SALEM — I cautiously approached the door on Salem’s Liberty Street and rang the buzzer under the lit red lantern, which lets customers know that the restaurant is in operation.
“All roads lead to bacon,” I said, reciting the password that was released on Facebook earlier in the day.
A few minutes later, a man materialized in the doorway wearing a pig mask — which under other circumstances could be horrifying — and holding a metal bucket.
I dropped $13 into his bucket and was handed a brown paper bag filled with food in return: a loaded baked potato with bits of bacon, a pork loin doused in sauce and a Caesar salad.
This is an average Wednesday night sale at Back Alley Bacon, the underground pork restaurant which opened in the city in 2015.
“We started it as a way to bring bacon to the masses,” said one of the owners, who preferred to be known only as Chef Hamm and spoke in what was possibly a British accent. “Everyone loves bacon.”
It also served as a chance for Hamm’s chefs — rumor has it they’re affiliated with Bambolina — to get creative with their menu.
“We just wanted an outlet where we can just pile bacon on top of pork belly with cheese and sour cream and just get gluttonous,” said Hamm. “Something you wouldn’t proudly tell your doctor you ate during your physical.”
The restaurant now posts its menu on social media, but originally didn’t advertise its menu items, leaving them up to the imagination.
Will Ahearn, who began working for Back Alley Bacon about five months ago is a Salem native and restaurant veteran with a thick mustache and crew cut, who has worked in more than 30 restaurants along the East Coast.
“I’d say this is in the top 10 most fun places I’ve worked,” he said. “The food changes every single week. It could be pork kabobs, it could be tortillas with bacon. It’s great because I get to be creative.”
The restaurant has gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamm says, as it has served as a place where people can get an exciting experience of a night out without the risk of entering a restaurant.
Back Alley Bacon is only open on Wednesday nights.
It only makes a limited quantity of food, and often sells out less than an hour of opening, and sometimes in as little as 25 minutes.
Ahearn said he has seen lines of up to 70 people waiting outside of their door.
Hamm plans for the menu at Back Alley Bacon to only get wilder as time goes along.
“We’ve mentioned, sort of tongue in cheek, including pig trotters, and tongue,” said Hamm. “But we have a hardcore group of followers who jump up when they hear about tongue or trotters. Doing some more stuff like that will really make our hardcore fanbase happy.”
Customers can get the weekly password and see the restaurant’s menu on its Facebook page.
