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Fresca on Addison and VMFA’s Amuse Restaurant Take Home Top Chili Honors

October 13, 2016 News

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond held its third annual chili event, the Art Junction Chili Throwdown, on Friday, Oct. 7. More than 500 people attended the event and took home almost 600 ceramic bowls made in VisArts’ clay studio.

A total of 26 restaurants participated in the event. They included: 821 Café, Alamo BBQ, Amuse, Blue Goat, Bombolini Pasta, Citizen RVA, Croaker’s Spot, Curbside, Everyday Gourmet, Fresca, Garnish Catering, Goatocado, Hometeam Grill, Joe’s Inn, Kitchen 64, Kitchenette, Libbie Market, Maple and Pine, Mean Bird, Mosaic Catering, Mosaic Restaurant, Postbellum, Savvy and Well Catering, Sidewalk Café, The Mill on MacArthur and Union Market. Ardent Brewery was the event’s beer sponsor.

The judges’ choice award went to Fresca on Addison. They prepared a vegan, white bean chili with butternut squash, cilantro and tomatillos. The people’s choice award went to Amuse Restaurant at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They prepared an ancho-braised pork cheek and red bean chili with corn bread dumplings.

If you’re curious about a chili you sampled and would like to know the name of the restaurant that prepared it, here’s a list of each restaurant, by number:

  1. Fresca
  2. Garnish Catering
  3. Goatocado
  4. Amuse
  5. Hometeam Grill
  6. Blue Goat
  7. Joe’s Inn
  8. Mosaic Catering and Events
  9. Postbellum
  10. Kitchen 64
  11. Kitchenette
  12. Alamo BBQ
  13. The Mill on MacArthur
  14. Union Market
  15. 821 Café
  16. Libbie Market
  17. Mean Bird
  18. Bombolini Pasta
  19. Everyday Gourmet
  20. Maple and Pine
  21. Sidewalk Café
  22. Curbside
  23. Mosaic Restaurant
  24. Citizen RVA
  25. Savvy and Well Catering
  26. Croaker’s Spot

Thanks to the individual sponsors who made this event possible: Kate and John Ackerly, Rachel and Kevin Beanland, Liz and Preston Bryant, Martha and Lee Chapman, Kelly and Rodney Chenault, Stefanie Fedor, Rebecca and Malcolm Gray, Beth and Josh Kayer, Lizzie and Chris Oliver, Al Pellenberg, Debbie and Joel Ray, Susan and Hossein Sadid, Julie and Andy Valerie, Jill and Mark Webb, and Patty and William Wilkerson.

The event was also sponsored by Richmond magazine, Joyner Fine Properties, Clayworks Supplies, Inc., Ardent Craft Ales, James River Air Conditioning Co. and Montana Gold Bread Co.