Dishcrawl Bacon Battle

They say everything's better with bacon and last Sunday I set out to see if the old adage holds true. And let me tell you... it sure does.

I had the pleasure of spending my Sunday afternoon cruising around the East Village sampling some of the city's best bacon-tastic dishes.

If you haven't heard of Dishcrawl - its a fun foodcrawl that showcases some of Des Moines best local restaurants. The latest Dishcrawl was a Bacon Battle - a delicious competition I was happy to judge. We started things off with sweet and savory cupcakes from the fabulous ROGUEsweets. My favorite was the Jalo-payne-yo - topped with candied bacon. Oh candied bacon... where have you been all my life.

We moved on to one of my favorite stops of the day - AJ's on East Court. Come for the delicious drinks, stay for the friendliest bar staff around. My favorites were the Thanksgiving Dinner with Bakon Vodka and American Honey and the Sunday Brunch with Bakon Vodka, OJ and Cranberry.

After some delicious dogs at Capital Pub and Hotdog Co., we moved on to The Roof Top. A place I've been wanting to check out since I moved back to the city. The gorgeous rooftop patio felt like something out of a chic big-city scene and was the perfect backdrop for sweet and spicy bacon wrapped shrimp. Served on a bed of creamy coleslaw, it was the complete package of crunchy cool cabbage and hot tangy shrimp. Fantastic!

We ended things at Plain Talk Books for a BTL - with sweet maple bacon and crunchy griddled bread. The star of the show was the surprising Maple Bacon Latte. Bacon or not, one of the best coffee drinks I've ever had.

All in all, it was a pork-tastic way to explore some of the city's best spots.