Second Annual Middlebury Winter Carnival & Chili Contest Draws Crowds

This old Vermont town is establishing a winter tradition by rallying around a food that originated in the American Southwest, of all places. Chili, the official dish of Texas, is bringing Middlebury, Vt., together.

For the second consecutive year, local residents, students and tourists filled the sidewalks of downtown Middlebury for the town’s Winter Carnival and Chili Contest on Feb. 27.

Megan Brady, the event chair for the Better Middlebury Partnership, the volunteer organization that planned the event, estimated that her group sold over 2,000 entry buttons.

Buttons cost $2 for unlimited sampling of the 77 varieties of chili served by 44 contestants. Since last year’s event featured only 28 contestants and had about half the attendance, the future of Middlebury’s chili day looks bright.

Recently, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce named Middlebury’s chili day one of the top 10 winter events in Vermont. As the event continues to grow in future years, Middlebury will most likely continue to insert its character into both its chili and the event.

The day also featured dog sledding demonstrations and snowshoe races, and it culminated in a Mardi Gras dance in the Town Hall Theater.

Sheila Wolf-Mawn, a resident of Bristol, Vt., explained that she brought her family to Middlebury for the day because her children were getting “winter cabin fever.”

Wolf-Mawn was a big fan of Subway’s maple syrup chili and wrote “yum” in the notes section of the rating charts provided by event organizers.

American Flatbread’s pork chili eventually won the award for best overall chili, while the Subway chili won second place in the poultry chili category. Subway restaurant’s entry into the chili contest used Vermont maple syrup as a main ingredient.

The Middlebury Police Deparment closed Main Street between North Pleasant Street and Merchants Row from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, allowing for pedestrians to spill over into the street.

Brady said that Bill Finger, the town manager, suggested closing all of Main Street next year as the Cross Street Bridge will be open, allowing for a traffic diversion.

The plan to close all of Main Street is in its very preliminary stages, but Brady is optimistic about what this could do for the event.

“The chili contest is already special, but the closing of Main Street would change it from a town destination into a statewide destination,” said Brady.

Alison DeGraff ’10.5, who also grew up in Middlebury, explained that she saw this year’s event as a way to bring the town and College communities together.

“I think it’s a problem that the College sits up on the hill and doesn’t interact much with the town,” said DeGraff.

“Their way of interacting with the town is to have people come to a free Friday film or eat at the Grille. It’s not like this event.”

Brady explained that she and the Better Middlebury Partnership had intentionally organized the chili event to coincide with the College’s Winter Carnival the past two years.

However, Brady said her group is also considering changing the date of the event next year.

“We’d love for college students to be as involved as they want to be,” said Brady. “There’s so much going on on campus this weekend that we wouldn’t want to take away from anything they might be doing up there.”

Despite the College’s winter carnival festivities, many students attended the event, and some participated in it.

Ten volunteers from the Tavern social house helped set up booths and sold buttons. The Middlebury Mamajamas a capella group and the juggling club also performed.

In fact, some members of the College community appreciated that the chili festivities coincided with Winter Carnival.

“It’s very nice that the town gets to tag along with the College’s Winter Carnival,” said Linda Schiffer, the Cook commons coordinator.

“We’ve been lucky the second year in a row with excellent weather,” continued Schiffer. “Just having everyone walking around and saying ‘hi’ — it’s kind of a prelude to spring.”

Megan Brady planned the event for the winter partially to help Middlebury during its least busy commercial season. Brady is an owner of Two Brothers Tavern in Middlebury, and her husband is one of the two brothers after which the restaurant is named.

Brady came up with the idea for the chili festival, and organized the event entirely through the Better Middlebury Partnership, which is run by volunteers and a part-time executive director.

The Winter Carnival and Chili Contest is the biggest event of the year for the group, which grew out of the Middlebury Business Association.

Local restaurants cooked most of the entries for the contest, although some independent groups also served up entries. The Middlebury Fire Department won first place in the category of best amateur beef chili.

There was a wide variety of chili available in both the professional and amateur categories, including many vegetarian options. Baja Burrito of Killington’s beef chili was so popular that employee Nick Thomson served out the 23 pounds he had brought in 45 minutes.

The event was especially popular for families, with attractions like a dog sledding event that offered toddlers a quick tow across the snow-covered town green.

Moises Mejia, a Middlebury resident and employee of Two Brothers Tavern, explained that he thought the event was good for the various components of the Middlebury community.

“I see a pretty interesting mix here that doesn’t happen a lot,” said Mejia.

But above all else, Mejia seemed to be enjoying the weather with his young son.

“The little guy’s just excited to get some good time outside, finally,” said Mejia.