Ah, bacon -- the candy of the meat family! We’ve rounded up the best of the best uses (and there are many) of this king of pork products, starting with breakfast and moving all the way through dessert. Bacon makes any dish better, so if we missed any of your faves, share them in the comments as you find yourself wishing this was a scratch-and-sniff story.
Peanut Butter Bacon Pop-Tart
Ted’s Bulletin (address and info)
14th Street
Strawberry Pop-Tarts are cool and all, because they tend to catch fire, but peanut butter bacon is definitely the pinnacle of Pop-Tart flavors. Sorry Kellogg's! If the King of Rock and Roll were still alive, he’d start every day with two of these. Maybe with some banana sandwiched in between. Hmm... ideas!
The Patriot
Red Apron Butcher (address and info)
Penn Quarter
Entrusting the meat masterminds behind Red Apron with your breakfast order is a strong move. Nathan Anda and Ed Witt created The Patriot -- a bacon, egg, and cheese housed inside the restaurant’s Italian-style specialty bread called a tigelle. A brush of maple butter makes it even better. Get one Mon-Fri 7:30-10:30am and weekends from 9am-2pm.
Yuengling Bacon Bloody Mary
Cafe Deluxe (address and info)
West End
This place is so new you can still smell the paint. And bacon. You can smell bacon. Be one of the first to try their Bloody made with top-secret Bloody Mary mix, a splash of beer from the country’s oldest brewery, vodka, and olives stuffed with blue cheese and applewood-smoked bacon. Stir it up with an actual piece of bacon.
Bacon & Onion Flammekueche
Mintwood Place (address and info)
Adams Morgan
While it sounds like some kind of cousin to a post-sneeze gesundheit, a flammekueche is actually an Alsatian word for a thinly rolled tart that’s been kissed by flames. Mintwood Place Chef Cedric Maupillier tops his with sweet and tangy bacon and onion. It’s thin enough to eat two, and you can order it at dinner or brunch. Or TWO of them at dinner and brunch
Bruno’s Big Kid
Sona Creamery and Wine Bar (address and info)
Eastern Market
You should already be crushing on Sona’s mac and cheese-stuffed sandwich. But, once homemade bacon jam enters the picture, it goes to a whole different level. Take your knife and carefully spread this meat marmalade on the top of each sandwich half and get ready for a bite of the most nap-inducing sandwich of your life.
Bacon Lollis
Founding Farmers (address and info)
Foggy Bottom/Potomac, MD
If a stranger offers you a bacon lolli, screw what your parents taught you and say yes. Definitely say yes. Cinnamon brown sugar-glazed thick-cut bacon on a stick is the world’s most perfect snack. Try them at lunch or dinner at both Founding Farmers locations. Bonus: there’s a hell of a lot more bacon on the menu.
Bacon-Wrapped Peaches
The Pig (address and info)
14th Street
Devils on Horseback, the quintessential ‘70s party food, just got a Summer makeover. Instead of dates, The Pig serves bacon-wrapped peaches. They’re drizzled with Rogue's smokey blue cheese, chili-infused maple syrup, and a sprinkle of pistachios. They come three to an order, so place 10+ orders. Trust us.
PorKorn
Bayou Bakery (address and info)
Arlington, VA (Courthouse)
You’re going to want to sneak this bag of happiness into the movies via your girlfriend’s oversized purse. See, that purse DOES come in handy. PorKorn is a creation of David Guas, the Baron of the Bayou. He takes sticky caramel popcorn and stirs in bits of bacon and peanuts, all for your snacking pleasure.
Cuban Sandwich
Epic Smokehouse (address and info)
Pentagon City
Sure, Cuban sandwich recipes have always contained a lot of pork -- typically of the ham and roasted varieties. But Epic Smokehouse triples up by adding some smoky bacon into the mix, joining pulled pork, grilled ham, smoked cheese, whole grain mustard, and sliced pickles between two slices of pressed bread. You'll vow never to suffer through a bacon-free Cuban again.
Poutine Tots
GCDC (address and info)
Foggy Bottom
This is the kind of dish an inmate would request for his last meal (a food-savvy inmate, anyway). Flying saucer-shaped tots are topped Canadian-style with cheese curds and gravy, plus generous helpings of bacon and mushrooms. It’s a bowl of everything you ever wanted. Which is why it has bacon.
CEBLT Po-Boy
Pearl Dive Oyster Palace (address and info)
14th Street
This list wouldn’t be complete without a BLT. Pearl Dive’s version of this classic requires a knife and fork though, because they throw in C for fried catfish and E for egg. Even with all that going on, the Benton’s bacon remains the star of the show.
Wild Mushroom Mussels
Brasserie Beck (address and info)
Mt. Vernon Square
The "Wild Mushroom" variety of black bivalves at Brasserie Beck unites applewood-smoked bacon and truffle cream in a quest to teach your tongue what perfection tastes like. You’re going to need an order of frites or two to soak up the chowdery goodness at the bottom of the pot.
Sweetbreads and Waffles
Vidalia (address and info)
Golden Triangle
Vidalia’s chicken-fried veal sweetbreads sitting atop a waffle with bacon fondue and a lemon caper veal jus is so good you’ll forget you’re eating thyroid. The bacon fondue is almost like a Campbell’s cream of bacon soup, if there were such a thing. There SHOULD be such a thing.
Bacon Bourbon Float
The Diner (address and info)
Adams Morgan
Shake things up at The Diner by ordering a root beer float spiked with Jim Beam and topped with bacon crumbles. Maybe all vanilla ice cream should be flecked with bacon? Maybe whiskey and bacon are a match made in heaven? These are the kinds of questions you should be asking as you suck down this shake.
Boozy Breakfast Cupcake
Crunkcakes (address and info)
This 21+ treat contains about a shot of liquor and a whole lot of bacon. The "Boozy Breakfast" Crunkcakes creation is a bacon cupcake infused with Cabin Fever Maple Whiskey and topped with a buttercream frosting chock-full of the same whiskey. Win just about any dinner party by showing up with these. Pick them up at Black Market located on the first floor of Black Whiskey Wed-Thur 2-9pm and Fri-Sun 12-9pm.
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1. The Diner
2453 18th St NW, Washington -
2. Ted's Bulletin
1818 14th St NW, Washington -
3. Red Apron Butcher
709 D St NW, Washington -
4. Cafe Deluxe
2200 M St NW, Washington -
5. Mintwood Place
1813 Columbia Rd NW, Washington -
6. Sona Creamery & Wine Bar
660 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington -
7. Founding Farmers
1924 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington -
8. The Pig
1320 14th St NW , Washington -
9. Bayou Bakery
1515 North Courthouse Rd, Arlington -
10. Epic Smokehouse
1330 S Fair St, Arlington -
11. GCDC
1730 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington -
12. Pearl Dive Oyster Palace and Black Jack
1612 14th St NW, Washington DC -
13. Brasserie Beck
1101 K St NW, Washington -
14. Vidalia
1990 M St NW, Washington
Their motto is "Serving early birds, night owls, and everyone in between!" and with mouth-watering options like their Reuben Benedict, jalapeño bacon burger, and even a bacon bourbon ice cream float (!), it seems like the folks at The Diner are doing their job just fine.
Why choose between vices like ice cream and alcohol when you can indulge in both at once? At Ted's Bulletin, "adult milkshakes" are a crowd favorite -- towering glasses of blended home-made ice cream spiked with things like peppermint schnapps, Irish cream and coconut rum. And for those who can stomach more than a boozy shake, the D.C. mainstay offers a full menu of morning and afternoon eats. Best known for its brunch, the place boasts home-made pop tarts, hefty egg plates, and a "Walk Of Shame Burrito," stuffed with sausage, cheese and hash-browns. The trendy, leather-booth-lined space is equally as appealing as the entrées (and equally instragrammable), and the bar offers plenty of coffee, and a traditional cocktail menu, for when the dairy-liquor combo doesn't necessarily appeal.
Start with a quality butcher that's got all the meats and provisions you could ask for, add a delicious menu of specialty breakfast and lunch sandwiches, mix in some coffee from Ceremony, and you've got yourself Red Apron Butcher. Speaking of their breakfast sandwiches, all of them are served on tigelle -- a tasty Italian flatbread reminiscent of an English muffin -- and come in varieties that you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in DC, like the Southern Comfort with tasso ham, egg, and spicy pimento cheese.
Hit up Cafe Deluxe for hearty and well-executed American classics, like a braised spare rib or chicken pot pie, and be sure to try out their weekend brunch where you can back up your crab Benedict with a Yuengling Bacon Bloody Mary.
The Mintwood Place is an American Restaurant that has an "Oregon Trail" vibe thanks to the wagon wheels on the wall, wood on the tables and bars, and cast iron gears. Pull a chair up to the bar for some draft beer or try any of the delectable tastes on the menu, including the cast iron chicken w/ cippolini shepherd's pie.
This bistro that prides itself on its cheese selection and the decadent mac and cheese that you can either enjoy as a side or stuffed into the Bruno's Big Kid sandwich. If you go the side route, opt for the Sona burger as your main and thank us after you've bitten into a creation with caramelized onions, Scharfe Maxx, aioli, and bibb lettuce. We'll wait.
This spot was doing farm-to-table before it was even cool; enjoy your tasty, sustainable, family-farmed eats in a LEED-certified setting that's as green as the food.
From the folks behind Logan Tavern and The Heights, The Pig's got a pork-focused sharing menu and a rustic, general store feel: Frederick-sourced barn wood walls, and an entire bar made from a huge butcher's block, so -- chop chop! -- get to drinking on it.
Stop by this inventive bakery for the likes of Southern-inflected vittles (biscuits, candied pecans, muffalettas) and inventive treats like boozy popsicles.
Short ribs get New Age-y with Asian radish and a wasabi cream sauce, and pork loin gets flipped with a Patron XO-based sauce, while traditionalists can still cop apple wine-glazed baby back ribs or a beer- & herb-roasted bird called the "Beer Belly Chicken", who would totally go out and burn that thing off if he wasn't so cooped up all day.
What's better than perfectly cooked grilled cheeses (like the Kim-Cheese-Steak or The Grilled Carbonara) popping out of the ovens at GCDC? The fact that you can also get tater tot poutine AND a drink from their full-service bar at the same time.
Who says you can't play bocce while shooting oysters and sipping seasonal craft cocktails? Enjoy the Southern hospitality and the rustic, ancient mariner-inspired interior, while the chef shucks the best mollusks the East and West Coasts have to offer. They also have a solid happy hour with vodka martinis and a wine list with plenty of bottles that'll pair just right with your shelled snacks.
From noted chef Robert Wiedmaier comes the European-style Brasserie Beck in McPherson Square. Brews include classic Belgian styles like dubbels, tripels, and saisons, while eats count options like a ratatouille crepe, classic steak frites with bearnaise and bordelaise, and Maine lobster pappardelle. Maine is notably not in Belgium, but doesn't that sound damn good?
Led by James Beard Award-winner Jeff Buben, this upscale restaurant in Downtown DC dresses up comforting Southern cuisine with Buben's famous shrimp & grits and reimagined dishes like chicken-fried veal sweetbreads, which sit atop a waffle with bacon fondue and lemon caper veal jus.