{"id":10035,"date":"2019-11-10T12:28:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T20:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000004125"},"modified":"2019-11-10T18:45:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T02:45:18","slug":"in-pictures-v-rooms-10th-annual-chili-cook-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/in-pictures-v-rooms-10th-annual-chili-cook-off","title":{"rendered":"IN PICTURES: V Room&#8217;s 10th Annual Chili Cook Off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For decades, the V Room has been a community gathering space, a second living room and a dark home with stiff drinks offering an escape from computer screens and the Top 40 pop of the outside world.<\/p>\n<p>I had been bringing my dollars to the V Room for years before I moved into the neighborhood; I mean who wouldn\u2019t want to live within walking distance of a place where you won\u2019t be judged for being on your third whiskey ginger before 2 p.m.?<\/p>\n<p>This historical dive once served food, though the kitchen hasn\u2019t been used in years. But, once a year, Long Beach&#8217;s finest chili cooks come out for a day drink, fueled by stewed meats, beans and cheese.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s where I found myself on Nov. 3, as the V Room hosted its 10th annual Chili Cook Off.<\/p>\n<p>People&#8217;s Choice and Judges&#8217; Choice winner Kenny Daniels from the South Bay took top prizes with his ground beef, smoky bean chili. Erasmo Pereza came in second with his tri-tip, IPA based chili. With 12 entries to try, the judges and the estimated 500 people who showed up, had plenty of fuel to drink with.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008256\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008256\" style=\"width: 1365px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10000008256\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/i-cNXbLHM-X4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1365\" height=\"2048\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008256\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erasmo Perez, second place winner at 10th Annual Chili Cook Off at the V Room in Long Beach on Nov. 3. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008182\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008182\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10000008182\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3481.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008182\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jalape\u00f1o peppers add extra heat at the 10th Annual Chili Cook Off at the V Room in Long Beach. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008175\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008175\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008175 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3407.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008175\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marquita Billhardt puts the finishing touches on her &#8220;Grandma Carmen&#8217;s Chili&#8221; served at Christmas every year. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008177\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008177\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10000008177\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3411.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008177\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 10th Annual V Room Chili Cook Off. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008183\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008183\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008183 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3488.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008183\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civilian tasters got to cast their votes, too. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008173\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008173\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008173 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3382.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008173\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Damon Dagger of Long Beach shows off his taco tattoo, similar to the mascot of L.A. Taco at the 10th Annual Chili Cook-off at the V Room in Long Beach. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008174\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008174\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008174 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3397.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008174\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Waldo Stout, left, and Sean Sieling of Long Beach show off their empty chili pot. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008178\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008178\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008178 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3582.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kenny Daniels celebrates as his chili is announced first-place winner at the 10th Annual Chili Cook Off at the V Room. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008180\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008180\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008180 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008180\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kenny Daniels shows off his trophy as winner of first place prize at the 10th Annual Chili Cook Off. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000008176\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000008176\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000008176 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191103-3573.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000008176\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kenny Daniels celebrates his victory with a friend at the 10th Annual V Room Chili Cook Off. Photo by Brian Feinzimer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This historic V Room once served food, though the kitchen hasn\u2019t been used in years. But, once a year, Long Beach&#8217;s finest chili cooks come out for a day drink, fueled by stewed meats, beans and cheese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":70646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[10927,10978],"class_list":["post-10035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}