Ever since I was a little kid, chili has been one of my favorite dishes. It’s considered a winter-warmer type of food, but I can eat it when it is 105 outside as well. Good chili should be rich, thick, meaty, and spicy. Chili may technically be considered a soup, but if done right I should not think “this is a soup” while I’m eating it.
Wendy’s makes mediocre chili. It’s very watery and has the consistency of a soup. In addition, I have to ask for a few hot sauce packets to doctor the chili and make it spicy enough for my tastes. Because it’s inexpensive and easily accessible during my lunch hour, I overlook Wendy’s chili’s shortcomings. However, if I’m going to go out to a restaurant or bar and spend $5-8 on chili, it needs to be better than what I could get out of a can at Kroger.
Up until now, there have been two chilis that I have long considered the gold standard of Downtown. One is at Bardog Tavern. I ate it many times on top of the Dog of the Day there, but it wasn’t until Andy Wise of Action News 5 and Seth of Best Memphis Burger judged it to be the best in the city that I ordered Bardog’s chili on its own. Rich and satisfying, the way chili should be.
The other “gold standard” chili for me was the Majestic’s chili. Equally rich and satisfying. However, the Majestic’s chili is available only as the soup of the day on Wednesdays in cold-weather months.
When the Blind Bear first opened, they offered a turkey chili. It was not terrible but it was not up there with Bardog and the Majestic. It was plenty meaty, but the texture was watery. There was plenty of spice, but it seemed to fight against the flavor of the turkey rather than enhance it. Given the number of other tasty offerings on the menu, the turkey chili was never one of my go-to menu items.
A couple of weeks ago, I came in for some late-night food and asked for a menu. I noticed that the turkey chili was gone, and two new chilis – Hibernation Chili and Polar Bear Chili – appeared in its place. I remembered that a couple of months prior, co-owner Colin and kitchen manager Michael Bean had won third place in a charity chili cook-off, and I wondered if their recipes had made it onto the menu. The Hibernation Chili is the traditional beef-and-bean, I was told, while the Polar Bear was a white-bean chicken chili. I ordered a bowl of the Hibernation Chili.
Now this was everything chili should be. Thick and meaty. Not one bite of it made me think “I’m eating a soup.” The spice was not overpowering, but it was definitely there. I enjoyed every bite, and was very happy with my decision to order a bowl rather than the smaller cup.
Since discovering it, I’ve been ordering the Hibernation Chili nearly every time I go to the Blind Bear hungry, often with a side of their excellent pepper jack mac ‘n’ cheese. One day I placed my order, and Jamie told me, “It will be a little while until we can have the Hibernation Chili out, because we have to heat up a new pot. Would you like to try the Polar Bear Chili instead?” I did, and it was excellent too. Loaded with chicken and white beans, thick consistency, spice on par with the Hibernation Chili, and the spice complemented the taste of the chicken and beans well. I would recommend either one, and hold both of them on par with the chilis I’d previously definited as the gold standard Downtown.
Insider tip: If you order a bowl of either chili to go, they don’t have a to-go container the size of the bowls for those who dine in. So they will give you two to-go cups of it. Eat one as a late-night snack, then heat the other up in the microwave the next day for lunch.
One thing I did not do last night at the Blind Bear, which I usually do on Wednesdays, was play trivia. At the time it started around 8:30, I was the only member of my team there. A quick check of Foursquare revealed that my teammates had an excellent reason for not showing up: They were taking advantage of Downtown Dining Week at McEwen’s and Itta Bena. With DDW values only available 7 of the 366 days of the year, I certainly can’t blame them! And besides, with chili, PBR, a bar stool, and the Grizzlies, I was perfectly content. By the way, the Blind Bear itself is offering a Downtown Dining Week deal: One appetizer, two entrees, and two banana puddings for $20.12.
Slow news day, but if I hear of anything this afternoon, I’ll do a “Thursday update” post after work.