It was a close contest, but when the smoke had cleared, the firefighters were again victorious. Their pulled chicken sandwich with bacon, cole slaw and tomato jam beat the police officers’ fried chicken-and-buttermilk-waffle combination by only 3 votes in the annual police-fire cook-off.
For $7, diners received a sandwich from each set of cooks, a drink, salad, dessert and the chance to vote. .The vote was for the sandwich, not the cooks, said Gale Paradise, a member of the Evanston Police and Fire Foundation, which sponsored the cook-off. “The first two years, we did hamburgers,” Ms. Paradise said, “but both teams wanted to change it up a bit.”
Much of the food, as well as the space – atop the Whole Foods store on Church Street – was donated, and the proceeds went to the Evanston Police and Fire Foundation.