There’s no need to harp on the “bacon makes everything better” camp. If you’re alive and eat meat, you already know this. So let the food do the talking: Crunch into bacon-wrapped plantains — because Miami — wrap your head around bacon pizza, or indulge in a sticky bun sprinkled in candied bacon.
From swine-laden sweet treats to sizzling sides and full-blown entrées, the following ten plates elevate everyone’s favorite pork product into mouthwatering creations that’ll send even the pickiest of meat eaters to hog heaven.
1. House-cured slab bacon at Quality Meats
Located in Miami Beach, Quality Meats lives up to its moniker and slays the meat game with just that — its quality cuts of meat. Order the house-cured slab bacon ($18) for a ménage à trois of full-bodied flavors from hefty cuts of smoky bacon, crunchy peanut butter, and jalapeño jelly. Because one can never have too much bacon, especially at this caliber, try a dressed-up scoop of the King ($8), featuring peanut butter-banana sorbet, caramel bananas, candied peanuts, cinnamon toast, and — wait for it — brown sugar bacon.
2. Bacon-wrapped plantains at Miami Smokers
Miami Smokers is a bacon lover’s dream come true. Past its signature sausage sandwiches, which you can wrap in bacon for an extra $3, are drool-worthy sweets like candied bacon ($6) and bacon chip cookies ($3), as well as the perfect side to any sausage feast: bacon-wrapped plantains ($6). These morsels of goodness boast a sweet-and-salty flavor profile with the perfect crunchy exterior, dense interior, and a guava and cheese topping that’s so wonderfully Miami.
3. Juan’s Fidy-Fidy at Lokal
Lokal kicks the classic bacon cheeseburger into high gear with Juan’s Fidy-Fidy ($14), featuring a juicy patty made of 50 percent Florida ground beef and 50 percent Florida ground bacon, Monterey jack cheese, Miami Smokers’ smoked bacon, and a sweet onion marmalade to finish off this hearty handheld meal. It’s flanked by 50 percent sweet potato fries and 50 percent regular fries, created for the most indecisive of folks. The trouble comes in deciding which bacon-related burger to get your hands on — Juan’s Fidy-Fidy or Lokal’s famed Childhood Dream burger, complete with candied bacon. But if you want more bacon for your buck, Juan wins.
4. MGFD bacon pizza at Harry’s Pizzeria
What’s better than pizza? Pizza topped with bacon, of course. At Harry’s Pizzeria, this bacon-centric pie stars Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink’s smoked bacon, fingerling potatoes, caramelized onions, and aged Gruyère, speckled with fresh arugula, for $16. Indeed, well-crafted pizza is the name of the game at Harry’s Pizzeria, but no other restaurant brings America’s favorite food products — pizza and bacon — into flawless harmony quite like this pie shop.
5. Sticky bun at Swine Southern Table & Bar
After devouring dishes from Swine’s pork-themed menu, including bacon-infused mac 'n' cheese and shrimp and grits cooked in smoked bacon broth, enter the realm of bacon desserts with Swine’s sticky bun ($10). Behold a warm sticky bun, covered in maple-bourbon toffee sauce and candied pecans, and served with salted caramel ice cream. Candied smoked bacon finishes off this deliciously attractive sweet treat.
6. Grilled Blue & Bacon at Ms. Cheezious
No reasonable list about bacon is complete without respectfully paying due to Ms. Cheezious’ grilled Blue & Bacon. The food-truck-turned-brick-and-mortar eatery set the bar for grilled cheese sandwiches nationwide, and the Blue & Bacon is no exception. Two slices of freshly baked sourdough bread hold a thick center of creamy blue cheese, green onion, and crisp applewood-smoked bacon. Order it for lunch or dinner, and you’ll be instantly transported to the days of your youth, when triangles of grilled cheese cured all ailments. In this case, perhaps it’s the Monday blues or a Friday night hangover.
Dunk a maple-glazed bacon doughnut into a pool of butterscotch
Yardbird Southern Table and Bar via Facebook
The Magic City has been spoiled with various renditions of the maple-glazed bacon doughnut, from the Salty Donut’s maple bacon featuring Miami Smokers bacon and a J. Wakefield Porter reduction to Mojo Donuts’ maple bacon bars. But because there’s no such thing as too many bacon-infused doughnuts, we also give a nod to this decadent version at Yardbird. Priced at $9, bite into a fried-to-order, pillowy-soft sphere of dough tossed in crumbles of house-smoked bacon and served with a side of butterscotch for dipping.
8. Bacon-wrapped dates at Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill
With its starlit sidewalk garden and intimate interior design, Sugarcane was made for dates — the business, casual and romantic kind. However, this midtown mainstay is also known for its bacon-wrapped dates ($13), a divine concoction made of plump, sweet dates, linguiça sausage, and manchego cheese, twirled in a nice, smokey strip of bacon. It's sure to impress your significant other.
Wake up with the wake 'n' bacon
Courtesy of Lulu in the Grove
Some of the best bacon recipes aren’t even food. Case in point: Lulu’s Wake ‘n’ Bacon ($12). Get your morning pick-me-up with bacon-infused vodka and Lulu’s house-made bloody mary mix served in a mason jar with a bacon powder, togarashi, and celery salt rim. Plus, this bloody comes with two whole strips of crispy bacon. So you can forego the side of bacon and order this tall glass of sunshine with your Oreo waffles and huevos rancheros instead.
10. Bacon cheeseburger milkshake at Sugar Factory
Sugar Factory has a reputation for its celebrity-endorsed couture pops, smoking candy goblets, and over-the-top sweet and savory milkshake varieties, but the bacon cheeseburger milkshake is the one that brings all the boys to the yard. For $20, lick, slurp, and munch on a decadent chocolate-and-pretzel-covered mug filled with a strawberry ice cream shake, topped with whipped cream, a mini cheeseburger, candied bacon, and even more pretzels and M&Ms for a sweeter version of the ordinary bacon cheeseburger chow.
