By Mitch Broder
Wesley Klein’s plans for his bakery became clear to me when
I asked him if he thought there was anything at all that doesn’t go well with
bacon, and he said no.
“It works with everything,” he said. He named his place
Baconery, and he meant it. Today he puts bacon in a few foods. Tomorrow he may
put it in all foods.
So go now, while the menu is manageable, and decide for
yourself how clever he was to open the city’s first all-bacon bakery. The
response has been promising, he says: “People come in with their expectations
too high and go out saying it was even better than they expected.”
Their choices include bacon cookies, bacon brownies, bacon
blondies, bacon muffins, bacon croissants, and bacon pecan pie. Also bacon
lollipops, bacon caramels, bacon marshmallow bars, chocolate-covered bacon, and
gluten-free bacon macaroons.
If they really want to pig out, they can precede (or follow)
the sweets with one (or more) of the bakery’s six bacon sandwiches. They range
from the Miss Piggy (Grilled Bacon & Cheese) to the Porky Pig (Bacon, Egg,
Lettuce, Cheese, Tomato, Avocado, Cucumber, Mayo). There's also a Wilbur.
Wesley’s idea was to address our need for sweet combined
with salty. He got the idea while sopping up pancake syrup with a slab of bacon. He
consulted with chefs, established his main ingredient’s versatility, launched
Baconery online, and a year later opened the store.
He started small, but he went whole hog. It’s a hard-core bacon store. There are bacon slices on the walls. There are bacon rugs on the floor. There are bacon-colored sofas accented with bacon-print pillows, behind red-and-white-striped tables and baconian wood-topped stools.
Besides the food, he sells T-shirts that say things like
“Feel Like Bacon Love,” along with items like bacon-themed platters and wallets,
and actual gourmet bacon. And he has posted “The Rules of Bacon,” of which
Number Four is: “Even the pigs like bacon. That’s a fact.”
It’s a curious obsession, especially curious since Wesley is
Jewish, which he says only proves that Baconery welcomes customers of all
faiths. And you can glimpse the obsessive future with a glimpse at the
selections currently served from 6 to 8 p.m. as “Snack of the Night.”
Sunday’s snack, for example, is the Ultimate Bacon Mashed
Potato Bowl. Wednesday’s is the Nutella Bacon Strawberry Crepe. Monday’s is
Bacon Wrapped Pineapples; Tuesday’s is Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños. And Friday’s is
apparently what it’s all leading to: Bacon Wrapped Bacon.
Get bacon for granted
at Baconery, 911 Columbus Avenue, between 104th and 105th
streets, in New York City.
