The best Super Bowl food ad wasn’t for food, beer, or pop

The best Super Bowl food ad wasn’t for food, beer, or pop

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Buffalo wing royal pie at Pleasant House Bakery in Chicago (Pleasant House Bakery/Art Jackson)

Super Bowl Sunday ranks only behind Thanksgiving in food consumption, says the USDA. So it’s no wonder that more than a third of all the ads were from food and drink companies.

But my pick for the best Super Bowl 2013 ad wasn’t for food, beer, or even pop. Though the Budweiser baby Clydesdale was awfully cute, did run amok in downtown Chicago, and made grown men cry.

No, the best hands down was “Farmer” with Chicago-based radio legend Paul Harvey — for Ram trucks.

The Ram brand has evidently declared “2013 The Year of the Farmer.” They say for every view of the video, they will make a donation to Future Farmers of America, with a goal of $1 million.

Which is good news, as “small farmers aren’t cashing in with Wal-Mart” and “future farms of America might not include much family”, reports NPR. It’s interesting to note that the video is really a collection of “gorgeous still images from 10 noted photographers.”

In Chicago, small family farmers do supply some small family restaurants as much as possible, where they make some of the most inspiring food and drink anywhere in America.

At Pleasant House Bakery, they made chili-cheese and Buffalo royal pies. The latter filled with boneless hot wings plus blue cheese sauce, garnished with a Buffalo wing, and paired with a house-brewed celery soda.

House-brewed celery soda at Pleasant House Bakery in Chicago (Pleasant House Bakery/Art Jackson)

At Bang Bang Pie Shop, they made a Super Bowl pie, a pretzel crust filled with dark chocolate ganache, malted marshmallow, covered with a hard chocolate shell, and garnished with a salted milk stout caramel. The milk stout beer, Mad Cow, brewed by Logan Square neighbors, Revolution Brewing.

Pleasant House chef/owner Art Jackson assures me those pies will be back, by popular demand. Bang Bang coffeeroaster/owner Dave Miller promises the chocolate pie will be on the menu for the coming week.
That is, as they say, a touchdown.
Super Bowl pie with beer caramel, chocolate, marshmallow, and pretzel crust at Bang Bang Pie Shop in Chicago (Bang Bang Pie Shop/Dave Miller)