Today we’d like to introduce you to Seth Zurer.
Seth, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago to go to college with the thought that I’d stick around and do theater and lead a creative life. It’s been creative but in almost none of the ways I’ve anticipated. I’ve bounced around a lot professionally. I’ve worked in technology, travel, social justice, as a writer of restaurant reviews and performer of impenetrable Avant Garde theater. I’ve been a middle manager for a large industrial supply distributor. But I’ve always had a puzzle-solving mentality and a deep well of curiosity about food and the restaurant world. All those experiences and interests combined have turned out to be a uniquely great preparation for running my own small event business – Bacon fest Chicago – my passion for food and restaurants informs the vision for the event and the tone for our marketing communications; my performance background helps with on-air media appearances; my technology experience gives me the tools to organize our processes so we can put on the event without a lot of additional staffing.
Has it been a smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road, but I’ve always been lucky and been tuned in enough to capitalize on luck when it has put opportunity in my path. Baconfest came about at a very challenging time in my life. It was 2009, just after the financial crisis and housing market collapse. I’d been working at a small boutique travel agency that specialized in Italy; we discovered how tough it can be for a provider of luxury services to weather global financial turmoil, and I stepped down from my role as the company struggled to stay afloat. We’d just bought a condo (at real estate bubble prices), my wife was pregnant with our son and underemployed as a part-time tutor. Everything was tenuous – our finances, our prospects, our plans. On the bright side, that uncertainty left me with freedom to say yes to things as they came along – so, when my friends (and now business partners) approached me with an idea, I had the time and energy to work with them to build something new.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Baconfest Chicago is an annual chef-tasting festival devoted to everybody’s favorite cured meat – bacon. Our event was born from a night out at the theater – in 2009 my business partners, both theatrical composers and sound designers, went to see a rock and roll puppet musical about beer and were so inspired that when they got home, they thought “What is there in the world that we love so much that we would want to write a rock n roll musical about it?” – the obvious answer …. bacon. They started watching YouTube videos about the bacon-making process and quickly became discouraged by the prospect of interpreting the curing process in song, so like all great entrepreneurs, they pivoted – what if we threw a giant party instead and made it all about bacon. I was the foodie maven of the group, known for my large (for us) backyard BBQ’s and knowledge of the restaurant scene, so they called me to run their idea past me – “it’s the burning man of bacon – what do you think?” In short, I liked it. The next day, we got our social media handles, we wrote a manifesto about bacon, we designed our bacon/Chicago flag logo and were off and running. The first Baconfest was 100 people and 10 chefs at the Publican between lunch and dinner service on a quiet Saturday in October 2009. Last year’s event hosted 145 restaurants, 4000+ ticketed guests, and nearly four tons of bacon.
We are different from other chef tasting festivals in a bunch of ways; primarily in the scope and quality of restaurants that come to the event to participate. You might not think that a Baconfest is a natural spot for great award-winning chefs to flex their creative muscles and come up with wild creative ways to deploy bacon as part of a gourmet dish, but it is that – way more than just beer & bacon. We set ourselves apart from other events with our organization and focus on the nuts and bolts of the event experience, both for ticketed customers and for chefs. We spend a lot of energy recruiting and retaining great volunteers who help build a seamless experience for exhibitors. We pay a lot of attention to clear communications with vendors and restaurants. And we spend a lot of energy making sure that guests at our event can focus on having a good time, with reasonable crowds, plenty of food and drink, and very few lines to get in the way of a great festival experience.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
It has its charms – for a business like ours that is focused on foodies and the restaurants they love, Chicago is a uniquely great market. I don’t know of many other cities with the breadth and quality of restaurants or the passionate community of food lovers that come out to support them. Plus, the cost of doing events here is substantially lower than other markets we’ve investigated.
Pricing:
- General Admission Tickets from $60 (no-booze) to $85.
- VIP Tickets for $160, including one hour extra at the event and access to the Old Forester Speakeasy, our vip lounge.
Contact Info:
- Address: Baconfest Chicago happens at the UIC Forum – 725 West Roosevelt.
- Website: baconfestchicago.com
- Phone: 773 209 9543
- Email: info@baconfestchicago.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baconfest/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baconfest/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BaconFestCHI
Image Credit:
Anne Petersen, Ben Collins-Sussman, Peter Tsai
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