A few weeks ago our friends invited us to the 2016 Bourbon and Bacon Fest. With basically no research or reservations, I booked us tickets!

We headed to Georgetown mid-day and only had to wait in line a little while before getting in.

We had the standard tickets so we had a good three hours to explore the hall and use our tokens.

We each had 13 drinks and 13 food, which ended up being WAY too much. We used all of our food tokens thanks to a few vendors who had tiny treats but we gave some of our drink tokens away and left others on our table when we left.

The place was full of vendors– 12 sips and 18 tastes on the main floor, and once the doors open the place got packed and the temperature went up. We escaped to the upper floor for a while to cool off and look around in between tastings.

Our friends knew a few people who paid for the advanced admission so they had already grabbed a table and made their way around the room by the time we got in. It was nice to have a home base to come back to in between tastings to catch up and talk about what we liked and didn’t like from around the hall.

We ate lunch before we arrived and I liked my husband’s strategy to do our drink tastings early and then enjoy some food and relax before it was time to go.

We didn’t end up trying much Rye, but there were a couple of whiskeys we really liked. One was a whiskey by Fremont Mischief, a distillery in Fremont, and one was a single malt whiskey by Tatoosh Distillery and Spirits. My favorite was the William Wolf pecan bourbon— a touch of maple up front and a nutty ending made this sweet and more like a liquor. Yummy!

There were also several good food stands. Some of our favorites included:

• Uli’s Famous Sausage, which has a stand in Pike Place Market
• Cantinetta, which was serving goat cheese and bourbon bacon jelly on crackers (I ate 3-4– delicious!)
• Legendary Doughnuts, which had delicious little doughnuts with maple frosting and crispy bacon (Brian ate a couple…)!

I couldn’t believe how quickly the time went by. Between getting drinks, finding water stations, escaping the heat and snacking on treats I completely lost track of time.

We had a great time and it was fun being able to roam around and also regroup with friends. After weeks of travel, we were ready for a relaxing afternoon event.

I would recommend anyone check it out when it returns next year– even if you’re not a bourbon fan you can buy a reduced food only pass and just enjoy the delicious treats! I would recommend dressing in layers– the more the merrier, but it did get pretty warm indoors.

Cheers!