Bacon Lovers’ Petition Helps San Francisco Restaurant Reopen

Neighbors had complained about the very same aroma that patrons savored

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Bill Hogan / Chicago Tribune / MCT / Getty Images

Lots of people like eating bacon — and some even love the aroma — but few want to smell it all day long. That’s why a San Francisco eatery called Bacon Bacon was shut down by health officials this Spring after neighbors complained about the constant odor emanating from the restaurant. Turns out, a faulty ventilation system was to blame. But now that the problem has been fixed, Bacon Bacon is set to reopen by September.

(MORE: San Francisco Bacon Restaurant Closes after Neighbors Complain of Smell)

The popular Haight-Ashbury restaurant’s neighbors initially complained to the city, which later shut down the eatery because it had been operating without the correct permit. According to the Wall Street Journal, there had been confusion over permit requirements because the regulations had changed significantly since owner Jim Angelus opened the bacon mecca.

Cooking up some 300 pounds of bacon a day, the restaurant’s menu included gluttonous offerings such as a grilled cheese with a healthy dose of bacon, all smothered in bacon jam. The coup d’état, however, was the bacon strip “bouquet” drizzled fabulously in maple syrup. It’s fans are so devoted that 3,000 of them signed a petition to reopen the restaurant before a hearing on the matter last week.

(MORE105-Year-Old Woman Says Bacon Keeps Her Alive)

Although bacon’s aromatics delighted restaurant patrons, Ken Prusa at Iowa State University notes that bacon byproducts can smell like paint or wet cardboard, particularly when the lard unpleasantly mixes with oxygen.

Angelus got his start by running a bacon food truck before opening the eatery back in January 2012. Throughout the restaurant’s closure, the truck has continued to operate downtown during weekday lunches, while a Mission-district outlet has sated bacon lovers who can’t wait ’til the grand reopening to get their porkalicious fix.