Dunwoody Homeowners Association board member Bill Grossman wants to reignite the city’s chili cook-off.
In 2009 and 2010, the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce sponsored chili cook-off events that drew crowds of chili fans. The chamber didn’t hold the chili competition in subsequent years, Grossman said, but not because it wasn’t popular.
Grossman, who several years ago pushed for a concert series that grew into Dunwoody’s popular Food Truck Thursday events, now has called on the DHA to pick up the chili pot. He said he wants to restart the chili cook-off because Dunwoody needs another community event.
Not much work has gone into pulling together the events yet. “In January, we started running dates around the community, and came up with the weekend of Oct. 10 and 11, when there are no major conflicts,” Grossman said. “That’s as far as we’ve gotten so far.”
He thinks that through the sale of sponsorships, the chili cook-off could be a money-maker for the homeowners’ group. “I would like to schedule it or set it up so that it makes good revenue for DHA,” he said.
He said that he wants something that wouldn’t require too much in the way of volunteers from the community. No location has been determined, and Grossman said he is open to the idea of combining a cook-off with music, art or other activities.
“I’d like to start up another good community event in October, which is my favorite month to do things like this because the weather’s nice and it doesn’t rain as much,” Grossman said.
Grossman came up with the idea for Food Truck Thursdays in 2012, he said, and, in 2013, when he turned over the Dunwoody Homeowners Association presidency to Stacy Harris, he started working on planning.
The first Food Truck Thursday took place May 24, 2013, on the last day of school that year. The program ran for 22 successful weeks. Things went so well that 27 weeks of Food Truck Thursdays were scheduled in 2014. Now Grossman is planning another round of food truck-based shows in 2015.
“We’re scheduled to crank that back up April 2,” he said.