Smoke On the River

Everything in Brian’s review stands perfectly with SOTR 2015.
Although there were lots of events going on, Smoke seemed like it knew it was destined to be a B-​lister. Badda Skat singing about chemtrails (although I’ll listen to live ORIGINAL NON-​MARLEY (!!!) reggae all day long) followed by cover bands playing for about 40 people was a little disheartening. VIP food was free and plentiful, but with only mini tacos and Spanish rice — with cupcakes for dessert — there wasn’t much variety. Beer was (again) free and plentiful at the VIP section, but I can get InBev’s finest anywhere.
With full disclosure in mind, I won my VIP tickets, so didn’t pay — but for two tix clocking in at $ 120, I would’ve been very disappointed.
Also there was a bunch of dudes smoking cigars, which I didn’t know was allowed (or it is, but only at events like that). Had I known that was acceptable, I would’ve brought some sticks myself. The whole event just seemed like it had no purpose.

We had a nice time enjoying the cooler mid-​November weather at Smoke On the River 2015 at Curtis Hixon Park despite no event theme and a smaller than average crowd. Top-​golf Tampa provided some delicious Chicken Tacos but unfortunately did not have any hot sauce. Catering by the Family provided succulent tender Chicken & Yellow Rice with vegetables. For dessert, Smallcakes Cupcakery provided tons of tasty mini cupcakes on an impressive huge 6 tier tower. The brews available in the VIP Tent included: Budweiser, Bud light, Shocktop, and Goose Island Oktoberfest. Wines provided by Barefoot Wine in sweet color changing cups included Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio, Moscato, and new Refresh red and white wine spritzer drinks that aren’t even available yet for sale in retail stores. Live Music by Brushwood, Lovestruck Robot, and Badda Skat provided pretty good cover songs of some classic 80s and 90s songs.
Pricing: General Admission to Smoke on the River is free but all event attendees purchasing alcohol must purchase one $ 5 age verification wristband. Smoke on the River sells an Advance $ 15 Combo package with 1 age verification wristband and 2 drink tickets. Smoke on the River’s VIP Ticket for $ 50 pre-​sale & $ 60 at the door includes: 1 age verification wristband, access to the VIP Experience tent, food provided by Catering by the Family & Topgolf Tampa, and unlimited beer and wine.
Cons: For 2015, Smoke on the River had No Chili Cook-​off contest, No BBQ cook-​off contest, No country music, No cigars, and only 2 craft brews. I was disappointed the bartender didn’t have any sliced oranges to go with the Shocktop. Drinking a Shocktop without an orange in it should be a crime! I was also disappointed Hillbilly Chili Club didn’t make it out this year. The Smoke on the River Festival was sorely lacking any kind of theme this year. I expected Smoke on the River to be better and bigger than last year not worse with less vendors. The Smoke on the River planning committee really needs to do a little more than invite a couple food trucks, book some bands, and promote free general admission. Promote cool things to do like trying new cigars and fun outdoor games and more people will come next year. The crowd at Curtis Hixon park was smaller than average, perhaps due to Smoke on the Rivers competing events on Saturday, which included Ribfest at Vinoy Park in St Pete and the Craft Beer Showdown at the Convention Center. If you google Smoke on the River, the Google description says «craft beer, chili, cigars» (2014’s theme) but then when you click on the site, it says the new downgraded theme «live music, cold beer & good times» (2015’s theme). Which bar doesn’t have live music and cold beer? Lol

I had a good time at the Smoke on the River Chili Cook-​Off.
I don’t know how much weight my review really has because I was one of the contestants, and therefore, was very busy cooking & serving chili, which made it difficult to experience the full event.
This was my 1^st time competing in a chili cook-​off & also the 1^st time I have ever attended a chili cook-​off of this size, but I had a lot of fun.
I was Team Chili Joel near the Unilocal table.
Good Stuff
— Live Music
— Impressive View of River & University of Tampa Skyline
— Unilocal Was Representing (They had a table set up)
— Location (Curtis Hixon is an excellent venue)
— The Chili I Was Able To Try Was Tasty
Not So Good Stuff
— Only 13 Chili Cooks Competed (I thought there would have been more for an event this size)
— Chili Ran Out Quickly Because There Were Only 13 Tents (Despite making 12 gallons of chili, I feel like I sold out pretty early. I do not remember the exact time, but it was nowhere near 10pm)

Love me some good chili! Most of the chili that we tried was on point, don’t really like country music but the music was great, and the park wasn’t too crowded. I give it a thumbs up.

In all fairness, maybe I arrived too late to really enjoy the event as much. The entry price was okay for the chili sampling but they ran out early so I decided to pass on that and head for the food trucks. Any way, while I was just walking around to see what was happening, two tents gave me a sample anyway probably just because they were essentially out and wanted to get rid of everything. Some decent chillis. One of the chilli tents gave out shots for jalapeño-​cornhole — yeah, toss the jalapeño in the hole to get a shot of liquor. Interesting. Too bad for me that I didn’t win.
As for food, I stopped at the Brazilian food truck and Lizzie Cakes food truck. Both were very good. I stopped by the Cabot Farms tent to enjoy the cheese samples. The gave out mini cheese packets and coupons. There was another tent with cornhole, to play for prizes that included lanyards, key chains, candy, etc. Hmm… I won at this cornhole game. The live music wasn’t too bad and the Unilocal table was a pleasant surprise.
Overall it was an okay event. Maybe arriving at «start time» would have made it a more enjoyable event.

I have definitely experienced better outdoor festivals than this one. This was billed as a festival of craft beers, chili, music, and cigars. The selection of beers was absolutely miserable. I think there were 8, and one of them was Corona Light. Oh… Corona? I haven’t heard of that beer before. Where is it from? –_–
The rest of the beers were IPAs with the exception of aforementioned Mexican beer and 2 others. So essentially, if you paid $ 20 to get your 5 tastes of «craft beers» and don’t favor IPAs, you paid $ 20 to drink 1 – 2 pints (depending on who was doing the pours) of Corona Light, Widmer Hef, or Magic Hat #9, and get a small black plastic cup (think kids’ cup from Chili’s).
The festival was scheduled to run from 5−10pm. We got there a little after 7 and at least half the chili was out. And not «recently run out»…like all that was left of that station was a canopy and a folding table. There were I think 4 – 5 food trucks, and one 10×10 canopy with cigars under it. I didn’t see any being rolled, just being sold.
The only reason this isn’t a lower rating is because the cover band, Easy Posse, was GREAT and the 5 – 6 chili contestants that still had food left were really nice people, super friendly, and had made GREAT chili. The family with the cooking trailer who’d made the chili from ribs was my favorite.
For $ 30 per person ($ 20 for beer and $ 10 for chili) you can do a lot better for your evening’s entertainment.
The crowd was very sparse when we arrived too, likely because there was another festival up at the nearby Waterworks Park (just up the river by Ulele), featuring Sister Hazel and more craft beer. Poor planning on the part of whomever decided these 2 rather similar events should compete with one another.

Great concept and yummy chili. Chili ran out early, but $ 10 unlimited samples was a great deal. The two bands were awesome and played great music.
I give two stars because Craft beer was not local, which is disappointing since Tampa has so many great breweries. Also, it was $ 20 to get a five 4 oz samples of the same beer I can buy at the market across from the event or at the bar across the street and get more than 16oz.
I didn’t care for the voting. It was determined by how much tasters donated money to the specific competitors. The teams that won had great booth designs and gave out free shots, but the chili was not the best there. It felt more of a popularity contest instead of based on the art of making chili. The teams with the best chili ran out early because it was so good but majority of the public didn’t get to experience it, so they didn’t get votes. :(

I was so excited to have won tickets from Unilocal for this event! You cannot beat an evening of craft beers and chili. Plus, the cold Florida weather was perfect for chili.
The chili cook off was formerly known as the «Steve Otto Chili Cook Off.» Steve Otto, has since retired and has given his blessing for the event to be renamed as the «Big Guava Chili Cook Off.»
We got to the event right as it started and everything ran smoothly with checking into will call. The craft beer sampling was included with the tickets but the chili sampling was not. Tickets to sample the chili were only $ 10, so we didn’t mind. There were also some food trucks at the event but I wanted chili to warm me up in this weather.
There were several different tents set up with craft beers to sample provided by Pepin Distributing. A couple of my favorites were the Widmer Bros Beers and the Goose Island Beers.
There were many tents set up with chili being served. It was so hard to choose which was the best out of all of them. I also liked that there were chairs and some tables throughout Curtis Hixon. I hate to eat standing up!
Live Music was provided by Easy Posse and Amanda Drake and the Barnburners. The music was predominantly country music… yuck. Thus, the reason for the four stars.
Curtis Hixon was not overcrowded, for once. The amount of people there was perfect. This definitely was a no-​frills event.
This was a fun event. I will definitely make time to schedule this event in my social calendar every year!