GRAY – Stephanie Robinson and Pam Lindner, owners of Fisherman’s Net on Route 100 in Gray, took top honors in last weekend’s 17th Annual Great Chili and Chowder Challenge, sponsored by Altrusa International Inc. of Portland.

One of 30 entries, Lindner and Robinson won the event with their signature seafood chowder – the same you can buy at their store just south of Gray Village – in their first try.

“It was absolutely incredible. It was a lot of fun for us because we didn’t know what to expect,” Robinson said Thursday between customers. “We felt really confident in our chowder and we knew it was really, really good and customers kept telling us to enter something because they were the ones really rooting us on and telling us it was amazing.”

Robinson was especially surprised to win since they tend not to enter their food in contests.

“We don’t do things like this normally. I mean, we don’t cater, we don’t do much but in our little setting,” she said. “So it was really something to go somewhere and have other people validate what we know is true. It’s a good chowder.”

The creamy chowder features haddock, scallops, shrimp, lobster meat and crabmeat, plus potatoes and onions – “that’s it,” Robinson said.

More than 500 people attended the event. For their winning entry, Fisherman’s Net received a plaque that they have proudly displayed in the store.

Plus, another benefit of winning is the uptick in attention. Robinson already reports more foot traffic interested in purchasing a bowl or cup of the winning recipe.

“It’s been a steady incline this week. A lot of our customers in the beginning came in and congratulated us and got a cup of chowder. But after people seeing it (on the news), I’m getting a lot of new faces,” Robinson said.

The Fisherman’s Net is in its sixth year of operation. The company gets its seafood from fishermen based out of Portland and up and down the Maine coast.