It might have been a little cool and windy outside, but the temperature was definitely hot at the annual Spring on the Southside chili cook-off and hot pepper eating competitions.

There were 13 cook-off entrants competing for either the judges’ or the people’s choice awards. They were Social Still, Southside 313 (formerly Looper’s), Molinari’s, Steel Pub, Café the Lodge, Molly’s, Sotto Santi, Comfort Suites, the Banana Factory, the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society, Broadway Social and Gas Station, Tally Ho and Tulum.

The people got to vote for their favorite chili by purchasing a $5 passport that allowed them to sample the various chili recipes ranging from mild to hot, and then vote for their favorite. A total of 550 passports were sold out weeks before the event.

The chili from Molly’s Irish Grille & Sports Pub at New Street and Fourth was the first choice of the panel of judges, but the people’s choice award went to Tulum, the small Beth-Mex eatery at 17 W. Morton St. The Comfort Suites’ entry was runner-up in both categories.

Tulum’s entry featured chorizo pork sausage and seven different peppers, cheese, sour cream, onions and cilantro. Located just off New Street near Lehigh Commons, Tulum features burritos and tacos, but interestingly, does not have chili on its menu. It has won at least one judges’ first place in the past, and several people’s choices.

While waiting for the results of the chili cook-off, a noisy crowd of spectators at the Godfrey Daniel’s stage cheered and clapped for the five youthful contenders in the hot chili pepper eating event. At stake was a $200 gift card for Van’s apparel from Homebase610, a skate shop on West Fourth Street.

To win this insane competition you literally had to be the last man standing. That meant eating and surviving a range of hot peppers with a spicy-heat rating from 1,000 Scoville units to more than four million, assuming everyone lasted that long.

In the first round, everyone had to chew a large piece of jalapeno pepper, swallow it and hold it down for one minute without drinking or eating anything to help cut the heat. Doing so disqualified the contestant. Next to try was a green Thai chili, then a dried bird’s eye chili rated at 100,000+ Scoville units. Everyone was still standing.

Just to add to the challenge, contestants had to drink warm root beer. No problem. The whole group had survived to this point, and the audience was told that last year’s contestants had all dropped out by now. On to the fresh habanero peppers. After two of the contestants bit them, they bit the dust.

By the time the contest got to the Trinidad hot pepper, there were only two men standing, and after swallowing the second hottest pepper in the world at more than one million Scoville units, they were tied. Ditto after both managed to keep down the Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest chili at two million units.

The tie breaker was liquid hot pepper extract, at four million Scovilles, poured onto a tortilla chip. Lehigh freshman Paul Grocholske was the winner, still standing and smiling and in no apparent discomfort. He credits his success to eating hot and spicy Indian food. The chili events were part of Spring on the Southside, an annual community celebration that began as “Spring on Fourth, What’s on Third?” and that has expanded during the past 20 years to also include the Southside Arts Festival at the Banana Factory, the South Bethlehem Greenway and the Cops ‘n’ Kids Celebration of Reading and the Arts and Sciences.