I’m a little late to the game in making this post! At the end of January, I read about Bacon Bingo over at Darlene’s blog. I got really excited about it and decided that I would go. Darlene organized a little get together with a few other local bloggers, including Leanne and Marie, to get together for dinner and play bacon bingo. I dragged Jake along because I already told him about it and I already told him he was going. Come on, Bacon Bingo?! I didn’t know how he couldn’t be as excited about it as I was. His daughter, I believe, thought it was kind of dorky. Oh well. I’ve accepted my dorky nature and have decided to embrace it.
Even though I’m a blogger and I kind of put myself out there, I don’t really interact with a lot of other bloggers off-line. I once went to a day time food blog camp up in LA, though I felt kind of out of place there. Everyone seemed to be a recipe/cooking food blogger and a lot of the people there already knew each other. I felt out of my element there. I’m not exactly shy, but I know I’m a reserved person. But when Darlene invited me to for the little mini blogger outing, I felt excited and relaxed. I’ve followed Darlene’s, Leanne’s and Marie’s blogs for quite awhile now. I talk to them on twitter. I feel connected with them – someone else who likes to do what I do! No awkwardness when the camera’s are pulled out. No questions asked. A comfortable environment. I wonder why we hadn’t done something like this before?
Everything on the menu is made from locally made products.
We got 2 bowlfuls of these chips with a house made topping – a combination of a hot sauce, pork belly bits, peanuts and herbs of some kind. It was quite spicy for my taste buds so I only ate a few chips.
Bacon Bingo sheets were handed out to everyone who wanted to play. It started while we were waiting for our food to arrive and in between chats about various topics. They gave us a few daubers for us to share between us. One sheet per person, bacon bingo had a lull of about 20 minutes in between games. The prize? 1lb. of house made bacon.
We daubed and played three games total – the first game was won by Darlene. The second game was won by Leanne. Other patrons, including the owner, Jay, (and bingo caller) started to wonder if we were cheating. The third game was won by someone at another table and we ducked out before the fourth game started.
Even though I didn’t win any fabulous bacon, I did order a round of Pork Belly Tacos ($8) for myself. The pork belly was done just right – it had a nice slightly crisp exterior and a soft, tender taste as I chowed down. Very simple and not loaded up with sauces to hide the meat. I really enjoyed it.
Jake got a burger and fries and my photo of it was really horrible in the low light. He didn’t really care for his burger, but he really liked the fries and ordered another plate of them.
After leaving El Take It Easy, we ventured across the street to Heaven Sent Desserts for after dinner eats. Unfortunately, Jake and I weren’t able to stay for that since Jake had to get up early in the morning for work, so we just took 2 treats to go. He got a red velvet cupcake and I got a pistachio cake with ganache. I should have take a photo of the pistachio cake – my god, it was good.
We were sad to leave early, but enjoyed out evening out. It’s always nice being with people who understand what you do and who know the other bloggers in San Diego. We’re a small little community so hopefully we’ll get together more often!
El Take it Easy
3926 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 255-8778
They need to bring Bacon Bingo back! I’m glad we finally had a chance to talk in real life despite us sitting right under the speakers. And I agree that the pistachio cake was delicious. I convinced Paul to go to North Park Sushi and Grill the Friday after and we got a slice of cake.
I hope they have the pistachio cake again when I got back to use my Groupon! I hope they bring bacon bingo back. Did you have you bacon? How was it?
hi mary – the pistachio cake at heaven sent is pretty good!!!!
hope i can join you guys next time for bacon bingo!
I hope they bring back bacon bingo, too! I loved our little mini-meetup!
We cooked our bacon that weekend. It rendered out a lot of fat, but it cooked up nice and crisp. It’s not as salty as “regular” bacon, and there’s a little hint of pigginess there, but it’s good bacon.
hi cc – i hope you can join us next time, too! hopefully we will have another get together soon (i believe we’re thinking of going to the Pearl in March?).
hi leanne – oo, the bacon sounds excellent. i really must try the linkery soon.
I was laughing as I read this because my wife and I were there that night. We were two tables to left from your booth. I thought you guys had it rigged also 🙂 I agree with you about the Pork Belly Tacos! We also had the Cezar Salad which was excelent!
Hi John – That’s funny you were there the same night! Glad you had fun – I hope they bring it back soon!
hi mary – cool let me know when. i’d love to finally meet u in person! 🙂 you can also meet my better half, bert.
hi cc – i will totally let you know about the next gathering! it would be totally fun to meet you!
How cool!! I totally understand where you’re coming from re: spending time with other bloggers. I sort of feel like an outsider in the community. There appear to be some clicks. I don’t know where all the interaction happens, offline? via email? at the conferences? Either way, I think it would be cool to meetup with other local bloggers. I’m also in SD. Do you have any interest in forming a SD blogger dinner?
hello! i think most of our interactions are commenting on each other’s blogs and on twitter. there’s a dinner in the works soon and hopefully more get-togethers in the future. i’ll try and post about things here on my blog or on twitter or you can always email me! i’m going to check out your blog!
I just discovered your blog, loving it! We also live in San Diego and have been curious about the bacon bingo at El Take It Easy, after reading your post, we will certainly have to make it!
Hi Tiffany! Hope you enjoy it – I saw they brought it back last Wednesday. I think they’ll bring it back sporadically. It’s totally fun!