“Stevie’s Saint Paddy’s Day Soup Off” coming to the Clover Club

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) -The Clover Club at the RailYard will be hosting their inaugural “Stevie’s Saint Paddy’s Day Soup Off.” This contest will pit 20 cooks against each other. The dish: soup! The competitors aren’t just looking for bragging rights. There’s a $500 dollar cash prize on the line. The namesake of the soup off – the one that isn’t a Catholic saint – is Chef Steven Brown, the kitchen manager for the Rail Yard, and he’s one of the judges. Brown is the inspiration for the contest, having recently winning a similar soup off at southwest community college. He’s a sort of “souper” hero and wanted to bring the contest to Bluefield.

“Well, it’s sprung from Stevie’s fascination with soup into this big thing that we’re doing up here with a staggering variety of soups for this contest...” says Mike Whitteker, the Catering Coordinator for the Clover Club.

There are four categories of soups that will be featured; broth, cream, chowder or bisque, and chili. Brown will even be making his award-winning soup: shrimp, corn, and bacon chowder.

“This is very, very filling. Got a lot of good flavor to it. But, that’s why I chose this one for the contest. Because it was going to have to be something that wowed people... something that you weren’t going to get everywhere you went,” says Chef Brown about his soup.

Even before the “soup’s on,” positive feedback is simmering and ready to boil.-over with anticipation.

“A lot of people come in and they see Stevie and they see Stevie’s ‘soup of the day’ on the menu, so we’ve gotten a lot of traction from that, people coming in and say, ‘What’s the soup of the day?’ so I think people will be really excited to try the soup,” says Emma Bailey, General Manager for the RailYard.

And Brown is really excited to share some advice to the cooks in the soup contest.

“Just be proud of what you make and, you know, come in here and think you’re going to win, and you might end up walking out of here with that 500, but just come have fun. I have fun every time I do this, and that’s why I love doing this anyway.”

While all the spots for the contest are filled, you can still buy tickets to the event and try some of the soups for yourself. The Soup Off will be Saturday, March 18th 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm. There will also be live Bluegrass music at the event.

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