Inspiration can come from anywhere, including your dreams. For Justin Coleman, creator of the food truck and brick-and-mortar restaurant Bake’n Bacon in Philly, a visit from his late brother via a dream was the catalyst for him starting his uber-popular business, which specializes in savory sandwiches and sides with bacon as the centerpiece.
“I started my company in 2019. My younger brother Derek passed away in 2016, and he visited me in my dream and the dream gave me the idea for Bake’n Bacon,” he shared while speaking during a cooking demo at ESSENCE Festival of Culture‘s Food and Wine stage. “I wanted to make sure that I honored my brother, so I dug deep to try and figure out the best bacon-inspired recipes that I could come up with and it blossomed to one food truck, now three, and now Philadelphia’s first bacon-inspired restuarant. We have a bar, it’s beautiful, and an event space. I just thank God for everything.”
For the record, Coleman said there was no real connection to bacon and his brother. That’s just what came to him in the dream. But he does love bacon (and admittedly smells like bacon “all the time” now). The cured meat has transformed into creations like the bacon brisket, which is a brisket cheesesteak on smoked rosemary cheddar cheese sauce, as well as a bacon-infused barbecue sauce with sliced brisket and bacon on a brioche bread, a bacon-infused caramel sauce (which he created during his demo), and more concoctions, including many dishes that have no bacon (like a creamy mac and cheese), but are still delicious.
“We take bacon and made it the star of the show where we want to take it outside of breakfast food,” he says.
Coleman also talked about the variations of bacons, including turkey bacon, which host Kelli Brown compared to a bandage in terms of looks and taste. He said he isn’t against them, but considers true bacon to be pork. However, if turkey is your preference, if you’re going to make a few very good slices, which he does for guests at his establishment, you have to know how to make it right.
“You kind of have to undercook it because you don’t want to get it to that stage where it’s overcooked and it’s crispy. Some people like crispy bacon or crispy turkey bacon, but for me it starts to taste like jerky,” he said. “So again, it’s not my preference, but I cook it because I’m in hospitality and you want people to be able to come and have an experience. And with my food trucks as well as the restaurant, we always make sure that we give an experience because an experience is everything that you want.”
Being able to offer that experience wasn’t easy though. Nevertheless, Coleman persevered to create his food trucks and restaurant, which has a 4.9 rating from more than 600 reviews on Google.
“I feel like challenges come no matter what. Being a Black entrepreneur, we’re going to have so many because we’re going to have people always say no, and we want to always think about getting that one yes,” he said. “But I also feel like in the waiting time when you’re in your waiting season, you have to remember that God gave you something. So you don’t want to be a brat in that waiting period. You want make sure that you’re still being thankful and grateful even in that time. So for me it was focusing on, yes, I heard a hundred nos, but I know that that one yes is going to come. And when it did come, that’s all I needed.”
Since then, Bake’n Bacon has had great success, and that’s because Coleman believes that he’s found his purpose. He says that’s essential for all entrepreneurs in order for their ideas and businesses to thrive.
“The number one thing is to figure out your purpose. I feel like when we walk into our purpose, we’re able to walk in a certain way. When you’re walking outside of your purpose, I feel like more things will happen where it doesn’t align because that’s not in God’s will. One thing is to really get to hone into yourself so you can know who you are before you then take it to God and ask for what you think you want or what you perceive is your need because it may not be that,” he says. “I started off in the music industry and now I’m cooking. So I thought that that’s all that I could do was music. But I understood that God had a different vision for me and I was able to listen to that.”
Coleman adds, “Don’t do it for money. That’s my biggest thing, is if you’re doing it for the love of money then you will never feel, you’ll never be fulfilled even at those moments where you’re making money. So for me, I do it because I love cooking. I love showing people a good time through food. So everything else will follow when you’re going from the right intentions of your why. You always have to ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this?’”
