Bacon

Bacon
4175 North Goldwater Blvd
Scottsdale, AZ

Confession time: Depending on how far in advance I am aware of a customer engagement, I might do some on-line checks of the restaurant near the hotel/workplace. Sometimes, of course, it does not work that way. However, for this trip, while checking nearby restaurants, I found Bacon. At that point, I told myself: I HAVE to go there! I mean, I like pork and, with a restaurant name like this, why shouldn’t I?

Now, this place wasn’t that close to the hotel but still well inside my “walking distance” threshold. I did some scouting the previous night to have an idea of where it was located (as they were only open for breakfast and lunch but too far for lunch) and… I couldn’t find it. I was crushed/disappointed, as I really wanted to go there. When I went back to the hotel, I checked the address again – It happens that I missed a final turn. Yoohoo! Now there was no turning around, huahahahahaha!

Since I had to go back to the hotel to pick-up my stuff and then to work, I made sure I was there early enough. Translation: I arrived a couple of minutes after they opened and ended up being their first customer of the day. How do I know I was the first one? Well, they said it themselves! And, what seemed to be a common theme of restaurants in the area, I could sit anywhere and I chose the only table that was “outside”. Hey, natural light!

I apologize for the pictures above, it was mostly a cut and paste of the menu but I did so because there were two things I want to emphasise – from the bottom up…

• Do not mess recipe the chef will yell!. I love this one because, well, the recipe is how the chef intended it to be. So, if you want something different…
• The Canuck: Canadian bacon, Gruyere cheese, scrambled eggs and honey mustard on an English muffin served with home fries and baked beans. This is the dish I ended up ordering but, aside from the Canadian bacon (aka, back bacon in a lot of places), you might wonder where the Canadian part came from. Actually, it was one of the following dishes…
• The Hangover: French fries, gravy & cheese curds, 3 fried eggs & bacon. By now, I am sure a lot of people is smirking, specially if he/she happens to be Canadian. Can anybody say… Poutine???? (This was confirmed when I asked if the chef was Canadian). I was *this* tempted on ordering it but, no, it was too early and would be too heavy. Had I been hangover (almost impossible), I might be ordering this!

After making my order, the barista was passing some samples, in this case, sort of a banana shake which had a nutty taste. It wasn’t bad, unfortunately, I am not that into shakes and aside from a couple of sips, it was mostly untouched. However, I could see a lot of people ordering this.

And, oh, notice that big basket of sweeteners and jam? I guess people love their sweeteners! However, I did notice one sweetener that haven’t seen much (if at all) on this side of the border: stevia. Unlike most low calorie sweetener around – saccharine (aka, Sweet’N Low), aspartame (aka Nutrasweet), sucralose (aka Splenda), et al, stevia is natural. Now, I am not saying it is not sold here, rather, I haven’t seen it in coffee shops or as an option in restaurants.

As for my drink, I ordered Earl Grey tea but I was also given a glass of ice water. Now, here is something that I catch people off-guard when I order tea: no cream, no sugar, no anything. Basically, I drink it “as is”. I appreciate the fact they gave the honey and lemon, though. the interesting part was, rather than a small tea pot, I was given the whole jar! Not the best approach but.. However, the tea itself wasn’t as good as I wished but, then again, when I saw it was a regular tea bag, my expectations weren’t too high.

And here is my breakfast. Again, as mentioned above, Canadian bacon, Gruyere cheese, scrambled eggs and honey mustard on an English muffin served with home fries and baked beans. Let’s start with the fries. I won’t call them fries but it served their purpose. Not much to talk about. On the right side, partially cropped, was a small container with gravy. *Cough*Poutine?*cough*. Now, the beans, ah, beans. You know what, before I continue, let’s take a close-up look:

Do you see what is there? Specifically, to the middle-left (180 degrees)? Yes, that is a piece of pork! Yes, since I love pork, having that piece there, no matter how small it is, was just bonus. I mean, it must have been cooked with it, right? As for the bean itself, if you have had canned pork-n-beans, you should have a good idea of this dish – of course, this one was better. Not too sweet but sweet enough. There wasn’t a strong tomato taste which suits me fine but the “sauce” was thickened by the beans themselves. This is something I could eat the whole day!

Finally, the sandwich. When I saw it, the first thing that came to my mind was certain MickeyD’s sandwich. However, that similarity ended after the first bite. While the muffin and cheese did not add much, the rest made up the sandwich. The back bacon had a slight pork, meaty taste. If it had some more smoky flavour, it would have been a home run. What really make the sandwich was the egg, which had an almost custard-like consistency.

At this point I am not sure if it is necessary to say I love this breakfast. Certainly way better than what I had at the hotel and at The Breakfast Club. Heck, I thought it was even better than Cafe Medina and their cassoulet! Ah, if only somebody would make breakfast like this in Vancouver…

Tagged under: Breakfast • Sandwich • Scottsdale