Chowdafest featured four categories of competition with ten restaurants competing in each: Classic New England Clam Chowder, Traditional Chowder exclusively for Rhode Island (clear broth) and Manhattan Clam Chowders (red, tomato based), Creative Chowders and Soup & Bisque.
And the winners are...
New England Clam Chowder
1st Place: Pike Place Chowder (Seattle)
2nd Place: Sedona Taphouse (Norwalk)
3rd Place: Luke's Lobster (NYC)
Traditional Chowder (Manhattan/Rhode island only)
1st Place: Dunveille's (Manhattan) Westport
2nd Place: Stefano's (Manhattan) LBI NJ
3rd Place: GROW (Manhattan) Shelton
Creative Chowder
1st Place: Our House Bistro (Winooski VT)
2nd Place: Ri Ra (Portsmouth NH)
3rd Place: Smithsonian Chowder House (N. Hampton MA)
Soup/Bisque:
Simply Delicious (Bisque) Norwalk
Post 154 (Bisque) Westport
Bobby Q's (Soup) Westport
- Pike Place Chowder came from Seattle and won best New England clam chowder (got an extra seat for the trophy for their flight home)
- Dunville's won the Traditional category (just for Manhattan and Rhode Island chowders), for the 2nd time, beating Manhattan's Soup Spot at their own game.
- Our House Bistro narrowly got the highest rating of any entry and no CT restaurant won for the first time.
- Simply Delicious finished 4th last year but takes home the best bisque in the competition, narrowly over Post 154
- This was the closest finish yet in our 8 year history.
- Sherwood Island State Park proved to be the ideal venue as hoped and the date for next year has been set: 10/2/16
Thanks to all the volunteers, attendees, restaurants, sponsors and the folks at Sherwood Island for a record breaking day!
*Image courtesy of Mike Lauterborn, Fairfield HamletHub.