Sure, everything might be bigger in Texas, but when it comes to chili, Cincinnatians take the food topic very seriously.
Last year, Cincinnati-based lender Fifth Third Bank acquired the Texas-based Comerica Bank in a nearly $11 billion deal, which sparked an ongoing debate: Who has the best chili recipe?
“We got a little bit of an internal civil war here between people who like their chili with beans, no beans or on spaghetti,” Fifth Third Chief Executive Tim Spence told Wall Street analysts in April, per the Wall Street Journal. “So that we’re going to have to solve before we can truly say we’re one company.”
Fifth Third Bank, Comerica agreed to merge, but disagree on chili
The difference between Cincinnati’s standard chili and what most southerners (or those outside the Queen City region) know is its consistency.
In Cincinnati, the chili is more soupy than the hearty, beefy chili known in Texas. It is also served atop a hot dog or spaghetti with mounds of cheese (and sometimes beans and onions).
According to WSJ’s reporting, Spence’s first indication his chili preference would become an “issue” was during his first town hall in Houston following the deal.
A Comerica employee reportedly asked Spence if he preferred his chili with or without beans. He declined to answer, per WSJ.
However, in his next earnings call, he decided to take the polarizing topic and make it into something fun. That’s when analyst Brian Finneran launched a poll on his Bloomberg Terminal asking investors and analysts about their chili preferences.
The reaction prompted a bank-wide chili contest. Last year, when Fifth Third’s senior management team held its first cookoff, Spence, an Oregon native, finished second.
According to WSJ, “Spence views the chili debate as a way of bringing together two cultures.” He’s also planning out the contours of a bank-wide contest, “where different regions will nominate their champions to compete in a final round of taste-testing.”
But, no matter the contest’s results, the beef between Texas and Cincinnati chili is real.
To put things into perspective, WSJ wrote that Curt Farmer, the Texas-based former CEO of Comerica, who is now vice chair at Fifth Third, says Texans “wouldn’t consider a dish made of ground beef, beans, and tomatoes to be chili.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Fifth Third having a ‘civil war’ over chili after acquiring Comerica
Reporting by Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
