Suz in the City: BACONFEST 2012: Read all about it!

This is a Baconfest 2012 Recap.

Yes, you read that correctly, Baconfest.
On April 14th, Over 100 Restaurants, Bars, and Vendors teamed up to delight Chicagoans with a feast of bacon-inspired dishes and drinks. A two-part day consisting of a lunch and dinner menu separately, some of the best Chicago restaurants brought their a-game (or B-game if you will) to the UIC Forum.

Ticket ($75) holders could attend either the lunch or dinner session for unlimited dishes and were also allotted 5 drink tickets.

I attended the lunch event, which lasted for 3 hours! I confess that I tried nearly 80% of the dishes, as it was hard to both resist and finish some dishes. While I cannot recount every single dish, there were some winners that stuck out in my mind. I also tried to take pictures of what I did not consumer immediately within 2 seconds.

Susan's Best Picks for Baconfest 2012 (Lunch):

Best dessert: Alright, this category comes first because I have quite the sweet tooth. Even though there weren't too many dessert choices, there were enough that gave me a struggle when picking the winner.

1st place: May St. Cafe's Double-chocolate flan with cherry-smoked bacon

This dessert was a delightful surprise. The mini chocolate flan relieved the belly full of salty bacon that was starting to bog me down. It was not as gelatinous as some traditional flans-- it was smooth, cool, and creamy.

Runner-up: Chicago q's Smoked Bacon Baklava

This was one of the first dishes I popped in my mouth. It was rich and quite greasy, but the added bacon really made this dish stand out.

Honorable mentions: Nosh This, The Bacon Lady

Best savory dish: There were copious amounts of sandwiches, strips of bacon, and chunks of meat floating around the forum, but I think I came up with a winner...

1st place: Frontier's Bacon-wrapped peppadew pepper

This was a hard one. There were a lot of BBQ joints here and it's hard to mess up BBQ, so I chose Frontier's dish because it was a bit against the grain, and I love me some SPICE!

Burger Bar
Pork Palooza Burger

Runner Up: Burger Bar's Pork Palooza Burger

You can't argue with a burger, less a burger WITH a piece of bacon on top. Perfection.

Flo and Santos
Peppered bacon-wrapped pork wing

Honorable Mentions: Flo and Santos, Signature Room

Signature Room
Bacon- wrapped rabbit loin

Best side: Bacon can be infused into just about anything, and there were several places that mastered the side dish really well.

1st place: Cafes De Architectes' Bacon Mac n Cheese Bites

I have not been wowed by mac and cheese lately. It's made its way onto many upscale menus but the cheese taste falls flat and it leaves me just wanting a cup of good ole fashioned Kraft blue box. However, these creamy bites turned me on to mac n cheese again!

*Places to get good mac n cheese: The Southern, The Bedford, Smoke Daddy
Runner Up: West Town Tavern's Bourbon-Bacon Caramel Corn
Yum and quite the hefty sample. Plus, the owner's name is Susan Goss-- you know it's good!

Honorable Mentions: Hearty, The Bristol

Though we had drink tickets, I had no room except for a few ounces of my favorite Michigan Brewery, Greenbush! They brought their best beers and gave plentiful pours. If you ever go to Sawyer, MI or see them on a menu in Chicago (places like Haymarket in the West Loop), get the Black IPA.
Of course, there were bacon bloody marys all around and some gin and vodka drinks, but I came for the bacon and boy did I feel like a pig when I left!

Will I do it again next year? Maybe. However, my 'restaurants to try' list is even bigger now thanks to Baconfest 2012!

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