Bacon is a big deal right now. Hipsters love it.
Places known for bacon:
There is also:
- Bacon Tuesday at the A's game on MLB.com
- A Damn Fine Bacon Club
-
a Bacon block that's unrelated to the meat (see article)
Why the rise of bacon? One working theory is that it's part of the changes happening across the Bay Area relating to the tech industry and capital. In short, the logic is that the increase in investment in the tech industry creates a demand for programmer labor, the programmer labor that the mainstream tech industry is willing to employ tends to be younger and male, therefore there are more younger men with money in the Bay Area these days, and as a result, these younger men create a trickle-down effect where local businesses that provide services that younger men are willing to spend money on are thriving. The argument is that this is at least a part of the reason why fairly expensive meaty, bacony, burgery, "all-americany," "taverny" restaurants are thriving across the Bay Area. In "The Bacon-Wrapped Economy," a Mar. 2013 article in the East Bay Express, author Ellen Cushing writes "The restaurant world, too, has been indelibly changed by the influx of young men with money into the urban Bay Area." and "And it's not even just about where the restaurants are, it's about what they serve and how. Kristen Capella, general manager at AQ, which is located a few blocks from Twitter's new headquarters in the burgeoning tech district now dubbed Mid-Market, said the interest in limited-edition spirits and high-end meat is being driven, in part, by tech: "I'm seeing a much higher demand for private whiskey tastings and stuff like that. They know about the limited availability and are willing to pay for it. I get some really good customers from Twitter who dine out three times a day, and they're very savvy." A tech employee was a bit more blunt: "I mean, there's a reason all the expensive restaurants in SF are doing fried chicken and sandwiches right now.""
Of course, that only applies to some of the newer (often more expensive) restaurants popping up. Many bacon spots in Oakland predate this phenomenon and function almost entirely outside of it.
