For many it is a distinctive, pervasive, and usually pleasant smell. Bacon has been referred to as meat candy. And a restaurant in the Haight called Bacon Bacon makes all kinds of foods using the cured meat.
"I like the smell," one customer said. "I do like the smell!"
But some neighbors have complained about the constant smell. One even hired an attorney and filed a discrepancy report with the planning department.
You see, this is a residential zone, and without a permit the restaurant cannot operate. And since the permit process has been stalled because of this neighbor, the health department says it must close.
"Until they get the approval from the planning department, we cannot give them a permit, they cannot operate," said Richard Lee with the San Francisco Health Department.
That neighbor's attorney told us his client is working with the restaurant to make the necessary improvements.
"They need to know that the restaurant is going to play by the rules, not going to produce bacon smoke that is going to clog the neighborhood, have a bad impact on the sewer system, traffic impact," said Ryan Patterson with Zacks & Freedman Law Firm.
Bacon Bacon's owner, Jim Angelus, told us he'd like to get the permit first and then make the upgrades.
"It's a $30,000 upgrade I need to do to the building here, and why do that if I'm going to get kicked out?" Angelus asked.
"Especially when you have, like, 30 head shops on Haight Street and places that smell pretty bad," neighbor Nate Lozier said. "The smell of this place is not the worse in the Haight, yeah."
The neighborhood that once stood for love and peace is now trying to find harmony over new intoxicating vapors.
A petition online to save Bacon Bacon has over 1,700 signatures. To see that petition, click here.
