When the organizers of Chowderfest in Troy decided to hold the event in mid-October, I'm guessing part of the idea was that these cups of chowder would serve as a way to warm the attendees standing outside in the crisp fall air. Instead, here we were with yet another day with temperatures around the 70 degree mark. I'm pretty sure no one's complaining about that, and it sure made for a nice day to wait in long lines in Riverfront Park.
This was my first Chowderfest, and it really was something to see how many people came out for this event--I saw figures estimating attendance at 20,000. For those who haven't attended (you might be in the minority now), several area restaurants--this year 17--set up tents and cooked their own special version(s) of chowder for the event. Four ounce cups chowder could be purchased with tickets (one ticket per cup of chowder), which were bought for $1 each prior to heading to the tents.
While it's a pretty fun concept--shown by both the crowd and the fact that this is the seventh year of the event--I also noticed some problems with the execution of Chowderfest that made attending it fairly frustrating. Below I'll lay out some of those issues, and recap a handful of the chowders I tried this year.
