Golden Chili Cookoff -- A Great Time in Parkas!

Golden's Annual Knock Your Boots Off Beer Tasting and Chili Cookoff last Saturday (October 10, 2009) was one of those fabulous events that our Chamber knows how to do so well.  Sixty beers were available for tasting, and sixty-one chili cookers served over 32,000 samples of chili to the 2,500 attendees who braved the unseasonably cold weather we had last weekend.  (Of course, today it's in the 60s, and this weekend will be in the 70s -- but that's Colorado Front Range weather in the fall.)

We managed to take a couple hours away from our inn to walk over to the event, which was three blocks away.  (Our location in historic downtown Golden is so close to everything that goes on here!)  We tried antelope chili made by Cheryl who works at the optometrist's office just across the alley from us; we tried yak chili made by the great folks who run the Sherpa House restaurant two blocks up Washington Avenue from us; we tried red chili from the Golden Skillet restaurant two blocks away from us.  Two candidates for city council cooked up chili as part of their campaigns.  Fortune Valley Casino in nearby Blackhawk had Elvises (ableit with facial hair) serving their chili.  Paul and Perri from the fabulous Cody Inn on top of Lookout Mountain were there with gourmet chili.  A group that included a School of Mines student from Brazil who had stayed with us at the inn was serving Brazilian chili.  There were so many great chilis to sample that it was very hard to vote for the best one.

In between tastes of chili, we sampled beer from New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Flying Dog Brewery, Oskar Blues (which makes great beers in the little town of Lyons, CO, and who pioneered putting microbrews in cans, rather than bottles), Alaskan Brewery, and others.  There was a wide variety of beers for every taste.

Think about marking your calendars for next October to visit Golden during the chili cookoff.  It's one of those wonderful small-town events we do so well -- just plain good old fashioned fun.  I'll keep you updated on next year's cookoff as information becomes available.

Thanks for reading my Innkeeper's blog!

Annette