All things bacon unite at Harley-Davidson museum

In the far corner of a very crowded “Garage” showcase on the Harley-Davidson museum grounds in Milwaukee, Elvis was in the building. He was standing over the world’s largest peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich, made with special giant bread slices created by O&H Bakery, slathering pounds of peanut butter everywhere.

On a nearby stage at 102.9 “The Hog” radio station’s first ever BaconFest, a chef from Motor restaurant was making a vat of special popcorn for a demonstration in which he added sage, parmesan, bacon fat and bits of bacon before handing it around. Elsewhere, the Exclusive Company was showing off its wares of bacon bandages, bacon floss, and bacon toothpicks. Across from there, Jet’s Pizzas were ransacked until they were forced to run back to West Allis and bring back a ton more pizzas. While folks waited in the adjacent chairs, they sipped samples of Blue Moon. The tap on the end? Yup, it’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Porter, a rare treat as the beverage is still under consideration as a fall seasonal release.

The entire facility was packed before the end of the first hour of the afternoon event. Even with a limited ticket sale of 1,000 people, everyone came early and devoured bacon-laced and bacon-wrapped items from 20+ vendors from across Wisconsin. By 2:00 p.m., I was finally able to sample some of the products. My favorite straight up bacon came from the official sponsor Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats — this award-winning bacon from Wittenberg, Wisconsin had a deep palate for such a simple item. My favorite dessert item came from Scoop deVille ice cream parlor out of Hartford, Wisconsin which offered samples of a dark chocolate-bacon ice cream. A few other notables were sliders from Fire Pit at Potawatomi, a savory jalapeno bacon and mango chicken brat from Danny’s Meats out of Racine, and even Bakon Vodka. Some of the most popular lines involved Patrick Cudahy’s bacon dip as well as the Saloon on Calhoun with Bacon‘s many deep-fried offerings which then had bacon wrapped around it — like deep-fried mac and cheese wrapped in bacon.

The DoubleTree Hotel teamed up with Hunger Task Force to offer a 50/50 raffle at the event, as Bob and Brian (and Rock Girl Laura) announced some nutritional facts about the gigantic sandwich in the corner. I leaned up against a nearby hog (the motorcyle kind) and collected my salty Sunday thoughts. Life in Wisconsin is good.

Of course I took photos, but alas they are not scratch-and-sniff. Sorry.  You can view them in the slideshow below or view our flickr set here. Enjoy!