The Laurance Jones III, Childhood Language Center hosted its annual "Mac n' Cheese Cook-Off" at the Capitol Market, which is one of my favorite events. 



Who doesn't love mac & cheese? It's one of my favorite dishes, and it's especially exciting because the event is at my favorite place - Capitol Market - and brings together lots of local businesses for a good cause. 



I was so fortunate to serve as a judge - hard job! - and tasted a little of 18 different mac & cheeses. 18! I will say: There were so many really, really good macs. It was a tough choice. You can see my ultimate top 3 on the scoring below.



After all that mac & cheese, it's sometimes tough to keep them straight and distinguish flavors from one another. But, boy, is it a delight. Thanks to all the small businesses that participated. Everyone did a great job. But Chef Ke pulled it out both in people's choice AND judge's, from what I hear! Congrats all!



T-Mobile





Rock Branch Elementary





Carnivore BBQ





Stephen Fernandez







Legal Aid of WV







Sherry Gordon





Capital Insurance Group





Yeager Airport





Country Roads Pet Resort





Cam Vance - State Farm Insurance 





Piedmont Elementary





Bogey's





Big Joe's





Children's Home Society





Rainbow Pride of WV





Real Estate Central





People's Federal Credit Union





Chef Ke

You may have heard of Girls Night Out in Charleston, which is a fundraiser for the YWCA.



But have you heard of Guys Night Out?



It's a smaller scale event geared toward men that also raises money for the YWCA and Sojourner's Shelter. 



Think of a giant WVU tailgate with huge TVs, an outdoor BBQ, games, raffle tickets and silent auctions. And you have Guys Night Out! 



Located at Oakes Field in South Charleston, the event coincided with WVU's most recent football game. 



I was fortunate enough to be able to hep out and judge the wing contest held during halftime. 



They offer a BBQ buffet before making way for the wings. There were six different restaurants who competed for the title this year. 



They were Red Carpet, Bear's Den, Sam's Uptown Cafe, Tricky Fish, Bar 101 and the Lookout.



One of the smartest things they did was have these little Halloween-themed markers for each wing so you could keep track of which ones come from where. 



I can't tell you how beneficial this could be for pepperoni roll cookoffs, too! 



So let's talk about the wings! My favorites of the evening were Bar 101, Red Carpet and Tricky Fish.



All my fellow judges agreed on the top three - but Red Carpet ended up coming out on top. 



I think Bar 101 had the best balance of a sweet and tangy - it was a delish teriyaki.



And the people's choice was Bear's Den, which was surprising! But nice to spread the love a little.



Have you attended this event?