Boulder Bacon: A Guide to “Meat Candy”

BaconThe scene for Boulder bacon wasn’t even on my radar as a kid. When I was in high school, I lived in a predominantly vegetarian home. Both my mom and sister were vegetarians and the two best cooks in the household, so we ate veggie dishes most days. Except when bacon was involved. You see, my sister was a vegetarian with the important exception of bacon; she just couldn’t give it up. And who could blame her? And yeah, I know — that makes her not a vegetarian at all. And with Boulder having a thriving vegan population, you’d think that bacon (aka “meat candy”) might be hard to come by. Well, it’s not!

As the popularity of this magical meat served in bite-sized strips has grown over the years, it’s popped up on nearly every menu you can conjure. So it’s no surprise that you’ll find it in the foodie town of Boulder. Let me take you on a tour of Boulder bacon, from sun up to sun down.

Foolish Craig’s

Located right on the east end of Pearl Street, Foolish Craig’s was featured on the Food Network mainstay, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, for their BLT, which you can’t knock. However, I recommend starting your day off right with a bacon Bloody Mary and a Fried Chicken Benedict topped with bacon, tomato, and sausage gravy.

Walnut Café

With three locations in Boulder County, residents are treated to their scrumptious breakfast offerings downtown, in SoBo, and in Lafayette. Favorites at any Walnut Café location include Eggs Marcos; two scrambled eggs topped with bacon, cream cheese and melted cheddar. It seems like an odd pairing, but fans rave about the combo, so it’s worth a try.

Dot’s Diner on the Hill

You can’t say restaurants in Boulder without thinking of this historic restaurant right on the hill. Now, they may not have any fancy specialty dishes, but regulars swear by the healing power of their eggs, bacon, toast and coffee the day after a night of drinking.

The Attic

More than just an upstairs bar, The Attic offers some pretty tasty bacon burger options for lunch or dinner. For example, the Attic Burger, which is topped with provolone, grilled onions, smoked bacon and homemade BBQ sauce. The Jalapeno Bacon Burger is also high on the must try menu for bacon lovers.

Dark Horse

This dark little dive just off Baseline as you come into town from US 36 has been in the Boulder community for years, as has one of their more unusual menu items: The Jiffy Burger. That’s right, the Dark Horse has a burger topped with peanut butter, bacon and provolone. It might sound odd, but this bar was chosen by USA Today as one of the “places to eat a burger worthy of paradise,” and that’s nothing to wag your finger at.

Zolo Southwestern Grill

If you’re ready to take your bacon off the burger and have it engulf your food, you’ve got to have dinner at Zolo’s. Their Bacon Wrapped Chorizo Stuffed Dates will make you rethink the chewy little fruit as a possible must have on your last meal menu. In fact, Zolo’s featured bacon in some fairly unique ways including the Berkshire Pork Chop with habanero bacon jelly.

The Mediterranean

Speaking of wrapping things in bacon, if you haven’t tried the Bacon Wrapped Dates at The Med, you are missing out, my friend. Stop in some night for Happy Hour and tapas and order a plate to share. You’ll see what everyone else is raving about.

Cured

For a bacon (or any kind of meat, really) fix at any time of the day, you should definitely visit Cured. Between the smoked meats, gourmet cheeses and wine, you may find yourself slipping in a puddle of your own drool. You can get a sandwich at their deli counter or you can browse all of their specialty meats and cheeses at your leisure.

To be honest, this list is only a fraction of all of the great bacon in Boulder. To list them all would create an article so long that you may never finish. But that shouldn’t stop you from letting us know your favorite bacon bastion in Boulder in the comments.

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Kelly Tidd

Kelly Tidd

Unicorn lover and player hater. Total adventure junkie. Kelly Tidd has been a writer for most of her "adult" life and a freelance writer for three years. She focuses on blogging and website content optimization (a fancy way for saying she makes SEO copy look pretty).
Kelly Tidd

Kelly Tidd

Unicorn lover and player hater. Total adventure junkie. Kelly Tidd has been a writer for most of her "adult" life and a freelance writer for three years. She focuses on blogging and website content optimization (a fancy way for saying she makes SEO copy look pretty).

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