NORWICH – Chenango County Habitat for Humanity’s (CCHH) sixth soup tasting event, the CCHH Souper Bowl had another very successful event.

People packed the Norwich YMCA community room to support this very deserving non-profit organization. They sipped on soup, ate bread, enjoyed some provided beverages by the Christ Lutheran Church, had dessert, listened to music, participated in raffles, shopped the bake sale, and voted.

Everyone became a food critic and had to choose their favorite soup from the participating restaurants from Chenango County. All, approximately 120, entrants had one ticket to vote with.

From the restaurant’s point of view, this March 25 event was a perfect opportunity to let the public taste a food sample that demonstrates their special style of cuisine.

Among the 30 wonderful soups, there were some that were really unique like the Chicken Enchilada (Mimi’s Italian Cuisine), Greek Chicken Pesto Soup (Gus’s Steakhouse & Sports Bar), Thanksgiving Soup (S & S Café), and Pizza Soup (Vincent’s Restaurant).

All restaurants were encouraged to distribute menus, business cards, catering information or even coupons for their establishments. To go with the soups, La Maison Blanche Bakery and Café (Norwich) donated French bread.

Participating restaurants were Becky’s Place (Norwich), Bob’s Diner (Bainbridge), Bonnie’s Restaurant (Greene), Boudreau’s Bistro & Bakery (Greene), Canasawacta County Club (Norwich), Dusty’s Dairy Bar & Grill (Norwich), Family Recreation Lanes (Norwich), Fred’s Inn (Norwich), Garf’s Deli & Café (Norwich), Gilligan’s Island (Sherburne), Gus’s Steakhouse & Sports Bar (Norwich), Highway 7 Bar & Grill (Bainbridge), Hoppie’s (Oxford), Judy’s Coffee Shop (Sherburne), Main St. Bakery & Grill (Afton), Mimi’s Italian Cuisine (Greene), Mr. Chubb’s Restaurant (Oxford), New York Pizzeria (New Berlin), Nina’s Pizzeria (Norwich), The Ontario Hotel (Norwich), Serendipity Café (Norwich), S & S Café (Bainbridge), Smokin’ Bones (Norwich), The Silo Restaurant (Coventry), The Stadium (Oxford), T’s Diner (New Berlin), Trojan House Deli & Café (Greene), Village Markets (Coventry), Vincent’s Restaurant (Afton), and The Wild Owl Café (Norwich).

At the end of the two-hour tasting event, and after lots of difficult voting decisions made by the patrons, the soup voting tickets were counted. Many were very close, but bold, new, creative flavors were very popular this year.

Placing third was a tie between last year’s first place winner, S & S Café (Bainbridge) with their Thanksgiving soup, and The Silo Restaurant (Coventry) who made a Chicken Marsala with wild rice and mushrooms.

Winning second place was newcomer, Smokin’ Bones (Norwich) who made a Chicken Romano soup with a smokin’ barbecue flavor.

The surprise of the day was a flavor called “Bourbon Peach Habanero Chicken” soup made by Garf’s Deli (Norwich). Garf’s is a 2014 first place title winner. All in all, however, every single soup was a winner due to the fact they all were tasted, enjoyed, and finished off before the end of the evening.

The bake sale was organized by Bonnie Graves; basket raffle, also very well organized by Dawn Wenzel; as well as amazing donations from local businesses for door prizes, organized by Linda Clark.