Bakn

Like most carnivores, I really like bacon. Fatty, full-flavored, and usually with a seductive smoky-sweet edge, it is pork at its finest. Traditionally, it has been served in relatively small quantities so that I never get enough, adding a certain appeal of rarity to its intrinsic deliciousness. In recent years bacon has become more popular than red velvet cake — a virtual food fetish that gets expressed in such outlandish items as bacon milk shakes and bacon cookies. I have even smelled bacon cologne!

I wonder: Does bacon’s profusion diminish its appeal? Is its allure partly due to the fact that it almost always is in short supply? A restaurant that calls itself Bakn is a good place to research this question. The baconcentric menu goes from bacon-decorated Bloody Marys to bacon-bourbon ice cream and features a BLT that is made with a full pound of bacon. I love the idea of that sandwich. The grilled sourdough on which it’s made, the mayo-dressed arugula in lieu of iceberg lettuce, the bright slices of tomato all are good. And the bacon tastes fine. However, a thick pile of thin-sliced strips, which are flabby-soft and not the least bit crisp, becomes — dare I say it? — fairly monotonous midway through. Quantity is over-the-top, but quality is something less than that. Oh, I will order this sandwich again, no doubt about that; but on the table in my heaven, the BLT will have fewer, thicker strips with a bit of crunch.

Waitress Becca steers me away from too-cute bacon-bourbon vanilla ice cream for dessert, suggesting instead that I try chocolate chip cookies. One order is three huge ones — enough for a table full of people. They come with a dish of chocolate syrup for dipping. Not elegant, but quite satisfying, especially while still warm. The cookie that I brought back to my hotel room for breakfast the next day was less appealing dried out at room temperature.