stiffwillichili

DC101 Chili Cook-Off 2010

It's that time of year again. The DC101 Chili Cook-Off will take place Saturday, May 22 at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC! As readers of this blog likely know, I won this cookoof last year (see photos here) and we're looking forward to even bigger and better things this year.

Bigger than winning, you ask? Absolutely! This year I'm going with the intention of marketing and promoting T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili from morning to night. Rather than entering the International Chili Society-sanctioned event, which is the one I won last year in the prestigious ICS Red category, I will be competing in the Freestyle category. The primary difference between the two categories is that whereas you must cook your chili on-site for the ICS contest, Freestyle cooks may prepare theirs in advance.

While I admit that there may not be as much glory associated with winning the Freestyle contest, I will be much freer to talk to partygoers and promote my brand and products than I would were I confined to my tent until 2 p.m. worrying about my competition chili. Instead, this year I'll be able to just heat up my competition batch while placing much more focus on selling t-shirts and spice mix, enjoying the bands, and just plain ol' having fun with the crowd. And this year the gorgeous Stiff Willi Girls will be at the DC101 cookoff!

Perhaps best of all, this year's cookoff will feature Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains, two bands that were huge favorites of mine back in my college days, so this concert should be a blast. If you're a fan of T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili, grab a ticket for the cookoff now and come up and party with us! The t-shirts are going to be great this year and sell for only $10, and I'll even be giving away free drink tickets and other promotional items at my booth. We rocked the world championship back in October, so don't miss out on one of the best days of the summer!

Can I Go Back to Key West Already?

Just got back yesterday from my trip to Key West for a chili promo at Peppers of Key West, and it was a blast. I finally had an opportunity to meet owner Pete Legrady and his fantastic staff of hot sauce fanatics, and perhaps best of all, the shop employees loved T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili. That right there is a huge victory because when you stock 600 items, there are only so many favorites to go around when customers ask what you recommend. So hopefully I'll find myself in that category soon.

My wife and I, accompanied by our friends Brady and Erin, who flew us down for the weekend, departed Maryland Thursday night and spent the evening in Savannah. Refreshed by morning, we flew the final leg in Brady's company Cirrus, so a big thanks to my friends and cookoff sponsors at Airtec. I don't think many people would complain about a trip to Key West, but making an 1800 mile venture puts wear and tear on any plane, so for that I'm thankful.

Here are some photos we were able to snap along the way, and I'm sure there will be a few more rolling in over the course of the week.

 
We're not trying to prove how cool it is to fly with your eyes closed; the girls were taking pictures and had to use a flash because it was dark (night flight). So three seconds of blindness was definitely better than three minutes.


Here's a good shot of our final 20 minutes in to Key West. If you look closely on the screen, the plane is just about in the very middle.

 
Great shot of the runway (and the propeller) on our approach. My wife also grabbed a great camera phone picture of the asphalt right as we landed, so I'll put that up as soon as I get it.

 
Captain Brady posing with Amie and Erin in front of "Stiff Willi One."

 
My hair's seen better days. Hat-head and wind: not so sexy.

Kicking off the afternoon at Sloppy Joe's on Friday. It made for a very exciting night (if not an entirely memorable one, if you know what I mean). I wish the picture I took of the hottie with the paint-on bikini top at Irish Kevin's came out. Boo. 

 
Brady giving me a break behind the spice mix display on Saturday. Suffice to say, the early part of the gig was a little rough after Friday night's festivities. By the way, if I remember correctly, Peppers of Key West is the only non-bar in the area where open containers are not only allowed, but welcomed! That definitely allowed me to get a little "hair of the dog" and snap out of my hangover.

 
Pete Legrady and I pose with customer Dale McCool, who lives in Springville, N.Y., about an hour from where I grew up in Olean. Ah, Key West..

 
Big thanks to Erin and Amie for working as my Stiff Willi Girls for the day. They did their best to get patrons at Sloppy Joe's to come to the shop for some free chili, but most of the guys just offered to take them back to their boats for "chili" or to take them for motorcycle rides.

Many thanks to Pete and the fine folks at Peppers of Key West for making this an outstanding trip!

And last but not least, is this a photo of our next Stiff Willi Girl? This is Amanda, a pole dancer at Big Uns sports bar in Key West. We were just hanging out Saturday night listening to some live classic rock and talking to bartender Margaret (who, interestingly, is a fellow SUNY Geneseo alum -- though she graduated a full 10 years later than I did) when Amanda jumped on the bar and started workin' it. (Hey, there were three poles and she picked the one in front of me. What was I supposed to do, move?)

And yes, that's my $5 bill. 

Champps Pics from Redskins Kickoff

We had a great time at Champps in Reston, Va. on Sunday during the Redskins/Giants game. Thanks to the Champps team for working with us to put on a good show and also to the Stiff Willi Girls, Brandy and Candace, who were on their feet all day long handing out free chili.

My wife Amie and best buds Brady, Erin, Erik, Brian, Christian, and Gio all deserve big thanks for coming out to support me and helping me sell t-shirts and spice mix. By the time it was all said and done, we'd slung about four gallons of chili and made a bunch of new friends.

 
Here I am setting up. Alas, I don't believe there are any photos of my "chile pecker" apron in action.

 
Candace and Brandy show off a bottle of T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili Spice Mix. I thought it would've been cool to introduce the girls as "Candy and Brandy," but out of respect we decided to defer to the wishes of Candace's late grandmother, who told her early on never to go by the name Candy because "that's a hussie's name."

 
The girl on the right wouldn't try our chili because she didn't want it to interfere with her drinking. As a man of the sauce I can certainly appreciate that, but come on, honey...it's football season!

 
Christian and Gio strikin' a pose.

 
The Stiff Willi faithful! The guy on the left is easily our new biggest fan. He's a high school strength and conditioning coach whose name is Walter. Honestly, though, I'm still trying to figure out if that's his actual name, or if he just told me that because of the jersey.

 
Brandy and Candace pose with the lucky winner of the gift pack raffle. He went home with a Redskins hat, t-shirt, bottle of spice mix, my cookbook, and a handful of Champps gift cards.

T-Rev at Champps for Skins' Season Opener

I will be at Champps sports bar on Sept. 13 serving T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili at their kickoff party for the Washington Redskins' season opener at the New York Giants. They're expecting 200-300 maniacs to show up, so it should be a great time.

If you live in the MD/VA/DC area, stop by and sample some free chili and meet the Stiff Willi Girls! T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili Spice Mix should be on the market by then and it will be available for sale along with my t-shirts. We're also planning to raffle off a couple gift packs that include Stiff Willi Chili t-shirts, spice mix, and Champps gift certificates.

I'm so confident in my spice mix that I not only use it in the chili I sling at these types of events, but I'm also going to use it in my People's Choice chili at the World Championship Chili Cook-Off in October in Charleston, WV. So if you'd like to help me raise money for the Worlds, stop by and buy a couple bottles of spice mix for your own kitchen. You won't be disappointed!

DC101 Chili Cook-Off 2009

Here's are some photos from this year's DC101 Chili Cook-Off, won by none other than T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili!

We took first place in the prestigious ICS Red category and I also won Rookie of the Year -- this was the first chili cook-off I've ever entered. As a result of this regional victory, I earned an automatic berth in the International Chili Society's World Championship Chili Cook-Off in Charleston, WV in October.

This is a shot of our tent in the middle of Row 3 as we prepared for the deluge of partiers. The DC101 cook-off is a huge rock concert and was headlined this year by The Offspring and everyone's favorite band, Third Eye Blind. My Stiff Willi Chili shirts were a huge hit; we sold more than 30 and gave away many more.

  
This is me doing one last run-through before lighting the stoves at 11:00.

 
This is my brother Erik, who designed one helluva chili pepper logo but apparently didn't see the memo saying soul patches are soooo '70s '80s '90s never.

 
Team Stiff Willi Chili, from left to right: Mike, Brady, Erik, and me.

 
Best thing about chili cook-offs: Once the first spice dump is history, you get to stand around and drink for an hour.

 

 
Stiff Willi Chili, only a half-hour in and well before he knew he was the man.

Fellow competitors:

 

 

 
These guys with the "3 Meat Mouth Massage" chili were right across from us and were responsible for eliciting the best joke of the day. One of the girls yelled, "Hey! How about a three-meat mouth massage?" To which my brother deadpanned, "There's four of us."

 
Notice the chef is not in the picture.

 
Erin and Amie strikin' a pose while we wait on the judges.

 
Cindy, Amie, and Erin

 
The fawning groupies come out of the woodwork after Daddy brings it home.

The rain started coming down around 6:00, but we really didn't care at that point.

 

 

 

On a side note, Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley was one of the judges and apparently he had me in second place overall. I was the first loser in his eyes so I figured maybe he'd make it all up to me by hooking a brother up and plugging my t-shirt on his blog after my buddy's wife gave him one -- but all he could muster was the one he made himself and wore at the cookoff. It's hard out here for a pimp.

Classic.