Details on This Year's Bacon and Beer Festival

Two of our favorite things (beer and bacon, obviously) return at this year’s Bacon and Beer Festival on April 28, and tickets go on sale tomorrow for the general public. The event, hosted by Eat Boston, will feature samples from over 40 New England restaurants and breweries. All proceeds will benefit local nonprofits Lovin’ Spoonfuls, which brings unsellable foods to soup kitchens, and Community Servings, a food delivery program that helps families dealing with chronic illness.

We got a sneak preview of the offerings, which include bacon donuts with bacon praline ice cream and chocolate Scout syrup (Trina’s Starlite Lounge, a 2011 Best of Boston winner in the brunch category) and cheesy cornmeal porridge topped with creamy garlic spinach, Mayflower Porter-glazed crispy bacon, and fried shallots (The Fireplace, a 2008 Best of Boston winner in the brunch category). If seafood is more your style, try the smoked cod and lobster chowder with crispy bacon lardons and chile-lime butter from Chez Henri (a 2011 Best of Boston winner in the neighborhood eats category).

Tavolo chef Nuno Alves said he’ll be offering a play on the classic root beer float: Blue Hills beer ice cream, topped with chocolate-covered, house-cured bacon bits. “It’s not as savory as a lot of people would think,” Alves says. “It brings out a lot of chocolate notes from the beer, because it’s a dark beer. It’s light, creamy, and very mellow.”

Tickets for Bacon and Beer festival go on sale today, Thursday, April 5, at 1 p.m. for Eat Boston fans on the mailing listand tomorrow, Friday, April 6, at 1 p.m. for the general public. Get there fast though, because last year tickets sold out in two minutes, says event organizer Aaron Cohen.

If you miss out on the festival on April 28, there’s a slew of other events during the following Bacon and Beer Week, including a karaoke harbor cruise on Sunday, April 29, and a bacon-and-beer-inspired art show on Wednesday, May 2. Tickets for these events are available today.

(Bacon and Beer Festival, Saturday, April 28, 2:30 to 5 p.m., House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne Street, $37, wheretoeat.in.)