If there is a heaven and you arrive at the pearly gates around lunchtime, it’s likely they’ll be serving the PBLT from the Delta Diner. This heaping hunk of a sandwich is simple in concept but gargantuan in flavor. I’m salivating just thinking about this spectacular sammy.

The Delta Diner is a fun little spot in the middle of the northern Wisconsin woods with a quirky menu and amazingly attentive staff. They have quite a few bacon items on the menu but I opted to test out the PBLT (Perch – a local freshwater fish, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato) sandwich for this taste test.

I hesitate to be so bold, but on first bite the PBLT joined my all-time sandwich top five. The perch was fried with a light and tasty batter, the tomatoes were perfectly ripe, the lettuce was from-the-garden fresh, the bread lightly toasted, the secret sauce tangy, and the bacon – heavenly. The three think and perfectly cooked strips of bacon were smoked locally from Ashland, Wisconsin’s Sixth Street Market and some of the best bacon I’ve ever tasted…and I’ve tasted a heck of a lot of bacon. Lucky for me I live a few blocks for the Sixth Street Market — look for a profile of their bacon in the near future.

Bottom line, if you’re ever in Northern Wisconsin or Minnesota make your way to the Delta Diner. I hear there’s a bacon steak there that is a bacon lover’s dream come true. I’m grabbing my car keys now to go give it a try…

You may have seen the Denny’s Super Bowl ad (if you haven’t, we’ve saved you the trouble of looking for it and embedded the Denny’s Super Bowl commercial below). You can get FREE BACON on February 9, 2010 at Denny’s restaurants. Just go there and order a free Original Grand Slam® breakfast  between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. and get your fill of bacon for free!

Personally, I’d just eat the bacon…although those pancakes look mighty tasty too…

An icon of sorts in American restaurant lore, Denny’s has been a fixture for many a late night/early morning breakfast fix. Of course, many of those breakfast outings include bacon and this trip was no exception.

It was a quiet Saturday morning that looked like it would be another hot & sunny California day. A bunch of us were out on a weekend excursion to a local sporting event and decided to divert the trip to Denny’s for a quick breakfast.

Four of us sat down at the table and each of us ordered bacon with our meals. You’ll notice the photo only contains one order of bacon. Two measly slices. Why not snap a picture of all the bacon orders you ask? Well, at a table with 4 bacon lovers the bacon disappears rather quickly. Too quickly for this slow camera man on this occasion in fact.

Well, I successfully guarded my bacon from getting swiped by my hungry table mates and can say that Denny’s bacon is of a moderate quality. It’s tasty, but nothing special. The bacon is prepared well but not to the level of my usual liking. I definitely give Denny’s the benefit of the doubt here though. They prepare such a wide variety of breakfast items and make no claim of any sort regarding their bacon.

For a 24 hour a day bacon fix, Denny’s will always remain a top choice. So says Nick, who enjoyed his Denny’s bacon very much…

Our continued quest to find great bacon recently took us to New York City. Manhattan to be specific. Times Square to be even more specific.

We were with a bunch of other folks so there were many opinions on where to dine. I had to run back to the hotel to make a couple phone calls and send a few emails so I told the others to go ahead and choose a restaurant. Imagine my suprise when they called me to say “meet us at TGI Friday’s”. Of all the places in New York we could have gone, they chose a chain restaurant I could find in any city. I was not pleased.

When I finally dragged my grumpy self into TGI Friday’s, I was delighted to find a couple other bacon lovers at the table. These were new folks to the group that I hadn’t met previously, and when I ordered the best looking bacon item on the menu — BBQ Bacon Shrimp — the pro-bacon conversation ensued and the evening took a decidedly positive note.

When the food arrived, it was presented quite well on a colorful plate with mashed potatoes and onion rings. The shrimp were served on skewers and had a small piece of bacon tightly wrapped around each of the little buggers. The whole shebang was drenched in tasty barbecue sauce and made for a pretty decent meal.

We give the TGI Friday’s BBQ Bacon Shrimp a Smaste™ rating of 26.102. I wouldn’t go out of my way to find a TGI Friday’s to order this meal, but if I was dragged to the restaurant again I wouldn’t be too saddened to order this meal.

This week Bacon Today wandered around Los Angeles in search of great places to eat bacon. We wound up at a little gem of a restaurant that every bacon lover should seek out if they’re in the L.A. area — Howard’s Famous Bacon & Avocado Burgers.

The restaurant is tiny, the decor is bland, and the location is less than ideal. None of that mattered since we were there for was the food. We ordered up a few burgers and settled ourselves into one of the 5 booths in the small place.

The burgers arrived looking spectacular. Fresh lettuce, tomatoes, & buns. A dab of mayo. Perfectly ripened avocado, a big juicy beef patty, and crispy bacon.

The bacon itself was thick, well-prepared, and extremely tasty. After tasting the bacon, the burger was reassembled and the first bite was taken. This meal earns a  Smaste™ rating of 37.999. Highly recommended.

Howard’s is a must-stop spot for any bacon lover heading through the Los Angeles area. Its one of those places that you just have to say “yeah, I’ve eaten there”. Make sure you bring your cash though, as Howard’s doesn’t take credit cards.

Howard’s Famous Bacon & Avocado Burgers
11127 Venice Blvd Ste 7
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 838-9111

VIEW MAP

I have no words to describe this. The photo represents a section of a wall mural at the Costa Mesa Omelette Parlor.

Go there yourself, eat a hearty bacon breakfast, and marvel at the Pig in a Thong painting.

We travel a lot and everywhere we go we try to seek out the best bacon in town. On a recent trip to the midwest, I was able to stop in quite a few places in Minnesota and Wisconsin to taste some great bacon meals.

One spot in particular really blew me away with the tastiness & quality was Aces on 29th in Superior, WI. With 9 items featuring bacon on the menu this was the kind of place that Bacon Today lives for, but the famous Charburger® was what really solidified Aces on 29th as a must-stop destination anytime I’m in the northern midwest.

The Charburger® got its start in around 1961 at the legendary regional drive through restaurant Nick’s Burger King in Duluth, Minnesota. The last Nick’s closed in 2002, but now with Aces on 29th the Charburger® legend lives on. With its 1/3 lb. all-beef burger, melted Swiss cheese, carmelized onions, kosher pickels, ketchup reduction sauce, and sesame bun, this burger is done to perfection. Add a couple thick slices of crispy smoked bacon for $1 and you’ve got a heavenly treat for any bacon lover.

When the burger arrived at the table it looked fabulous and was served with seasoned waffle fries.

I opened the burger and saw near perfection in bacon burger creation. As we always do when testing bacon meals, I broke off a small piece of bacon and tasted it before the rest of the burger. The crispy, thick sliced bacon was incredible and I quickly dove in to the complete meal.

The complete burger and fries were awesome. The combination of the Charburger’s smokey taste and the thick smoked bacon was a perfect match. The meal earns a Smaste™ rating of 42.998. This burger will be hard to beat.

If you’re ever near Superior, WI do yourself a favor and head over to Aces on 29th and add bacon to your burger.

Founded in 1959, the Tallyrand restaurant in Burbank, CA is a landmark known to many for quality home cooking and an interesting mix of regular customers. When I took my dad here for lunch the other day, we sat on the patio between a hardcore biker, a family returning from a wedding (apparently the food at the reception wasn’t as good as the Tallyrand’s), and a couple film students planning their next project.

I spied my next meal as soon as I opened the menu. An egg salad with bacon sandwich. Sounded like an intriguing twist on a traditional summer sandwich for this bacon lover. I ordered it on toasted white bread and wondered just what the Tallyrand had in store for me.

When the meal arrived I was definitely not disappointed. As any true bacon connoisseur does, I removed the top of the sandwich to inspect the quality and distribution of the meat. Just take a look at that picture — thick, crispy, and completely covering the lettuce. I was impressed.

From the first bite to the last the bacon and egg salad sandwich from the Tallyrand restaurant was a clear winner. The quality of the bacon was top-notch and it was cooked to perfection. The salty bacon played well off the Tallyrand’s tangy egg salad recipe. The Smaste™ rating for this sandwich comes in at a hearty 43.785.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area and love bacon, take a drive over to the Tallyrand and order the bacon and egg salad sandwich. Still not convinced? Read some other people’s opinions on Yelp.

Tallyrand Restuarant
1700 W Olive Avenue
Burbank, CA 91506

Writer Jeff Cox waxes poetically in a recent article on San Francisco’s Murray Circle restaurant and chef Joseph Humphrey in a recent article for the Press Democrat. He recalls the days gone by of canons protecting the Golden Gate Bridge. Then Jeff gets to the meat of the review:

“Wild Sturgeon from the Columbia River in Washington is rolled into a cylinder, wrapped in thin strips of smoked bacon, grilled in a wood fired oven, and served with creamy morel mushrooms.”

Sounds like an amazing meal and for $18 well worth the trip to San Francisco. Next time I’m there — I’m ordering this meal!

Read the original review

–Mr. B.