Pepper stumps at Price Hill Chili -- hold the chili

Councilman David Pepper lunches at Price Hill Chili today with (clockwise) high school friend William Paxton, Price Hill civic Club President Pete Witte and Yale Law School buddy Josh Galper.

What is there left to say about Price Hill Chili and West Side voters that hasn't become a cliche?

Here's one: an East Side candidate goes to PHC, shakes hands with a few voters, and orders a burger. (Not just any burger, but a modified Big Sam -- a double-decker with mushroom sauce.)

That's what Councilman David Pepper did this afternoon, after stopping by a few tables to talk to voters about changing City Hall, the Halloween night shooting in East Price Hill and (of course) an occasional "Who Dey?" After all, Price Hill Chili is the kind of neighborhood restaurant where it's considered rude not to stop by at other tables to discuss Elder football, parish politics, or who you ran into at Kroger's the other day.

As Pepper ate lunch with prominent Price Hill Republican Pete Witte, owner Sam Beltsos passed out flyers for Witte's POWR PAC -- telling customers, "Here is the ticket that's going to save Western Hills."

In the other room, Republican council candidates John Eby and Leslie Ghiz also ate sandwiches with campaign workers, as did Charterite Jim Tarbell later on.

But Eby -- who is to Price Hill Chili what Norm Peterson was to Cheers -- didn't do any campaigning at all. "I live here," he said.