Dolls take Grillfest honors

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LADD — It must have smelled awfully good over in Ladd last Sunday.

Ten teams gathered in Dave Margherio’s yard for the second annual Grillfest, and a mouth-watering good time was had by all.

“We’ve got a good neighborhood, and we’re always grilling in each other’s yards,” Margherio said. “Last year, braggadocio took over.”

Seven teams competed for bragging rights last year, and on Sunday, 10 teams competed in this year’s event. Teams could have chicken, beef or fish as their entree, and they were to have a theme and carry it through in the food.

Margherio said the teams got “pretty creative.” One group brought an inflatable swimming pool and a sandy beach, and other themes included campers and a campfire, the Cubs, going Hawaiian and even Red Neck Hunters. Margherio and his son had a tailgate party theme, with pre-football game favorites and a video of a football game running in the background.

Serious competition requires serious judging, and a four-man panel of eaters was chosen, including Margherio’s brother, the Rev. Ronald Margherio, and Tom Martin, John Yucus and Rob Delaby. The teams were judged on presentation of the workplace, presentation of the food and taste of the food.

Margherio said it all comes down to timing, and the grillers need to get it down to the minute for when the judges arrive.

“When the judges come around, we put on a show,” Margherio said with a laugh. “We try to schmooze the judges.”

When the chewing was done, and the napkins used and discarded, Margherio and his son came in third, edged out by Larry Kirkman and Kevin Pikul for second place.

The winners?

Curtis and Beth Doll with their Caribbean beach bar.

“No team made more of an effort than the Dolls,” Margherio said. “They even built a tiki bar.”

The Dolls offered the judges ribs marinated in fruit, mango salsa, grilled flatbread, rice and beans, grilled pineapple on pound cake and mojitos to wash it all down.

Beth Doll said they wanted to make something different this year.

“Last year, four of us made fajitas,” she said.

So the Dolls, who watch a lot of the Food Network, came up with something different, something Caribbean, the whole “sweet and heat” thing.

Once the decision of what to make was made, then came the cooking itself.

“We had two trial runs,” Doll said. “The first was a total flop.”

But after some tinkering, Doll said the third time the food was “pretty good.”

The Dolls have bragging rights for the rest of the year, but the neighbors are thinking ahead. For next year, Margherio and his neighbors are thinking of having a “Taste of Ladd,” selling armbands and letting the public feast on the results.

Let the grilling begin ...