Bacon-centric restaurant coming to downtown Minneapolis hotel and development

Bacon flights, a bacon Old Fashioned, bacon shrimp and grits.

Those menu offerings barely scratch the pork belly surface at Bacon Social House (baconsocialhouse.com), a Denver-based restaurant branching out to Minnesota this spring.

The restaurant, slated to open in late May in downtown Minneapolis, will be connected by an interior doorway (but separate from) the new Canopy by Hilton hotel (canopy3.hilton.com) at the corner of 3rd St. S. and Park Av. The hotel has its own new restaurant, Umbra

Coming from Colorado, a state with a reputation for healthiness, Bacon Social House will have more than just bacon, says owner David Dill.

"It's pretty diverse," Dill said. There will be lighter fare, vegetarian and gluten-free options, breakfast salads and the like. Local dishes such as walleye will also make appearances.

The space will have a midcentury modern design, with lots of steel and wood, Dill said.

But there's no mistaking, bacon is the star.

There are six flavors available in flights — habañero, apple wood, candied, barbecue, Paleo and a rotating flavor of the month (currently in Denver: French toast). Bacon comes up in everything from the obvious breakfast Benedicts to the croutons on a Caesar salad. The menu leans Southern, "so it's got a little bit of a kick to it," Dill said. Dishes run in the $13-$16 range.

Health-conscious diners will be comforted to know there's nothing particularly outlandish on the menu.

"We toyed around with that idea," Dill said. "You want Instagrammable pics. You want a four-level bacon sandwich. But we haven't gone there."

Does he worry about bacon burnout, if there even is such a thing? In a 2015 food trends poll from Zagat, half of Minnesotans said they were "over" bacon as a food trend.

But this is the home of the Minnesota State Fair, and Dill believes Minnesotans' enduring appetite for bacon will lead to a fan base for his restaurant.

"People love bacon and I don't think that's going to stop," he said.

He can't wait to get his hands on one of the fair's favorite foods: bacon-on-a-stick. "It sounds legendary."