaurant added boar meat to theirs. Another restaurant had bison. Some had beans and meat. Another had just meat (the Texan style). Most of them were spicey. Some were too salty. Some had suckling pig. You get to vote for your favourite chili. We didn't vote. By the time we finished, we forgot about voting. Overall, I don't mind chili if it isn't too spicey. I don't think I would eat a whole bowl of it myself. I realized I like the chili with some beans and some meat.

There are so many restaurants in the Gastown area. We found out that Kirk McLean (Canuck alumni) has a restaurant in Gastown. That was our first chili stop. They had flyers and their business cards. The flyer had Kick McLean's picture from a hockey game. My first thought was 'why are they allowed to use his picture? isn't it copyrighted?' But I saw the business card and the contact was Kirk McLean. Who knew he had a restaurant?