SONO 2015 Winners!
Best overall: Toronado San Diego
Best Vegetarian: Monkey Paw Pub & Brewery
Most Unique: South Park Brewing Co.
People’s Choice: West Coast Tavern
Thank you to ALL of the restaurants who provided amazing chilis! We have the best restaurants at our doorstep!
SUNDAY DECEMBER 6th 2015
Thorn Street between 32nd and Bancroft
This annual North Park event by the San Diego Ceramic Connection and McKinley School Foundation not only serves as a fundraiser for McKinley’s music and arts programs, but is a great way to mix with the community and enjoy some delicious food!
– Chili Contest for Local Restaurant
Buy a handmade ceramic bowl for tasting and take the bowl with you.
– Beer Garden
– Hot Drink Station
– Pizza and Food Vendors
Come and shop locally for Holiday Giving
– 25 Art/Craft Vendors
– Craft Table for the Kids
– Much More
Saturday, December 5, 1-4pm
SoNo Community Chili Potluck and Contest! Top Chili winner gets to judge the restaurant chili on Sunday!
We need volunteers! Please sign up HERE. It’s a lot of fun, and a huge help to the programs at McKinley.
For more information, visit http://sonofestchilicookoff.com or the SoNo Facebook Page.
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PREVIOUS SoNo FESTIVALS:
The Results Are In! Thank You to SoNo Fans, Sponsors and Committee
For those of you who joined the thousands of people from our community who participated in the SoNo Park Holiday Fest & Chilipalooza back in December, you know that the event was a success. The San Diego Police estimated around 8 thousand people showed up to enjoy chili, ceramics, live music and local vendors. Thanks to the support of our great sponsors and planning committee members, this was the most successful McKinley fundraiser ever, netting over $32,000 for our McKinley Foundation. Woo hoo!
Regarding our sponsors, we cannot say enough about Kouta Shimazaki and San Diego Ceramic Connection. Thank you for providing the inspiration for the event, helping plan the event, making all the bowls and donating 50% of the bowl sales to McKinley.
We’d also like to recognize some of our other key sponsors who donated at least $500 and encourage you to patronize them for supporting our school:
Intuit Inc., makers of TurboTax
Kim Hawley and Brian Lacklen from Ascent Real Estate
North Park Nursery and Ripe North Park for donating the beer garden space
There are many others that were under $500 but played an important role as well. Please visit our SoNo web site for a complete listing of restaurants, sponsors and bands.
None of this would have been possible without our AWESOME committee. Thank you so much to these folks:
Stacey Birney (volunteer chair)
Barbara Bovee (accounting co-chair, raffle)
Elaine Boyd
Laura Blount
Jen Byard (vendor chair)
Betsey Z Carabet
Phil Cabaret
Paula Cook (event co-chair)
Steve Cook (event co-chair)
Seth Dameron
Paul Fornier
Taura Gentry
Chad Glidwell
Sara Glidwell
Candace Gyure
Kim Hawley
Mark Keller (beer guy)
Staci Keller (accounting co-chair, logistics)
Brian Lacklen
Abby Lawrence
Jenny Moore (kid zone chair)
Rachel Rath (music co-chair, web site)
Jean Rivaldi
Sarah Scalo (chili co-chair)
Kouta Shimazaki (chili bowl god, music co-chair)
Theresa Sinicrope Talley
Amy Victor (chili co-chair)
Let us know if you are interested in helping us plan next year. We have a great time and there are lots of jobs for everyone! (Contact steve.cook33@gmail.com).
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The 2011 SoNo Park Holiday Fest was even bigger than the year before. Thanks to our wonderful North Park and South Park communities and restaurants for your attendance and participation in the SoNo Park Holiday Fest! We sold close over 1,000 ceramic bowls and went through countless crockpots of chili. Most importantly, our friends, neighbors and businesses all had a good time while supporting McKinley’s arts and music programs. We raised over $16,500 for McKinley!
Thank you to our wonderful event sponsors:
San Diego Ceramic Connection
Party Production Rentals
Stage Sponsors:
Beer and Wine Providers:
Karl Strauss
Stone Brewery
Pizza Port
Green Flash
Ballast Point (Yellow Tail)
Rock Bottom
Fallbrook Winery
Other Sponsors:
UPS
Yelp!
Chili Contest Results:
2011 Best Overall Chili: The Smoking Goat
2nd Best Overall: West Coast Tavern
3rd Best Overall: Kensington Grill
2011 Best Vegetarian: Kensington Cafe
2nd Best Vegetarian: Alchemy
2011 Most Unique (Tie for 1st): El Take it Easy / SeaRocket Bistro
2nd Most Unique: Kensington Grill
3rd Most Unique: Ritual Tavern
Thank you to our judges for 2011: McKinley Principal Julie Ashton Gray, Candice Eley (SDCVB), Aloha Taylor (Fox News Meteorologist), Chuck Silva (Green Flash Brewmaster), Chef Deborah Scott, Omar Passons (NPCA past president), Tim Mays (Casbah Owner & main stage sponsor) and Don Taylor
Participating Chili Restaurants:
Alchemy
Eddie’s
Hamilton’s Tavern
Kensington Cafe
Kensington Grill
Lefty’s Pizza
Linkery / El Take It Easy!
Rebecca’s Coffee House
Ritual Tavern (2010 Overall Winner)
Sea Rocket Bistro
Station Tavern
The Foundry
The Smoking Goat
Tiger Tiger
Toronado
True North Tavern
U31
Urban Solace
Vagabond
West Coast Tavern
Go “Like Us” on Facebook
so you won’t miss out on any of the fun.
The 2011 SoNo Park Holiday Fest will be bigger and better than ever! We’re expanding into the block west of last year’s location. We’re adding a larger kids area, with crafts, carnival booths and a second stage with family-friendly entertainment. In addition, we’ll have the usual:
– Chili Contest for Local Restaurant
– Chili Contest for Individuals
Buy a handmade ceramic bowl for tasting and take the bowl with you.
– Beer Garden
– Hot Drink Station
– Pizza and Food Vendors
Come and shop locally for Holiday Giving
– 25 Art/Craft Vendors
– Craft Table for the Kids
– Much More
This annual North Park event by the San Diego Ceramic Connection and McKinley School Foundation not only serves as a fundraiser for McKinley’s music and arts programs, but is a great way to mix with the community and enjoy some delicious food!
You can also visit the SoNo Park Holiday Fest website for more details.
2010 SoNo Park Holiday Fest
The 2010 SoNo Park Holiday Fest was a great success. Thanks to our community and restaurants for your participation in the SoNo Park Holiday Fest! We sold close to 900 ceramic bowls and went through countless crockpots of chili. Most importantly, our friends, neighbors and businesses all had a good time while supporting McKinley’s arts and music programs.
Here are the results from our 8 judges who tasted the 18 restaurants represented.
Best Overall Chili: Ritual Tavern
Best Overall 2nd: Sombrero
Best Overall 3rd: Vagabond
Best Vegetarian 1st: SoHo Restaurant and Lounge
Best Vegetarian 2nd: Splash Wine Bar
Best Vegetarian 3rd: West Coast Tavern
Most Unique 1st: Vagabond
Most Unique 2nd: True North
Most Unique 3rd: Sombrero
It was truly amazing for a new event and we could not have done it without the generosity and support of the San Diego Ceramic Connection (thanks Kouta!).
The Parents and Teachers of McKinley Elementary and the SoNo Park community thank everyone who volunteered and attended.
Sunday, December 5th from 10 – 5