It’s not the healthiest thing, but you can’t deny that peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches are delightful. The Elvis sandwich, as we all know it, has been recreated time and again in different forms (I most recently had it as a waffle, if you can believe it), but credit for the concoction remains with the King.
Elvis Presley didn’t come up with the sandwich himself, though. It used to be better known as the Fool’s Gold Loaf, served by a Denver-area restaurant called Colorado Mine Company. This sandwich was made up of a hollowed-out loaf of bread containing no less than an entire jar of peanut butter, an entire jar of jam and a pound of bacon, was supposed to serve eight people and cost $50 (which would be just under $250 these days). I know -- yikes. Presley had had it once after a show in Denver.
The story goes that in February of 1976, Presley had a few friends from Denver over to Graceland, and the sandwich came up in conversation. You know how it is when you get a craving -- it must be satisfied, and as soon as possible.
Lucky for Elvis, he was Elvis, so he and his pals hopped on the Lisa Marie, his private plane, spent $16,000 to charter it and arrived in Denver two hours later. They were met by the owner of Colorado Mine Company with two dozen Fool’s Gold Sandwiches, demolished them on the hangar with, rumor has it, Perrier and champagne and promptly flew back to Memphis.
Because of Presley’s obvious addiction to this gluttonous sandwich, it went down in history as “the Elvis sandwich,” though the most well-known iterations have subbed peanut butter in for the jam and don’t require so much of the ingredients -- thank goodness.
So, next time you see this sandwich on a menu, wash it down with some bubbly and “Burning Love” blasting through the speakers.