Skyline or Gold Star?

[fearofpopvol1]

Haven't had Skyline in a hot minute. Looking forward to having it again soon.

[redsfan1966]

Skyline....but I will eat Gold Star when the wife drags me to the Jeffersonville Outlet Mall....

[WebScorpion]

the only time i eat goldstar is when i'm at the airport leaving to go home and i'm craving some last cincy chili. other than that, its skyline all the way. i eat it atleast 3 times a week (unfortunatly, out of a can/frozen)...execpt when i'm in cincy, once i'm out of dayton airport i'm down the highway and at the nearest skyline chowin down on two three-ways and a mt. dew.

I was wondering who was going to mention this. GoldStar is the only chili you can get at the airport. I had a 10 hour layover in Cincy during which I was going to meet my brother and I actually went through security again just to get cheese coneys an hour or so sooner. I think GoldStar chili is usually just a bit spicier, but I still prefer Skyline. I've been known to eight cheese coneys and a Mt. Dew upon my return to the city. There are a lot of things about Cincy that I miss when I'm away, but cheese coneys are like an addiction...the longer I wait, the more I've gotta have. I occasionally make them myself with canned or frozen chili, but it's just not the same.

[fearofpopvol1]

Just had some today while watching the Reds. It doesn't get much better than that.

I think I could eat Skyline pretty regularly. If only it wern't so unhealthy.

[goreds2]

When my buddies and I go to Cincy to see Jimmy Buffett each year, the morning after we always go to Gold Star. It is probably because there is none in the Columbus area. I do prefer it though.

[reds2221]

Skyline by far is better. Any time we go up for a ball game we always get some!

[GoReds33]

I like Gold Star, because their 3-ways are IMO better than Skyline's. I go to both, and really like both, but I give the edge to Gold Star.

[paintmered]

Camp Washington.

[*BaseClogger*]

There is supposed to be a Skyline in Monroe, MI. Has anybody ever stopped there?

[redsmetz]

I've been shipping Skyline around the country for a few years now from my online store - I've shipped to every corner of the country and even overnighted some to a guy in Denver for the Broncos/Bengals game a year or two ago. Folks love themselves some Skyline.

The other stuff - I just don't touch it.

[Roy Tucker]

And old article from the NY Times (1989) but still interesting...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...pagewanted=all

FARE OF THE COUNTRY; A City's Romance With a Bowl of Chili

By SUSAN HERRMANN LOOMIS; SUSAN HERRMANN LOOMIS IS THE AUTHOR OF ''THE GREAT AMERICAN SEAFOOD COOKBOOK'' (WORKMAN).
Published: April 16, 1989

LEAD: ''TWO cheese, no onions on two!'' a waitress cries as she slides into a stainless steel island where chili is being dished out by a cadre of aproned employees. ''Four-way light, two inverted three-ways, and a dry five-way,'' a waiter barks, filling glasses with soft drinks and racing back to his customers.

''TWO cheese, no onions on two!'' a waitress cries as she slides into a stainless steel island where chili is being dished out by a cadre of aproned employees. ''Four-way light, two inverted three-ways, and a dry five-way,'' a waiter barks, filling glasses with soft drinks and racing back to his customers.

This is not technofood talk. It's orders flying thick and fast at a Skyline chili parlor, one of a 50-store chain in downtown Cincinnati. In the next two minutes, a chili assembler - who, like all Skyline employees, wears a chili-colored tie - pops small all-beef wieners into steamed buns, and paints them with mustard, drenches them with brick-red chili sauce that is lumpy with choice ground beef, tops them with a bright orange pile of finely grated cheese, and slides them onto an oval plate that fits atop another plate. He has created a ''two cheese, no onions on two,'' or two cheese coneys, no onions, on two plates.

Another employee jabs a fork into hot cooked spaghetti, pats it into place on an oval plate, and tops it with a ladle full of chili. He strews it with kidney beans and a light sprinkling of chopped onion, then holds a handful of cheese high and lets it fall on top. That is a ''four-way light,'' or chili with cheese, light on the onion.

The cheese goes under the chili for an ''inverted three-way,'' so it is melted by the time it gets to the customer. A ''five-way'' is chili with the works - spaghetti, onions, red chili beans and cheese; a ''dry five-way'' has the juice from the chili poured off before it is served.

Cincinnati chili, as the thin, beanless, cinnamon-redolent meat sauce has been dubbed, is served to thousands of Cincinnatians daily, at hundreds of chili parlors in the greater metropolitan area. Why, when chili is usually associated with images of three-pronged cactus and a sage-studded landscape, is it the gastronomic heartbeat of Cincinnati?

Even Joseph Kiradjieff, son of Thomas Kiradjieff, who developed the recipe for Cincinnati chili in 1922 to serve in his restaurant, Empress Chili, doesn't know why. ''It was just something my dad concocted,'' Mr. Kiradjieff said. ''First, he cooked the spaghetti with the chili, but customers asked for the chili on top.''

Soon Mr. Kiradjieff was serving chili over wieners, which came in foot-long lengths that he cut in quarters, topping the chili with onions and beans, obscuring it with cheese. ''That all started sometime in the 30's,'' according to the younger Mr. Kiradjieff.

Empress Chili, named for the Empress Burlesque Theater in the same building as the chili parlor, reigned supreme in Cincinnati until 1949, when a former Empress employee, Nicholas Lambrinides, and his three sons opened their own parlor and called it Skyline Chili. Now there are 20 Empress and 50 Skyline chili parlors in the area. In 1965, a third chili concern, Gold Star, came on the scene. Today it is Gold Star that leads the pack, with more than 80 chili parlors.

Statistics from a recent study conducted by Gold Star Chili show that 80 percent of the population of Cincinnati - which is more than one million in the metropolitan area - eats chili once a week. Everyone, from gray-suited business people to families with small children (who seem to prefer the miniature coneys), stops into a parlor for a quick chili fix.

A GLANCE around a Skyline Chili parlor indicates a prescribed method for eating the chili. Beginning at one end of the mound of chili, each bite is cut in a wedge shape and lifted carefully to the mouth. Drops of chili sauce stray, so plastic bibs are provided. As the chili disappears from the plate, oyster crackers are crushed and added to soak up the sauce.

Though all chili served at the major chains, and at the city's handful of independent parlors, is essentially the same, each company claims to use a secret blend of spices. None will divulge their recipes, and there is much local conjecture. It is accepted that they all contain cinnamon. Skyline chili, which is darker and sweeter than the others, is said to contain chocolate also. Empress chili is the most spicy and herbal, and Gold Star has the distinct taste of cumin and paprika. An independent chili parlor, Blue Ash Chili, has larger chunks of meat, sharper cheese and thicker spaghetti than most. (A commercial dried chili mix sold in supermarkets under the name Cincinnati Recipe Chili Mix, which is similar to Cincinnati Chili, contains paprika, cinnamon, garlic, chili pepper, allspice, celery seed, black pepper, nutmeg, cumin, red pepper, bay leaf, cloves, oregano, marjoram.) Each chain prepares its chili in a central commissary and delivers it two to three times a week to individual chili parlors, most of which are owned by franchisees.

Lucas Vesoulis, who learned to make chili at Empress 30 years ago and is now the chili chef for Gold Star, melts suet in a huge, stainless vat in Gold Star's commissary. He adds dried white onions, which cook for half an hour, then ground beef and a mixture of spices, whose secret he claims not to know. After an hour and a half, he adds tomato sauce and water, and boils the chili for about three hours, to a concentrate. It is cooled, packed in plastic bags and put in boxes for delivery.

At a Gold Star chili parlor on Beechmont Avenue, the owner, Afaf Gammoh, pours the concentrated chili into a large steam kettle in her immaculately clean kitchen, and adds water to thin it. She brings it to a boil, then stirs it regularly.

''I can tell by looking when it's thick enough to put out front in the steam table,'' she said.

Like all chili parlor owners, Mrs. Gammoh - whose husband, father and brothers also own Gold Star chili parlors - cooks her own beans and spaghetti, chops the onions and grates the cheese. She is as proud of her chili as if she'd made it from scratch. ''I learned to prepare it from my father, and he taught me little tricks.''

Chili factions among Cincinnatians run deep, and fans are serious in their devotion. ''Skyline has the best cheese, but I think Empress is the best chili,'' said Karen Achabal, an artist who grew up in Cincinnati and ate chili frequently until she recently moved to Seattle.

There is something about Cincinnati chili that's hard to forget. Perhaps its the cinnamon or the mild, lacy cheese, the soft comforting spaghetti or the oyster crackers. Whatever its allure, a visit to Cincinnati isn't complete without a chili meal. Visitors who are just passing through need not despair. Two chili parlors recently opened at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. CHILI PARLORS TO SUIT ALL TASTES

There is no lack of locations in Cincinnati for those who want to pursue the chili ritual. Many of the city's chili parlors are in former fast-food restaurants and Cincinnatians can get chili from a drive-through window. An average price for a chili meal is under $4 a person, soft drink included. Both the Empress and Skyline groups sell their chili frozen in supermarkets throughout the Midwest, and Skyline and Gold Star have opened parlors in cities as far away as Washington.

Following is a sampling of chili parlors in the Cincinnati area.

Hartwell's Empress Chili, 8340 Vine Street in the suburb of Hartwell, about 20 minutes north of central Cincinnati (513-761-5599). Open 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. Monday through Saturday; noon to 9 P.M. on Sunday.

Gold Star Chili, 8467 Beechmont (513-474-4916). Open 10 A.M. to 1 A.M., Monday through Thursday; 10 A.M. to 3 A.M. Friday and Saturday; 11 A.M. to 11 P.M. on Sunday.

Two Gold Star Chili concessions at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport, Concourse D, are open 10:30 A.M. to 9:30 P.M.

The original Skyline Chili Parlor (643 Vine Street, downtown; 513-241-2020) is open from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. Monday through Saturday. Skyline Chili can also be ordered from P.K.G.'s by calling 800-543-7547. The chili is available plain or with spaghetti. Six 13-ounce containers cost approximately $45, which includes shipping.

Blue Ash Chili, 9565 Kenwood Road, Blue Ash, Ohio (513-984-6107) is about 15 minutes north of central Cincinnati.

Hours are 9 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. Monday through Friday; 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Saturday, closed Sundays. - S. H. L.

[westofyou]

Gold Star Chili, 8467 Beechmont (513-474-4916). Open 10 A.M. to 1 A.M., Monday through Thursday; 10 A.M. to 3 A.M. Friday and Saturday; 11 A.M. to 11 P.M. on Sunday.

IF this is the one in Mt Washington then i used to live in an apartment right behind it.

Thus... I prefer(ed) GS to Skyline... I think it's imprinted due to the smell and availability.

[Cyclone792]

An average price for a chili meal is under $4 a person, soft drink included.

Boy have those times changed. I had four cheese coneys for lunch yesterday with a water; price was over $6. I think a regular three-way is around $5 or so now. Tack on a soft drink and it's around $7.

And that doesn't even include tax and tip, if eating in.

[redsfan1966]

I love Skyline, unfortunately on Opening Day, the line was waaaaaaaaay too long at the Downtown Skyline---ended up eating at something called Main Street Deli---it was ok, but not my preference for Opening Day.

[fearofpopvol1]

Some folks have mentioned Empress (as does the article). I've actually never had it. Is it good? I'll have to try it when I'm back in the 'Nati in a few weeks if people say it's good.