Chicago Tomato Fest's BLT Bonanza

August 19, 6:59 PMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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Full disclosure: I designed the TomatoFest poster above

With Tomato Fest underway and Baconfest rapidly approaching, you may be thinking you'll have to wait for Lettuce Fest to manifest itself before we can get these three together in sandwich form. Well, thankfully, the wait is already over.

Nah, there isn't a "Lettuce Fest," (yet...)  but the clever folks at Tomato Fest HQ recognized early on that there was plenty of sandwich potential without having to specifically introduce the leafy greens. After all, when was the last time you bit into a BLT and said, "Man, this is awesome lettuce"? A ripe, juicy Cherokee Purple or Black Cherry heirloom tomato, on the other hand, is certainly cause for celebration, so why not make it a bonanza?

That's exactly what TF Coordinator Alana Cuellar and Damien Casten of Candid Wines decided to do. Created via a partnership between Slow Food Chicago, Candid Wines, Vocalo and the Chicago Honey Co-op, the "Old-School BLT Bonanza" has a simple mission: Celebrate heirloom tomatoes and "the people who grow, cook and eat them."

Nearly 20 great Chicago restaurants have created a signature BLT for the Bonanza, which runs August 17th through September 20th, each promising to source locally grown tomatoes and locally raised pork, if used. I say, "if used," because several restaurants have created variations that don't involve traditional bacon at all: Publican is serving smoked trout LTs and Spiaggia has a "PLT" on its menu, the "P" standing for pancetta from Becker Lane Organic Farm in Iowa.

Participating chefs have signed a pledge to use only locally grown heirloom tomatoes and locally raised heritage pork breeds, and are committed to helping promote the local farmers who supply them by communicating to guests the source of their delicious meal.

 Restaurants participating in the BLT Bonanza include:

• Blackbird
• Sixteen (Trump Tower)
• Signature Room at the 95th
• Green Grocer (featuring City Provisions' BLT)
• Cafe Spiaggia
• Carnivale
• Webster's Wine Bar
• Osteria via Stato
• The Gage
• Publican
• Socca
• Avec
• Lockwood
• and more to come!!

To promote the BLT Bonanza, Tomato Fest is also holding a contest on Twitter, awarding a bottle of wine to both the first person to post a TwitPic of one of the special BLTs, as well as to a random winner to be selected on Friday. Tweets must include the name of both the restaurant and the farm, so you might have to get creative to fit it all into 140 characters.

For more information about Tomato Fest, check out the official blog here, and follow on Twitter @TomatoFest. You can also find a great list of Chicago restaurants and bakeries to follow on Twitter here.