Issue: March/April 2015
By Sheehan Hannan
Maybe it was the hot dog they rode in on — or the India pale ale that washed it all down.
Somehow, at Suzie’s Dogs and Drafts in downtown Youngstown, being served crickets won’t prompt a call to the health inspector. In fact, they’re one of the shop’s more popular toppings, and Kevin Bachhuber, the guy who supplies them, is a regular.
Before their grublike carcasses ever swam in ketchup and mustard, the little buggers lived and died five minutes away at Big Cricket Farms.
Bachhuber stands outside the company’s warehouse beside a sign featuring a yellow cricket contorted into a Zen-meditation pose. A tagline reads, “We love eating bugs (and you should too).”