A Perthshire restaurant was at the heart of a bacon bonanza at the weekend.
Diners brought healthy appetites to the Horn Milk Bar in the Carse of Gowrie keen to sample the newly-crowned ”Best Bacon Butty in the World”.
A flood of new converts made their way to the eatery to join long-time visitors in what Kenny Farquharson, the stunned owner of the family-run business, described as a ”feeding frenzy”.
Regular patrons have long known that the Horn is one of the finest places around at which to enjoy a traditional bacon roll. Confirmation of its quality if any were needed came last week as its largest offering, dubbed the A90 Behemoth, was named best in the world in a poll by technology news website the Register.
The £3.60 snack contains between 10 and 15 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon. On Saturday the restaurant was packed with diners and it was the star attraction.
Mr Farquharson said: ”We’ve been producing these bacon rolls for over 52 years and some of our customers having been coming back for decades, which is amazing.
”Our bacon rolls are the mainstay of the whole operation but even I have been astonished by the sheer amount we’ve been serving up since the announcement.
”This is a family business. We keep to the old ways, keep it simple and serve good food and that will never change.
”It’s great that our customers have taken the time and effort to vote for us and we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure that we maintain our reputation.”
The weekend’s clientele included a strong contingent from the Granite City, with fans and officials of Aberdeen Football Club stopping on the way to Kilmarnock for the afternoon’s SPL fixture.
Among them was AFC physician Dr Derek Gray, who admitted he couldn’t miss an opportunity to pop in.
He was joined in the queue by fans Scott Duncan (30) and dad Ian (56), who found the restaurant so busy when they arrived that they ate outside in the sun.
”The bacon rolls are just fantastic and worth every penny,” said Scott. ”There are 15 rashers of bacon and you don’t get that just anywhere.”
Ian added: ”I’ve been coming here for many years for the bacon butties and the quality has never changed. People describe the biggest as ‘half a pig on a bun’ and that’s certainly true.”
The pair then headed south with a famous ”Killie pie” next on the menu.
Fellow Aberdonian Stuart Masson (26) and a party of friends also stopped off on Saturday on their way to a music event in the north of England.
”We’ve been going on about the Horn butties all the way down the road,” he said.