I have seen photos of how the citizens of Cincinnati eat their chili. I have seen it on the Anthony Bourdain show and I have had friends described it to me when they went to Cincinnati for a long weekend but it wasn’t until last Monday that I finally came face-to-face with it.
Every last Monday of each month, Edward’s in Tribeca does a Cincinnati Night where you’ll get to eat some of the popular Cincinnati food items. Of course the one thing everybody goes for is chili from Skyline Chili. Chili from Cincinnati isn’t as thick as regular chili and they add cocoa powder into it to give it a bit of sweetness. Besides Skyline you can also get ribs from Montgomery Inn, pizza from Larosa and ice cream from Graeter’s.
I met up with my friend Scott and Steph last Monday at Edward’s. Scott has been drooling about this. We walked into the restaurant and they told us the restaurant had been completely booked for 8pm that gave us 45mins to sit down, order, eat and leave and thats what we did. So when ordering a Cincinnati chili you can have it 3-way or 4-way or 5-way. 3-way you get chili, spaghetti and cheese. 4-way you get chili, spaghetti, cheese and onions or beans, 5-way you get everything. Scott went with the 4-way with onions, Steph got the 3-way and I got 4-way with beans.
For $12 these plates of chili weren’t the best deal. It was more a slightly large appetizer size. I was so hungry I just dug right in. Add some crackers and eat. I really enjoy the sweetness of the chili but do prefer a thicker chili so that it sticks to the spaghetti.
We ended our meal with a scoop of Graeter’s ice cream, $6.50. $6.50! I got the mocha chip. The ice cream was a little bit watery and didn’t feel like it had enough fat but that could due to many things. Them transporting it to NYC and how Edward’s was storing. But I did love the giant pieces of chips in the ice cream.
Overall it was good but not worth $20. After that I went home and made dinner.
– Edward’s 136 West Broadway, New York City
Eat to Blog 
To be fair, these prices are way way way more than they would be were we in Cincy. $12 would have gotten about 4 times the food, and $6 at Greaters is enough to buy a pint. Edward’s, despite the genius, delicious, thing they are doing is stiffing people with Manhattan prices.
When I told my dad how much it was, he said “No matter, it’s worth every penny.”
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I agree with the above. It doesn’t even cost 12 dollars in Cincinnati for a normal-sized 5-way, which is gigantic compared to what they give you here (also, beans on TOP of the cheese? What kind of tomfoolery is that?). Comparing it to normal chili is a bit silly, though. Skyline is much more like a topping — like sauce. You shouldn’t think of it as “normal chili with a bit of a sweeter taste.” Not the case.
Also, Graeters is also extremely rich, creamy ice cream — so obviously there was a problem with its handling if it came out watery.
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Oh I know these prices are made for NYC and pretty damn sure nothing beats having the chili in Cincinnati.
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Yep, you paid more than it costs here in Cincy. Also, if you wanted a man-sized meal, you should have gotten the super 4-way with 2 cheese coneys. That would have filled you up for about $8.00 total.
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Your paying for the shipping and the specialty prep in those prices, silly rabbits. We are on an island and far from the ‘Nati. Totally worth it for a 3 way and some black raspberry chip though!
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