Tickets were sold out within the first day of sale, the very first Baconfest came to Chicago in April. I was sat in Atlanta airport waiting for my flight back to Chicago in February and I got a text from Tim saying "Fancy going to a Baconfest in April?" my reply was "You really need to ask?! I'm in." We love bacon.
Our friend Steve had been to a preliminary run in the Fall at The Publican. They asked a bunch of guest chefs to cooks a bacon-oriented dish and it was up to the audience to taste and judge the best. It was such a success they organised a fully fledged Baconfest for the spring.
For $45, you could choose from the morning shift (11am to 2pm) or the afternoon shift (3pm to 6pm). There would be 12 chefs from local restaurants, with their bacon-inspired dishes. You also got a goody bag, drink tickets and access to the downstairs vendor area.
Some sample dishes:
Bacon Tacos with Ramp salsa and truffle cabbage - The Primehouse.
Vanilla Bacon Icecream with Ahi Amarillo caramel and a Curry Bacon Crumble (YES! Bacon icecream!) - Chalkboard
Spring Pea Bacon and Pecorino Salad - The Purple Pig (one of my favourites)
Pork Belly Frisee Salad with Soft Boiled Quail Egg - Balsan (this WAS my favourite)
Bacon snickers Bar and Bacon Cappuccino - Atwood Cafe. (By all accounts this was really good, but they'd run out by the time we got there :()
At the bar there was:
Bloody Mary - with bacon in it...
And... Bacon Vodka Milkshake...
Bacon flavoured popcorn, chocolate covered bacon, bacon cupcakes.... to name just a few. There was also an awesome array of bacon-inspired board games, jewelry (?!) and action figures.
There were a few die-hard bacon fans sporting some awesome t-shirts too:
For the first few dishes I said "This is genius, and a bargain.....". Tell you what, after all of that I was feeling pretty yuk. When you walked into the room there was literally a wall of bacon fat air that hit you... So lack of air was a bit of a downfall. It would be awesome if it was outside next year in a street vendor style. Also, I didn't even get to try everything as lots of the chefs had run out of their dish pretty quickly. But, for the first year, it was an awesome experience. Sign me up for next year!
