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1,500 flock to Harrison Avenue for Bacon and Beer Festival

Drawing a large crowd of Bostonians to support a good cause is not all that out of the ordinary for this city. What’s quite unusual, however, is holding a charity event that creates an admission frenzy - selling out in minutes, leaving 1,200 people waitlisted and others scrambling to score tickets on Craigslist.

This past Saturday, April 24, the Boston Bacon and Beer Festival inaugurated with a packed house as roughly 1,500 participants enjoyed some of the finest swine and brew the city has to offer, while enjoying live entertainment.

Held at 540 Harrison Avenue in the Historic Power Station by @eatboston, in conjunction with SoWa Sundays, the event served not only as an ode to bacon and beer, but also as a benefit for local charities and nonprofits, including Community Servings, Share Our Strength, South End Youth Baseball, and The Juniper Fund. As part of a recent initiative by @eatboston, a growing online restaurant and news resource led by Aaron Cohen, last weekend’s festival was one of four of its kind in the last year.

"I’ve been doing these events for the last year, none this big, but usually I take a couple restaurants and give them an ingredient to work with," said Cohen, who explained, "In the fall it was nuts, in January it was ginger, and last August I did the Ice Cream Showdown with Citysearch."

Upon calculation, the proceeds will be divvied and disbursed to the nonprofits, which were selected for various reasons by Cohen. For instance, he felt it was important to have local representation, hence South End Youth Baseball. He also noted having personal experiences with Community Servings and its impeccably efficient use of donations to feed the needy.

"Mainly, I wanted to choose charities that would make the restaurants feel good about participating," he said.

Among many restaurants and chefs from Boston, showcasing the South End’s gastronomic talent were the Gaslight Brasserie, Union Bar and Grill, STIX Restaurant & Lounge, the South End Buttery, The Gallows, Myers and Chang, Petit Robert Bistro, Picco, and Rocca.

An establishment that places a large emphasis on baked goods and desserts may appear questionably palatable with beer and bacon, but both Gaslight’s bacon-flavored doughnuts and the South End Buttery’s Bacon and Brooklyn Brown Ale Chocolate Cupcakes with Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout Cream Cheese Frosting managed to keep a steady flow of happy tasters.

"I’m a big fan of combining sweet and savory flavor profiles, and bacon and beer is a dangerously delicious combination," explained Richard Gordon, owner of the South End Buttery. "I came up with the idea for the recipe and our pastry chef created the recipe. I think the chunk of bacon as garnish was key to the flavor and presentation."

Though the festival was primarily focused on bacon and beer, attendees enjoyed hours of entertainment by the Boston-based funk and soul band East Coast Soul. Also, twice in the four-hour event, there were live pig butchering demonstrations by both Vadim Akimenko of Akimenko Meats and Nuno Alves of STIX with commentary by Will Gilson of Garden at the Cellar. The demonstrations sparked an interest as a huddled crowd was educated on the origin of the cuts of meats they were eating.

"It’s about being respectful to the product and the farmer, not wasting any of the meat. A lot of people don’t really know the work that goes into that," explained Alves, privy to the art as he grew up with a family that used to butcher its own meat.

While the center of the venue was filled with tables offering bacon and beer, the perimeter was lined with local artists - many of whom participate in SoWa Sundays.

"Part of the idea for having the Bacon and Beer Fest last Saturday was that it acted as kind of like a warm-up for the open market - kind of teaser," said Ali Horeanopoulos, founder of MASS.production who also manages SoWa Sundays, which starts off the spring season May 15 and 16 with its Art Walk Weekend when over 200 hundred local artists open their doors to the public.

The festival’s organizer, @eatboston, plans to continue on its path of hosting seasonal fundraisers with another Ice Cream Showdown this summer. Cohen also noted his interest in a 2nd Annual Boston Bacon and Beer Festival, which, as Ashley Marimon, an artist from MASS.production, explained, seems like a no-brainer.

"I mean, you get to drink beer, eat bacon, and show your work," she said. "You can’t really beat it."

To read the full article by Mike Roberts on Wednesday Apr 28, 2010 in MySouthEnd.com click here.

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