Over at Claudio Aprile’s Origin (107 King East, at Church, 416-603-8009, origintoronto.com), free-range deviled eggs come dressed with upright strips of crispy cured pancetta ($5), while Ed Francis’s Real Scoop (920 Queen East, at Logan, 416-406-2525 2224 Queen East, at Beech, 416-699-6100, edsrealscoop.com) puts bacon brittle in his maple walnut ice cream ($4.10 cone/$6.25 pint).
Not to be outdone, the gals at Parkdale’s Yummy Stuff (1660 Queen West, at Triller, 416-531-9732, yummystuff.ca) top their chocolate oatmeal cupcakes with maple bacon butter-cream frosting ($2.75).
At weekend brunch, swanky C5 at the top of the ROM (100 Queen’s Park, at Bloor, 416-586-7928, rom.on.ca) offers an $18 five-course bacon tasting menu – house-cured pork jowls, anyone? – at the same time that the cool kids at Cardinal Rule (5 Roncesvalles, at Queen West, 647-352-0202, cardinalrulerestaurant.com) put whole rashers of bacon into the crust of their latke-layered Breakfast Pie ($9).
Always one to jump on the latest food fad, Boy Galen’s Loblaws (10 Lower Jarvis, at Queen’s Quay East, 416-304-0611, and others, loblaws.ca) has just introduced mason jars of bacon marmalade ($4.99/370 ml) as part of its new “black label” line. Up in Riverdale, Globe Bistro’s (124 Danforth, at Broadview, 416-466-2000, globebistro.com) Ed Ho gets high on the hog by building his luxurious chocolate tortes on a graham cracker crust infused with salty caramel and house-smoked Perth County bacon ($9).
Wash them down with Local Kitchen (1710 Queen West, at Roncesvalles, 416-534-6700, localkitchen.ca) mixo-logist Michael Sangregorio’s Penny’s Cousin cocktail ($10), a Mad Men-worthy highball of Maker’s Mark bourbon, grapefruit juice, bitters and the Kitchen’s own cured pancetta. On the rocks, of course.