Once upon a time, bacon was for breakfast. Hamburgers were not gourmet food. No fine-dining restaurant would have dreamed of serving pork belly.
Not so long ago, most barbecue joints in Chicago were gritty, strictly carry-out places where your order was handed to you from behind bullet-proof Plexiglas. People would have laughed at the idea of a bakery selling only cupcakes and wondered if “gastropub” was a medical procedure.
Why do such things become culinary trends?
“Now you have bacon ice cream and bacon chocolate bars,” says Eleanor Hanson, co-founder of FoodWatch, a trend-consulting firm specializing in product innovation and marketing.
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