New UNC club starts conversations with bacon

Junior Jack Joyce founded Bacon of the Month Club at UNC in the fall of 2016 in hopes of providing a space for other students passionate about bacon.

Joyce said he noticed there wasn’t much of an alternative to pork bacon around campus and Chapel Hill.

“I have a couple friends who are Muslim or Jewish and that’s against their religion or they have dietary restrictions,” Joyce said.

“I wanted to provide a place where people could eat bacon of all sorts no matter what their dietary restrictions be – personal choice, health wise, religion or anything like that.”

He said at each monthly meeting he cooks different types of bacon on a griddle and plays music so everyone can catch up while eating bacon.

“There’s just eating and some discussion, but for the most part it is really socializing over some bacon,” Peter Marcou, treasurer of the club, said.

He said he took part in a similar club in high school.

“This club was started by a current junior that went to the same high school that I did,” he said.

“At the high school we went to, there was a similar club where the club basically ordered a new type of bacon every month with different seasonings or made out of different meat.”

Marcou said the club members pay for the bacon out of pocket.

“UNC supplies funding for clubs but not for food items,” Marcou said. “We are trying to get a partnership of some sort with a local supermarket.”

Joyce said he usually goes to Harris Teeter or Walmart to purchase the bacon, but sometimes he has to order it online.

“We always have your standard pork bacon and we always have turkey,” Joyce said.

“Those are the main ones, but we try to rotate in a different flavor each meeting. It might be applewood, for example.”

Club member David Katibah said he never expected to be in a club in college strictly devoted to eating bacon.

“I think my favorite part is that it’s just kind of silly,” Katibah said. “I think everyone recognizes that and doesn’t take it too seriously, so we just come and have fun and get to enjoy eating and getting a break from the stress and commotion of school.”

“I don’t think college students, especially at Chapel Hill, get enough of that,” he said.

He said his favorite flavor of bacon is maple bacon, while Joyce’s is hickory smoked bacon.

“It’s got a nice fiery-wood taste to it,” Joyce said. “It’s not for everyone, but it reminds me of home cooking on the grill in the summer.”

Most people eat the bacon by itself, but Katibah said he likes to bring in a sandwich or salad to complement the bacon.

Joyce said the club is a low-commitment social group.

“I just love bacon, obviously, I wouldn’t start a club if I didn’t,” Joyce said.

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