Bacon & Beer Festival

So January 2nd, around 2:30 in the afternoon, I get a text from my husband with a link to an article in the local paper written about a new festival coming to town that features Bacon and Beer that will occur February 16th. Those two things are probably in my husband's top 10 favorite things in the world (along with our son and tacos, of course)! There wasn't a whole lot of information in this article besides that it's an event for 21 and over, will feature “thousands of pounds of bacon and more than 100 craft beers from local and national breweries”.

A base ticket was $30 in advance and $35 at the door and included:
– admission for 7pm-10pm
– Pint Glass
– all bacon and beer samples

A VIP ticket was $65 in advance and $70 at the door and included:
– admission for 6pm-10pm
– Pint Glass
– VIP gift (which ended up being a high-quality coaster with a built-in bottle opener)
– Exclusive BLT bar
– Exclusive Bloody Mary bar
– all bacon and beer samples

We also learned that there would be a bacon-eating contest, live music, related games, and awards for Best Bacon Dish and Best Brewery.

One thing I thought was an amazing idea that I haven't seen any other beer festival in town implement was a discounted (around half price) designated driver ticket for people that wanted to come and just sample bacon. I think all the other festivals should take note and follow suit!

Here's how the festival went!
I decided to buy two VIP tickets for my husband and myself and surprise him with them as a Valentine's present. He was so excited because I made him think that we weren't going. They definitely weren't cheap. I ended up spending $154.10 after fees and taxes. I was able to get our tickets on my phone with the Ticketmaster app.

Since we got the VIP tickets, we were able to get in at 6pm. Not knowing how many VIP tickets were for sale/sold, we wanted to show up early to get a parking spot in the parking garage located right next to the venue. We arrived around 5:40 and made our way to front entrance to wait in line. We were within the first 10 people that arrived so it clearly wasn't necessary to arrive too early. I'm not sure why they chose to do things this way, but they sent a couple people out to ID all the people waiting outside in the cold and didn't end up letting the VIPs in until around 6:10.

After we entered, we made our way down to the floor. We knew we wanted to get as many samples as we could before General Admission arrived. And boy are we glad we did. We ended up getting our last few samples around the same time that they opened the doors for everyone else.

We were so full after consuming so much beer and food in such a short amount of time. There were samples of drinks that weren't beer as well including Kinky brand bottled drinks and Not Your Father brand drinks. Food samples included pulled pork sliders, bacon donuts, bacon wrapped chorizo filled dates, bacon wrapped duck, bacon wrapped sausages with 6 sauces to choose from, bacon cheddar chips topped with nacho cheese and bacon, and bacon scones.

During VIP:

After GA started:

The main floor got full fast so we headed up to the VIP lounge where they had an unlimited BLT bar. There were 4 or 5 different kinds of bacon set out, a cheese tray, what looked like toasted slices of baguette, chopped lettuce, and chopped tomatoes.

There was also a Bloody Mary bar. Each VIP ticket holder received 2 tickets for this which could either be used to make 2 Bloody Marys or 1 double. You got the choice of regular or cucumber vodka, the choice of original, loaded, or hot & spicy Bloody Mary mix, and a large selection of “toppings” including bacon, lots of different salt options, celery, pickles, pearl onions, and so much more!

There were a couple places where they had bags/cornhole set up to play including 2 sets in the VIP lounge. Since there was nowhere to sit in the VIP lounge, we took our drinks and food and sat in the stands for a little while. Then we made our way back down to the floor to get seconds of stuff we really liked the first time around!

There was live music during the entire event. It was nothing overly entertaining, but it was great for background noise. Online, it had said there would be a bacon-eating contest, but we never did see it or hear annything about it.

At the end of the night, we got our pint glasses. They're great! And it will be an awesome reminder from the night.

Ending Thoughts: Even though they were a little pricey, we will definitely be getting the VIP tickets every time we go to this event. After having them, I can't even imagine NOT having them. We saw how busy it was and were very thankful to have had that hour with no lines.

Vacation: Eating our way around the World in Epcot

Then we started our journey to eat ourselves around the world.

Our first stop was New Zealand where we had a lamb meatball with spicy tomato chutney and Nobilo Icon Pinot Noir. The meatball was moist but there was too much chutney and it wasn't very spicy.

Then we went to Mexico where we ate a barbacoa enchilada (corn tortilla filled with beef barbacoa and covered with oaxaca mole). The mole was very spicy. The enchilada was well seasoned.

Then we went to China where we ate chicken pot stickers. The sauce was a little sweet for my taste, but overall, it was good.

Then we went to South Korea where we ate Korean-style BBQ beef with steamed rice and cucumber kimchi. The cucumber kimchi had a very mild taste so even I, who does not like kimchi, enjoyed it. The acid from the kimchi complimented the meat well. The meat was tender and flavorful.

Then we went to Africa where we ate berbere-style beef tenderloin tips with onions, jalapenos, tomato and pap. I don't really like pap. It's bland. The jalapenos made the dish very spicy. It seemed like there wasn't a lot of meat compared to the number of other things in the dish.

Then we went to Germany where we ate an apple strudel with vanilla sauce. It was great. It is exactly what I would expect from any German bakery. It wasn't too sweet like some desserts tend to be.

Then we went to Poland where we ate kielbasa and a potato pierogi with caramelized onions and sour cream. Everything was very flavorful. The kielbasa had good caramelization. The pierogi tasted great. There were just too many onions for the size of dish.

Then we went to Italy where we ate cannolis al cioccolata (chocolate-covered cannoli filled with sweet ricotta). I absolutely adore cannolis. They were so good. We ended up buying 2 because there was no way I splitting one of those small cannolis amongst 4 people.

Then we went to Japan where we ate a spicy sushi roll (tuna and salmon with kazan volcano sauce). I personally did not eat any of it because I don't like sushi, but my mom and husband really seamed to enjoy it. My husband said the sauce wasn't as spicy as he was expecting it to be.

Then we went to Morocco where we ate chocolate baklava (rolled phyllo dough with toasted almonds and dark chocolate sauce). This is one of my husband's favorite dishes. We were not disappointed. It wasn't too sweet. There was good spice to it. I would eat it again.

Then we went to Belgium where we ate beer-braised beef served with smoked gouda mashed potatoes. I love a good mashed potato and these were seriously good. The beef was pretty good too, but I will rant and rave about these potatoes.

Then we went to France where we ate crème brulee caramel chocolat (caramel and chocolate crème brulee topped with caramelized sugar). The chocolate in this dish was a little on the bitter side for me, but I enjoyed it.

Then we went to Scotland where we ate a traditional Scottish lamb stew with neeps and tatties. I don't really like neeps, but the tatties were good. The lamb was tender. We enjoyed it.

Then we went to Canada where we ate a wild mushroom beef filet mignon with truffle-butter sauce and Neige premiere 'apple ice wine'. My husband had a really large complaint with this one and I have to agree with him. It was too small. The steak was so good. If you go to Le Cellier, order the full-sized portion of this dish. It was that good. The apple ice wine was really good as well. Again, the only complaint was the size. The cup we got was easily 1/3 the size of the glass of wine mom got earlier in the day.

And finally, we went to the Refreshment Port where we ate a croissant doughnut with cinnamon sugar and a pineapple Dole whip soft-serve ice cream. The croissant doughnut was seriously flaky, covered in cinnamon sugar, and amazing to eat. I think my son ate like half of it. I have a major complaint with all the people that write blog posts. I tried the Dole whip and it wasn't good. I didn't love it. I only ate it because I felt like I had to. I don't care how much of a staple it is, don't get it. It was just bad (but that's just my opinion).