📅 Saturday, Aug. 16
🕓 2 p.m.
📍Mike’s Chili Parlor: 1447 NW Ballard Way, Seattle
💰 $13.31
Some things never change. Mike’s Chili Parlor, tucked into a little corner of Ballard near the docks, has been serving up hot, hot beans and spices for over a century now, from its auspicious beginnings as a cart in 1922 to its current Art Deco brick-and-mortar space. Its recipe has stayed in the family the whole time, passed down to fourth-generation owner Mike Semandiris, and the beloved eatery has been featured on Guy Fieri’s business-boosting Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
So how does one celebrate 103 years of serving the blue-collar workers of the Emerald City? Throw a music festival in the “Chili Bowl,” right in their backyard, of course. Because nothing says “groove to some music” like a heaping plate of chili pasta and a couple Rainiers sloshing around in your belly.
The event promises to be an ode to the neighborhood, with local bands who you may have seen busking up and down Ballard Avenue or within its hallowed music clubs, such as:
- Genre-defying Americana band Massy Ferguson
- Country singer/songwriter Freddy Luongo
- Folk singer Mike Giacolino, a former union laborer and friend of Brandi Carlile
- And a new set of musicians about to hit it big; one day, you can say, “I remember them back when they were just playin’ chili joints!”
