The 5 Stages of Skyline Chili ADDICTION

What Makes The Cincinnati Chili Different

What I want to do is talk about the five stages of becoming a skyline chili addict. Because you will get addicted to this. But, you know, there’s a lot of videos out there about people trying skyline chili for the first time. As a resident of Cincinnati for over 30 plus years. And as someone who moved to Cincinnati as a kid, 30 plus years ago when I was seven years old and I was introduced to Cincinnati chili and skyline chili for the first time. I did not know what to do with it. I want to kind of share that experience with you. Someone who might be potentially looking at moving to Cincinnati or relocating to Cincinnati, or even if you’re just here on a trip or a vacation or some tourism. And you’ve heard the hype about Cincinnati chili.

You’ve heard the hype about skyline chili itself. And you’re like, “what the heck is going on here?” I’m going to help you understand what happens to somebody. Specifically what happens to somebody who’s lived here for many years and how you go from “that sounds terrible” to “I’ve got to have skyline in the middle of the night. I’ve got to have it.”

So I want to give you some of the basics of what is skyline chili. When was it developed? You can look at other videos in terms of people trying it for the first time. Here I’m just going to give you the basics. And I’m going to try to coach you through the experience you’re going to have with skyline chili. So where did skyline chili come from? I want to show you guys this article from food and wine that came out a few years ago that gives us some insight.

In 1949, a Greek immigrant named Nicholas Lambrinides started skyline chili after previously working at Empress Chile – another Cincinnati style chili parlor. Spoiler alert. We’ll get to the other brands of Cincinnati chili a little bit later, but for now, let’s just focus on the skyline. His secret recipe is stored in a bank vault and remains unchanged since his death in 1962, the company’s name came about as a result of the original location. Having a nice view of you guessed it, the Cincinnati skyline. So why does Skyland chili need a little bit of explaining? It tends to get a terrible rap from outsiders who just don’t know. And I understand that that’s part of the stages. We’re going to get into that because skyline chili is known for containing both chocolate and cinnamon and being served on unseasoned spaghetti with a giant mountain of unnatural orange cheese on top.

And if you actually sit down and think about it, you might be able to understand how those flavors might work together. Especially if you put on some hot sauce, but when you are first introduced to this, you’re like, “what? Does it look good? No. Is it healthy? No, I don’t understand.” Let me help you understand how this goes. So here we go.

The Five Stages of Skyline Chili Addictions

Starting with stage number one, Repulsion. So here’s where everyone starts. Here’s where I started as a seven year old boy who moved to Cincinnati and I tried skyline chili for the first time. And I was like, “that is disgusting.” It doesn’t look good. It doesn’t smell good. I want nothing to do with that. It’s okay. If you’re in the spot, everyone starts here. Everyone. When first confronted with the idea of skyline, Chili’s like, “Nope, no thanks.”

And here’s a little bit why. Unlike other versions of chili con Carnegie skyline itself only contains meat, spices, and water. So it’s a little bit different. You can add kidney beans, you can add onions to it on top. They’re not cooked in. So it’s, as I describe it to people, I say it’s a little bit more liquidy than other Chili’s because it uses meat, spices, and water. Usually when you’re thinking about foods and chili in particular, liquidy is not an adjective you want to hear. So that’s why stage number one is repulsion. I want no part of it.

Okay. That brings us to stage number two, which is “I tried it. And Nope.” So here’s what happens. It was hyped up to you. People you’re around your friends, people you’re living around the area. Like you got to try skyline chili. And so you decided to give it a try, right?

“Hey, I’m living in Cincinnati. Now I’m going to go give this a try.” You go to the restaurant, you open the door and steam like knocks you in the face. And all of these overly friendly people are smiling at you and greeting you. And you’re like, “what is going on in this Midwestern area?” I don’t understand what’s happening here. People are smiling at me. There’s steam. It doesn’t smell very good. So you sit down, you look at the menu. It’s a pretty simple menu. You decide to try, just give me the thing that you’re known for. So you tried maybe a three-way, which is the chili on spaghetti with cheese. Just simple. Basic you try the three-way or maybe you get a chili dog, or maybe you try both. You tried it, you took a bite. You’re eating chili with a fork.
Things are confusing. There’s they give you an oyster, crackers and hot sauce, and you don’t really understand what’s going on. And you just don’t like it.

You know, your first experience just wasn’t good for you, but you gave it a shot. You tried. Said, no, thanks. Nope. That’s not for me. You moved on with your life. And that brings us to stage number three, a little time goes by and stage. Number three comes by stage. Number three is what I like to call skyline chili dip. And you might be asking yourself, “what is skyline chili dip?” That’s a great question. It’s a very important stage from repulsion to addiction.

Let me explain skyline chili dip to all of you who don’t understand Cincinnati at all. This one catches you off guard, right? Because you’re not at a skyline restaurant. You’re not at an event where they’re skyline. You might be over at a friend’s house enjoying an evening on the weekend. Maybe you get invited over to watch a football game. Maybe it’s a bangles game. Maybe you’re tailgating. Maybe you’re watching a UC football game. Maybe it’s an FC Cincinnati game. Maybe you’re at a birthday party or a graduation party or a pool party. And somebody inevitably is going to show up with a dish or a crockpot of skyline chili dip. So what is it now? This one’s interesting. It’s a little different dish. People make it at home. It starts with a foundation of cream cheese as if we don’t have enough cheese on this dish already smothered with a chili on top baked in an oven or a Crock-Pot. And then the shredded cheddar on top. Now it might be served with tortilla chips, but the people who really understand it, they’re going to have a bag of Frito, big scoops.

If you know, you know, right, it’s gotta be the Frito big scoop. You gotta have a little bit. It’s kind of like a mini shovel, right? And this is a Hardy dish. And so you gotta be able to get through that without your chip cracking. And so you decided to give it a shot. You’re not at the restaurant. You decide to put a little bit on your plate with some vegetables, maybe some celery and carrots. But you’re like, “oh, I’ll try the skyline chili dip.” I didn’t like it before, but this is something different. I’ll give it a try. And you think yourself after you have that bite, that was pretty good. That was actually different. And that skyline chili dip, it gets stuck. It goes right back here and it stays there. And it just kind of lives there for a little bit. You move on with your life. That’s stage number three, skyline chili dip.

We’re moving on to stage number four. I call this subconscious creep. A little bit more time goes by and the power of skyline chili dip that’s in your brain and an overt amount of direct marketing starts to overwhelm you. So now it could be days. It could be weeks. It could be months, but as time goes by, you are inundated with billboards around town of skyline chili brand, or even ads on YouTube of skyline chili. You are seeing TV commercials and everyone is smiling and there’s a song. And that song starts to get in your head. And everyone seems very happy and pleased. And then, summer comes and you go to a reds game or two or three, and you’re enjoying a night at the ballpark.

And you look up at the giant magnificent scoreboard TV screen, and there’s a skyline chili shuffle at the Red’s ballpark. And you find yourself trying to find the baseball hidden in the skyline chili shuffle at the reds game. You realize that every neighborhood you drive through in Cincinnati or another Kentucky has at least one or maybe two skyline chili restaurants. And so you’ve been hit with the direct marketing and over time, you know what? You decided to give it another try. Maybe you were at the Red’s ballpark. Maybe you went through the drive-through of a skyline chili. Maybe you went and sat down again at the restaurant. And this time something magical happens as you start to learn some of the insider tips, like a little hot sauce on the oyster cracker. As you learn how to eat it properly with a fork, you don’t spin. You cut, you cut, you don’t spin something magical happens, and you decide.

And that brings us to stage number five and stage number five of skyline chili addiction is simply this, it’s skyline time. Whenever you’re feeling good and hungry. It’s skyline time gathered together with friends and family. It’s skyline time, wholesome hearty food with a taste that’s so divine together, at last, it’s skyline time.

Oh, this is funny. Okay, so there you have it guys. I’m not saying it’s going to happen to you, but for most of you watching this, it probably already has happened to you. For those of you moving here. I’m just trying to give you a heads up. These are the stages: Repulsion, Tried it and Nope, Skyline chili dip, Subconscious creep, and then the Skyline time. So as someone again, who’s lived here for a long time, who understands that when my wife says like, “we need to have skyline right now.” I understand that feeling at a deep level, within me, within my bones. I understand the addiction. I mentioned this earlier in the video, but I want to give you one more bonus stage. This is kind of beyond the addiction stages. There’s one more bonus stage of the Cincinnati chili world.

That bonus stage is really what I’m going to call it. Brand wars or brand loyalty. And because skyline chili is not the only Cincinnati chili restaurant. There’s Gold star, there’s Camp Washington Chile, there’s Dixie Chili. There are different forms of this style of Chile all over town. Skyline is the most popular. But the way the brand wars brand loyalty, it goes something like this. “I will never eat gold star chili, and they are terrible.” “It’s trash.” It’s something that people get. It’s the battle we face today. You know, it’s a real thing. And so just be prepared for that, which is people get pretty, pretty loyal to their brand of Cincinnati chili.

Team Sztanyo! Your Guide in Moving To Cincinnati!

All right, guys, that was a fun one. I hope that was helpful for you and understanding skyline chili, wanting to mix it up a little bit here on this channel. Mostly we do real estate content, but trying to give you all the overall feel for moving and living in Cincinnati and Cincinnati chili is something you can’t escape. If you’re looking to move to this town. So if you want to watch some other videos about schools or houses or neighborhoods, we’ve got all kinds of that content on the channel. Watch another video. Thanks so much for watching guys. We’ll see you next time.