This Boise restaurant sold 10 tons of bacon in 2021. Now things are about to get ‘crazy’

When father-and-son Bacon Boise owners John and Gibson Berryhill cooked up the idea of selling their signature strips online, they weren’t sure how sales might go.

Try sizzling.

After going through 10 tons of bacon at their downtown restaurant in 2021, they’re on pace to crush 15 tons in 2022. Possibly more.

The boost? Online sales at baconboise.com. Orders of precooked, ready-to-devour Bacon Bags began last December. Since then, they’ve shipped to all 50 states.

“It’s such a popular gift,” Gibson Berryhill explains.

Now holiday season is here. Things are about to go hog wild.

“I know we’re going to hit 15 tons,” he says. “My wife might divorce me if we end up doing 17 tons, because that means I won’t see her for two months. But I’m kind of thinking we’re going to have a pretty crazy Christmas.”

A “perfect combination of sweet and heat,” Berryhill Bacon is double-sealed in bags for freshness. It also comes in candied, maple rosemary and spicy hot flavors. One-pound — or 12 strips — costs $18 plus shipping. Spend over $50, and you get free shipping. So be a pig. Buy three bags. Save even more with four, aka the Whole Hog, for $68. Bacon Bags also are sold inside the restaurant for the same price.

Bonding over Bacon

John Berryhill has served gourmet bacon in downtown Boise since 1995. Complementing his now-closed Berryhill & Co., he launched the Bacon specialty restaurant a decade ago. It eventually moved into the former Berryhill & Co. space at 121 N. 9th St., where it’s a popular breakfast-and-lunch destination for locals and, notably, Idaho tourists.

Bonding with restaurant customers has been the key to online sales, Gibson Berryhill says.

“Our bacon’s really good, but the reason people are gravitating toward it is they had an experience with me or my dad or our GM, Franny. When they’re eating it, they’re thinking about Boise. They’re thinking about the relationship. They’re thinking about that conversation. At least that’s how it starts.

“I know this sounds cheesy, but our goal is to try to just love on them through the bacon. I do a handwritten note in every single bag.”

It’s like getting a hug from a pound of loving lard?

“Exactly,” Gibson says. “Praise the lard!”

Bacon for Hope

Bacon Boise contributes a percentage of the business’ bottom line to its nonprofit, Bacon For Hope. In 2019, Bacon for Hope completed its first project, building a new outdoor basketball half-court on the campus of Hope House in Marsing. Hope House is a home for kids who are emotionally impaired, developmentally disabled, or from failed adoptions or dysfunctional families.

Since then, Hope House improvements have ranged from football and soccer field upgrades to a new $50,000 sprinkler system. Bacon For Hope also has paid for student scholarships and coaches’ stipends. The latest goal? Hire paid summer interns in hopes of developing future full-time staffers at Hope House.

Breakfast by breakfast, brunch by brunch, Bacon makes a difference.

And, increasingly, bag by shipped bag.

Father and son never stop marveling at the ways out-of-state folks find to savor Berryhill Bacon.

“I got an email from a guy who orders all the time,” Gibson Berryhill says. “He brought bacon with him to Mexico. He enjoyed, like, scrambled eggs and Berryhill Bacon on a beach in Mexico.”