“God is so good,” Harris-Durham says. “I'm so overwhelmed. We worked so hard and I was going to give up so many times.”
Big Bacon’s was derived from Harris-Durham's previous catering business in her hometown of Chicago. With an initial Valley location in the Tempe food court dating back to 2021, the new sit-down downtown Phoenix restaurant delivers rich and creative soul food recipes. She and her husband, Jamaal Durham, created the dishes and run the restaurant together.
Customer favorites include fried salmon tenders, lobster tails, Philly cheesesteak and Buffalo chicken egg rolls and several varieties of banana pudding. Many of the menu items carry a price tag between $25 and $30, and the large portions reflect the amount.
Pizza puffs, a starter on the menu, are a Chicago staple. The deep-fried parcels are stuffed with mozzarella cheese and meats like pepperoni, served with a side of mild sauce, a popular Chicago condiment similar to a spicy barbeque sauce.
“My personal favorite is the jerk salmon or the beef pot roast,” Harris-Durham says. “The mac and cheese is bomb, that’s my favorite side. And my favorite dessert is the strawberry banana pudding.”
Growing up in a south Chicago neighborhood riddled with gun violence, Harris-Durham says she always viewed food as a bright spot. At the time, her mother struggled with substance abuse, and her father was serving time in prison, so Harris-Durham was raised by her grandparents. It’s from them she learned to love cooking.
“I cook like a grandma,” she says.
Her husband learned to cook from his father. Together, they leaned on their combined family experience to open Big Bacon’s as a catering service, in 2017. The business gained support in Chicago, and was booked for weddings and events throughout the city.
The couple relocated with their two children to Phoenix in 2020 and were able to rent a ghost kitchen in the Tempe Food Court to continue their catering business. But just a few months after their move, tragedy struck in the Harris family. On January 22, 2021, Harris-Durham's grandfather moved to Phoenix to support the Tempe opening of Big Bacon’s. A day later, he passed away. It was his birthday.
“I was fixing a feast of food for him for his birthday because that's the way my grandmother showed her love by cooking big dinners for our family,” she says. "Unfortunately, he never got to eat it.”
Her grandfather’s memory reignited her inspiration for the restaurant years later. In 2024, Harris-Durham and her husband finally acquired the brick-and-mortar space they needed to expand Big Bacon's and would be ready for service later that year.
Tragedy struck Adriane Harris-Durham's family, but she drew on family memories to open her restaurant, Big Bacon's.
Shi Bradley
Harris-Durham dreams of someday expanding the restaurant, both around the Valley and in her hometown of Chicago. But for now, Now, her focus is the ever-increasing demand for Big Bacon’s downtown.
“People are just hanging out the door,” Harris-Durham says. “I’m working every day just to accommodate the crowd. It's been hard, but we made it.”
