Bacon Night At Nutty Steph’s | Salty and Delicious

This is Sophie, the poster child for chocolate and bacon. Right now she’s staffing the register at the decadent food emporium, Nutty Steph’s in Middlesex, Vermont. It’s the morning of Bacon Night. Let’s say you’re a vegetarian with a chocolate allergy: Sophie will still make your day. I have barely explained my purpose for visiting (to get the low down of this evening’s plan for high-fat fun), when she spontaneously proposes, “Hey! You could take a picture of me with stickers all over my face!”

    When a regular customer drifts in and asks her how it’s going, Sophie replies breezily, “Oh, you know, just another day eating chocolate.” Then adds, “Have you had the Whiskey Cayenne? It’s got a nice spicy bite.”

  Savvy readers may recognize Yankee already named Nutty Steph’s savory event as the “Best Bacon Celebration in Central Vermont.” So why the double dip? Well, because really, how could I resist an excuse to do more boots-on-the-ground “reporting” about a store that creates a regular social occasion out of two diabolically delicious foods: bacon and chocolate?

  Sophie understands. When management neglected to respond to her job application, Sophie just began showing up, joining the team wrapping bars of chocolate. Five months later when they needed a granola packager, guess whom they chose? Now Sophie works at least 40 hours a week in the store that first began selling bags of granola, and then added a line of dark chocolate covered granola clusters and then branched into eclectic chocolate bars with flavors like Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter-and-Bacon, which led to the live music infused cabaret affair you’ll find here tonight, if you can make it. On a sparse Bacon Night, you may be one of three attendees, outnumbered by the six piece band wailing Old Dixieland Tunes, or, as Sophie warns, you may be stuffed in the store with 33 other inter-generational munchers and imbibers and one hard working, winsome musician. Already booked? No worries, Bacon Night happens at least once a month, and you can find out more here: www.nuttystephs.com. Alas, I will not be sticking around tonight to do a head count, nor to partake of beer, wine, homemade sodas, chocolate drinks and vegetarian fare along side sizzling plates of Bacon with caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, and maple dippers. But I’ll be back.