Soup weather is close enough to taste. The 21st Annual Blount Fine Foods SouthCoast Chowderfest and More runs Tuesday, October 6, 2026, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Rachel’s Lakeside in Dartmouth. If you’ve gone in past years, expect something different this time around.
What is SouthCoast Chowderfest?
The One SouthCoast Chamber hosts SouthCoast Chowderfest as an annual tasting event built around local food businesses. Your ticket covers unlimited samples of chowders, soups, handheld bites, baked goods, and desserts from restaurants, cafés, bakeries, caterers, food trucks, and specialty vendors around the region. Be Kind, Rewind plays live.
A new format for year 21
The chamber has widened the event past chowder alone. Previous editions ran as a daytime chowder festival at City Pier in New Bedford. This year it’s a Tuesday evening at a function hall in Dartmouth, with bakeries and dessert vendors sharing the room with the seafood.
Update your calendar as this event is now happening on a weeknight and at a different venue.
Who’s serving this year?
The chamber has published the vendor list, and it pulls from across the SouthCoast:
- Duke’s Bakery
- Room 251, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School
- Ten Cousins Brick Oven
- Galley Grille
- Merrill’s on the Waterfront
- 222 Restaurant and Bar
- Bittersweet Farm
- Global Learning Charter School
- Playa Bowls
- County Fare Too
- Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School
- Azul Catering & Events
- National Club
- The Black Whale
- Candela Cucina
- Cisco Kitchen + Bar
- Smashed NB
Two of those entries are student-run culinary programs. Room 251 is the full-service restaurant operated by students in Diman Regional’s Culinary Arts program in Fall River, and Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech runs its own Culinary Arts program. Seeing them on a list next to established restaurants is a nice thing.
Tickets, pricing, and timing
General admission runs $35. Kids ages 6 to 12 are $10, and children 5 and under get in free. Every ticket includes unlimited samples.
Tickets are non-refundable, so check your Tuesday before you buy. You can register through the One SouthCoast Chamber event page, and questions go to Katie Greene at the chamber.
Rachel’s Lakeside sits at 950 State Road in Dartmouth. Doors are at 4:30 and the event wraps at 8 p.m.
See you at Rachel’s Lakeside
Chowderfest is one of the better nights to see what the Dartmouth and New Bedford food scene is actually doing right now. Bring an appetite and pace yourself, because unlimited samples is a genuine commitment.
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