What do NATO, the recent Cougar-Huskie football game, lip balm, a famous Hollywood actor, and hickory have in common? All have been touched by bacon flavorings courtesy of young entrepreneurs Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow of J&D's Down Home Enterprises in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. Their motto is "Everything Should Taste Like Bacon" and put their money where their mouth is.

They offer Bacon Salt, Bacon Lip Balm, and Baconnaise, their latest product. Their imaginative promotional concepts sell the sizzle. They spice up the "Meals, Ready to Eat," or "MRE's" by sending the troupes in Middle East their bacon-flavored, meatless salt, which is kosher in the Muslim world. Soldiers respond favorably on their blog as eating pork is taboo in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they welcome the taste from back home.

J&D workers stormed the ballfield in foam-rubber bacon costumes after the Cougars beat the Huskies and got on TV, and they are wooing actor Kevin Bacon to pitch their products for obvious reasons.

While the humorous bacon costume sports stunts may have the odor of hooliganism, the J&D team of young upstarts, including three Ballard residents, built a business worth its salt. They currently supply Bacon Salt to over ten thousand grocery stores nationwide, up from two thousand last April. Their novelty bacon-scented lip balm is catching on, and they just introduced Baconnaise, a bacon-flavored mayonnaise spread soon headed for the shelves of area QFC stores.

Over the shelves of J&D headquarters hang toy pigs while bacon magnets and photos hog desk space. The ubiquitous gag- will hoof it to their parking lot.

"Our company bought a new truck and we'll trick it out with chrome and detail it with a pig theme," said Stephen Kehner, operations manager and Ballard resident.

"Bacon on chocolate cake can be incredible," declared company promoter, Ballard-raised Trevor Essmeier, who hyped his products' sizzle on Good Morning America and in Maxim Magazine. "We sent Kevin Bacon samples and are trying hard to get him into our costume," he said, adding that the slightly tattered bacon strip costumes "seem to attract the young ladies."

But what about bacon lip balm? It seems to have a positive effect on Elizabeth Stohr, the wife of J&D salesman Greg Cunningham who lives in Ballard.

"I work long hours and miss my husband all day," she said. "If I put it on my lips I think of him."

For more information, go to www.baconsaltblog.com