Tired Hands Brewery: Candied Bacon, $8

By Glen Macnow

Tired Hands Brewery
16 Ardmore Ardmore

The debate here is how to characterize this delicacy. Is candied bacon a dessert? It's sweet enough – glazed in brown sugar and dipped in Grade B maple syrup – to eat as a meal finisher. Is it a side dish? Sure. But it could also be characterized as a main course, and for $8, the generous portion they give you at Tired Hands may be enough to constitute a meal.

What's not at debate is that this is a delicious item. – five extra-thick sticks of Lancaster County double-smoked bacon, candied in a mixture of brown sugar, cayenne & black pepper. It's gooey and savory and will leave enough traces of sugar and spice on your fingers to reward you for hours to come.

Tired Hands is a local treasure, an upstart brewery whose beer is so good that devotees line up on Lancaster Avenue, growlers in hand, whenever a new ale variety is released. The beers are creative and tasty. And those attributes carry through to the candied bacon.

Score: 82/100