by Steven Doyle
We pretty much associate Elvis with that quirky sandwich made with peanut butter, bananas. The original sandwich that hooked the crooner did not have slices of bacon as we so often think, but instead just mashed bananas and white bread slathered with peanut butter. Later Elvis was introduced to a toasted version with the added bacon, because the sandwich just wasn’t nearly the heart attack inducer it could be. An even later version had the sandwich fried in a skillet of butter.
Then we have Fool’s Gold. This is a lesser known version of the sandwich that actually had Elvis flying across country on a whim to devour.
The year was 1976 when a group of police officers in Denver knocked on the backdoor of a local restaurant, the Colorado Mine Company. They were there with Elvis, who happened to be donning a captain’s uniform that evening. There they sat in the kitchen and enjoyed this massive loaf of peanut butter, bananas and bacon.
A Fool’s Gold sandwich is actually an entire loaf of Italian bread that has been slathered on the crust with margarine, heated for ten minutes at 350, and then sliced lengthwise and hollowed. Once the bread has been prepared an entire jar of peanut butter is spread on one half, the other gets a whole jar of blueberry jam. Before closing out the sandwich a pound of bacon slices are added. This can serve up to ten people, but Elvis could down the entire loaf at one sitting. After all, he was the King.
Smaller versions of the Fool’s Gold could be made, but what fun is there in moderation?
It wasn’t uncommon for Elvis to fire up the Lisa Marie and fly to Denver to enjoy a Fool’s Gold sandwich. Often he would sit in the hangar at Stapleton airport and have the sandwich delivered. There he would sit and enjoy the sandwich before taking off back to Memphis.
The original restaurant where the sandwich was made has since closed, but you can find its offspring made by the kid who fed Elvis at Nick’s Cafe in Golden, Colorado (also recently closed).
