Juneau’s Baconfest brings together local culinary talent to manipulate America’s beloved pork product. Bacon-infused ice cream, popcorn and cocktails are a few dishes attendees can taste on Saturday at the annual fundraiser.
The sound of slicing bacon is not quite what you’d expect to hear in the kitchen of an ice cream parlor. But Baconfest requires local restaurants to get inventive with the crispy breakfast-staple.
Coppa is a coffee shop specializing in homemade ice cream. Co-owner Marc Wheeler and staff are serving up a candy cap mushroom-flavored ice cream with six pounds of sliced, candied bacon mixed into the custard.
“Ice cream is kind of a medium that can be bent and twisted and done all sorts of things with,” Wheeler says.
Coppa’s head cook Isaac Stern begins the process by grinding up the candy cap mushrooms. He then whisks the grinded mushrooms into a simmering pot of sweet custard. The mushrooms have a similar flavor compound as maple syrup. Once dissolved into the custard, Stern says their natural sweetness will complement the salty bacon.
“You can buy all kinds of flavors in jars, buy flavors in cans, and it’s not real flavor,” Stern says. “This is something made in nature that we’re putting into it. It symbolizes our need to use the environment.”
Coppa is one of 20 vendors to make bacon-inspired dishes for the 400 Juneau residents to attend Baconfest. This is the shop’s first year participating in the competition.
The annual fundraiser originated three years ago when the Juneau Glacier Valley Rotary Club was looking for a new, unique way of raising money. Baconfest co-chair Mandy Massey says the event is an outlet for restaurants to experiment.
“We’ve been so surprised by items that we would regularly never see out there,” Massey says. “These people, these professionals just keep coming up with incredible, creative items. It’s just an explosion of flavors.”
Massey says the event sold out a full week before Saturday. Attendees vote for their favorite bacon dishes in separate ‘sweet’ and ‘savory’ categories. The vendor with the most votes receives an advertising package from Juneau Radio Center valued up to $1,000.
Venietia Santana, owner of V’s Cellar Door, came in third place last year for her bacon wonton dish made with smoked Alaskan halibut. This year, she’s combining 4-5 different types of bacon into a dish that will include savory smoked fruits and bacon soaked in duck fat.
“I wanted to push the envelope even further, and see what exactly we could do with bacon,” Santana says.
The Rookery Cafe took first prize last year and returns to defend its title against other vendors including Alaska Fudge Company, Devil’s Hideaway, and Abby’s Kitchen and Bakery.
But no matter who wins, everybody at Baconfest brings home the bacon.