Warm Inside, Cold Out

It feels like months are just flying past faster and faster than ever before (for instance, somehow, we're already at the end of an entire decade). This past week included the sneaking up of yet another ArtWalk. Already? Really? Yup.

Of course, this is never a bad thing. ArtWalks are Flagstaff's monthly town party for everyone. Holidays or not, the cheer is always clearly felt on the streets and in the galleries on just about every First Friday.

This particular First Friday was all about the Chili Cook-off. Thirteen different downtown galleries and businesses served up their special recipe chili for the ArtWalk world to taste and judge. Now, admittedly, the Chili Cook-off is partially a gimmick to convince more people to brave the cold and be exposed to more art. ArtWalk will always be first and foremost about the ART. But it's a fun gimmick nonetheless, and made for a fun evening on top of all the great artwork to be seen.

I missed last year's Chili Cook-off. I had been on the road and landed in Flagstaff at 8:30pm, only to taste one single cold bowl of chili, saved for me by Robin. There was no way I was going to miss this year, so my daughter, Riley (pictured, getting psyched up to go out for the night), and I, bundled up and hit the road. We were joined by FCP's own Joe Cornett, ArtWalk Coordinator extraordinaire. We began at Simply Delicious and had a goal of tasting all 13 varieties of chili in the Cook-off.

First and foremost, Simply Delicious has two truly scrumptious chilis. Joe and I both pledged to go back this week for lunch, since they told us the chili would be on the menu. We recommend Porky's Revenge. This was a very good start to our night, an excellent taste starter - it must be a good omen.

Simply D being the only Chili Cook-off location further than a block from Heritage Square, we then drove and parked downtown, and planned the rest of our route. We'd start at last year's Chili Cook-off Champion, Tony Mangine at Seasoned Kitchen. They had two varieties of chili, one of them vegetarian. We liked it, of course, and really love their amazing kitchen showspace. But I must say at this point, it's probably a good thing that they only give us small dixie cup samples of chili. If we had been served full bowls anywhere, we would not have made it through the night.

Joe, Riley and I pranced our way through the holiday festivities on Heritage Square (Santa was there!!!) to try the goods at Cuvee 928. And "goods" indeed as their chili was pretty darn tasty. I walked away, though, feeling bad for them - they were so full with regular sit-down customers that few folks would get to try their chili and vote. It was worthy of more attention.

We then had chili at West of the Moon (Doug Miyatake's yummy green chili), Mountain Sports, (first "regular" chili that tasted like what I make at home), Life is Good (I want to know who the chef was of that scrumptiousness), and on the west side of San Francisco: Artists' Coalition of Flagstaff, Arizona Handmade Gallery, The Artists' Gallery, Alley Cats and Cafe Pickles. Cafe Pickles served up a tasty brew that was like a pork stew. Good stuff.

Janna Dahl's artwork at West of the Moon was a highlight. I really liked seeing Puente de Hozho elementary school selling holiday greeting cards with students' artwork on them at Life is Good. AZ Handmade and ACF galleries were almost too busy with people to allow us to focus much on art. Too bad. And I enjoyed Dudley Bacon's photography at Alley Cats.

Through all of this, I was also doing call-in live radio interviews with Sam on the The Eagle 103.7 FM. We interviewed, on-air, Mark Lamberson at Mountain Sports (who does so many amazing things to support our community), and the incomparable Mike Frankel at ACF.

Finally, we ducked around the corner to grab chili at the final two locations: Sundara and Shane Knight Gallery. But they had run out! This was probably another good omen, because both Joe and I were getting very full (Riley, being the tender age of 9, was not into chili at all). But at the same time, I wish we could have tried all 13 chili recipes out there. I also wish we had time to visit many of the other galleries showing work. While I did sneak in a visit to Grandon Art Gallery, which was hoppin', our night was pretty full.

Then the holiday spirit hit. I was doing live interviews on the radio... and Santa was nearby on Heritage Square. Why not get Santa on the radio? So, all three of us ran to the Square. There was a long line of kids waiting to see Santa, but we went right up to the elves at the front of the line. After we told them we were doing live radio, they decided to let us go next and give Santa some free publicity. Yay!

Riley sat on Ms. Claus' lap and talked about what she wanted while I handed the phone to Santa himself so that Sam could interview him. After the interview, with wink of his eye and a crinkle of his nose, Santa tossed me the phone, wisked up Ms. Claus, jumped into his sleigh, and flew off into the night yelling "Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!"

Well, not really. That would have been mean to all the kids still waiting in line. I was trying for a great storybook ending to the story.

The ending here is the announcement that, the next day, we tallied all the votes in the Cook-off, and this year's Champion is West of the Moon gallery! Congrats to Carolyn and Doug the fabulous chef!

Cheers,
JT