Elvis Sandwich: Peanut Butter, Banana and Bacon, and the Fool’s Gold Loaf

The Elvis sandwich is peanut butter and banana on bread fried or toasted in a pan, with bacon added in many versions, and none of the sources fetched for this post names the person who first made it. The connection to Elvis Presley rests on accounts from the cooks who worked for him, on newspaper columns from the late 1950s, and on later recipes that borrowed his name. A second and much larger sandwich often gets folded into the same story. The Fool’s Gold Loaf, a hollowed-out loaf stuffed with peanut butter, jelly and bacon, came from a Denver restaurant, and it has no banana in it at all.

Video: Elvis’ Favorite! The Fool’s Gold Sandwich at Nick’s Cafe | For the Love of Elvis

What goes into the sandwich

Wikipedia, used here only as a pointer because few better surveys of the topic exist, lists the sandwich under several names, including “the Elvis,” says its creator is unknown, and notes that not every account mentions bacon. The base is the same in nearly all of them: peanut butter, sliced or mashed banana, and white bread that is grilled or pan-fried.

A November 2025 article in The Takeout describes Presley’s favorite as “fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, which sometimes included bacon”. The article cites no sources for the claim. The bacon version has its own method in a recipe Mental Floss summarized from The Takeout: the bacon is fried first, and the bread is then toasted in the bacon grease instead of butter until the peanut butter begins to ooze.

Tasters have not always been kind. When staff at NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me made the bacon version in 2010, one of them judged it with the words “Wow, this is gross. The flavors don’t blend.” The piece, headlined as the sandwich that helped kill Elvis, is a joke, and it offers no medical evidence for the claim.

The cooks at Graceland

Two women are named in the printed record. Salon reports that Pauline Nicholson cooked for Presley from 1964 until he died and says she may have invented the peanut butter and banana sandwich. The same piece names Mary Jenkins, who wrote Elvis, Memories Beyond Graceland Gates, as another regular cook. The Takeout gives Jenkins, who went by Mary Langston, 14 years at Graceland and says she stayed on under Priscilla Presley for 12 more.

An Associated Press obituary from July 2005 says Nicholson died at 76 and that she and Langston prepared the King’s favorite peanut butter and fried banana sandwiches. The obituary does not mention bacon.

The two cooks’ claims are not reconciled anywhere in these sources. A blog post on Jenkins’s 1989 book gives a different origin: in 1972, Presley came back from a concert tour and described a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich he had eaten on the road, and Jenkins needed three attempts before he approved of hers. The page reproduces what it presents as her recipe. Ripe bananas are blended with creamy peanut butter, spread on buttered bread, and grilled in a buttered skillet, and the same page says Presley ate them with a knife and fork because they were messy. The recipe is a transcription on a blog rather than a page from the book, so the details are secondhand.

Tasting Table’s survey of Presley’s favorite foods describes the same sandwich with more butter than the blog recipe suggests. In that account, Langston experimented and sought advice from Presley’s family before landing on a version he approved, using two sticks of butter for every three sandwiches, and Presley wanted the butter fully absorbed into the bread by the end of frying. Tasting Table credits her account to a 1996 BBC documentary and a June 5, 2000, New York Times article, neither of which was fetched for this post. Chowhound, quoting the same documentary through the Times, has Langston saying of her employer, “And he liked his food real rich.”

Food Republic gives the family a part in the story. It says Presley’s mother, Gladys, made peanut butter and banana sandwiches grilled in bacon grease. The claim carries no citation, and it conflicts with the 1972 origin in Jenkins’s account, in which the sandwich is new to the household.

Peanut butter and banana before Elvis

The pairing predates his fame. Researcher Barry Popik’s collection of early citations begins with a 1930 Chicago Daily Tribune headline, “Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches,” with no recipe on the page. A 1934 Washington Post item says the sandwiches appeared on the menus of tea rooms in nearly every city, and a 1937 cookbook, Toll House Tried and True, mashes a small banana into peanut butter. Popik works from secondary citations and notes he has not checked the original newspapers. Peanut butter’s own rise as a tea-room filling is covered in the post on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The first link to Presley on Popik’s page is a 1957 Walter Winchell column in the Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News: “Elvis’ favorite sandwich is peanut butter and mashed banana.” A year later, an Associated Press item in the Kansas City Times reported that Private Presley planned to eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches during a two-week leave. Popik’s summaries of both items mention neither bacon nor frying.

Where the bacon came from

Bacon enters the record later and less cleanly. In Salon’s 2007 piece, a cookbook author is quoted as saying, “Elvis loved bacon on just about everything”, including the sandwich. Popik’s earliest printed bacon version is a 2002 book, Honey: From Flower to Table, whose “Fat Elvis” swaps the banana for bacon and fries the sandwich in bacon grease. That is a variation named after him rather than a record of what he ate.

Mental Floss, drawing on Salon, says Nicholson may have served the first peanut butter and banana sandwich and adds that nothing in its sources dates the arrival of the bacon. Wikipedia, again as a pointer only, cites a biography by Elaine Dundy that describes “sandwich after sandwich” of peanut butter, banana and bacon, a claim not checked against the book for this post. Bacon’s long run as a sandwich ingredient is separate from the Presley story and appears in the post on the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

The Fool’s Gold Loaf in Denver

The Fool’s Gold Loaf is the sandwich that tends to be mistaken for the Elvis sandwich. It was served at the Colorado Mine Company, a restaurant in Glendale, Colorado, run by Buck and Cindy Scott, according to Westword. Nick Andurlakis, then a teenage cook there, says the staff wanted something playful. In his words, “We had steak and lobster,” but “we had nothing ‘fun’ on the menu.” He says the mining-theme name came from the restaurant’s decor: “It kept with the theme.”

The Denver Public Library dates the famous flight to February 1, 1976. By its account Presley flew from Memphis to Denver on a whim to eat the sandwich, brought along Denver police captain Jerry Kennedy and another police friend, ate at Stapleton Airport and flew home the same day. The Gazette adds that J.D. Sumner, a Presley associate, estimated the round trip cost about $16,000, and that a menu photo shows the loaf priced at $37.95 under the line “The price is negotiable.”

Presley first met the sandwich on an earlier night, according to Westword, after a concert, when Denver police brought him into the restaurant and Andurlakis recommended it. Garden & Gun, which tells the story in Andurlakis’s words, says a police officer named Ron Pietrafeso asked him to stay late for a special guest, that Presley arrived after midnight with a group of uniformed officers, and that the cook described the four-pound loaf and was told, “Make me one.” Months later, the same account says, Presley called from Graceland, and Andurlakis met his jet at Stapleton with sandwiches, Perrier and champagne. They talked for about three hours.

Messy Nessy, citing Elvis.net, adds details of the flight itself. It names the plane as the Lisa Marie, a Convair 880, puts the landing at 1:40 a.m., and says the Scotts met it with 22 loaves before the group spent about three hours in the hangar. The Joplin Globe likewise gives 22 sandwiches and notes that its estimates of the trip’s cost vary, with some near $16,000.

Andurlakis, as quoted by Messy Nessy, calls the sandwich “no ordinary PB&J” and warns diners that it is eaten at their own risk Messy Nessy reports the price rose later, to as high as $65.

The Gazette quotes Andurlakis calling the creation a “ginormous, artery-hardening contraption.” A 2007 attempt by a Spokesman-Review writer to have a chef re-create the meal, as reported by Katie Couric’s site, put it at about 8,000 calories, while the Joplin Globe says more than 9,000.

Chowhound adds that the 1995 book The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley gives what the article calls an “official” recipe: a buttered Italian loaf toasted at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, hollowed out, and filled with peanut butter, grape jelly and bacon. The same article says Andurlakis’s own version was a triple-decker built on an unheated loaf, with strawberry jam in place of grape or blueberry. Food Republic reports that Presley reportedly bought the recipe from the restaurant and asked Nicholson to keep the ingredients on hand, a claim it does not source. Tasting Table similarly says the owners were asked to hand the recipe to his private chef.

Where the Fool’s Gold accounts disagree

The loaf is a moving target. The bread is French in the Denver Public Library and Westword accounts, sourdough in the Gazette and Couric versions, and Italian in Tasting Table. The jelly is blueberry in most tellings and grape in Westword’s recipe, which says the original blueberry preserve is no longer sold. Westword’s recipe bakes the buttered loaf, while Tasting Table says the whole sandwich was deep-fried. Margarine and a pound of bacon appear in nearly every list.

The price differs by source as well: $37.95 on the menu photo in the Gazette, $49.95 in Atlas Obscura and Tasting Table, a figure Chowhound converts to roughly $275 in current money. Chowhound puts the airport feast at about 20 to 30 sandwiches and adds a case of champagne, and Tasting Table’s survey of Presley’s foods notes that accounts disagree on whether the order was 22 or 30. The number of sandwiches that reached the plane runs from “several” at the library to ten in Westword, dozens at Colorado Public Radio, and 30 loaves in Atlas Obscura, which places the group in the Combs hangar.

The reason for the flight changes too. Westword’s profile of Andurlakis has Presley saying it was Lisa Marie’s third birthday, and a separate Westword piece on Nick’s Cafe calls it her eighth birthday party. Couric’s site says The Denver Post reported a private-jet pickup for her birthday and calls the story “totally true” while resting it on that reporting. The Colorado Public Radio page introduces the trip with “the story goes” and cites no source.

Credit for the sandwich is not settled either. Westword’s profile credits Andurlakis and his coworkers, while Tasting Table says some accounts name him and suggests the Scotts may have created it. The Nick’s Cafe piece reports that former Colorado Mine Company regulars dispute parts of Andurlakis’s Elvis stories, and that its editor removed some of the disputed material. The restaurant closed with the early-1980s oil bust, per the same article. Andurlakis opened Nick’s Cafe in Golden in 1986, the Gazette reports, though Messy Nessy notes that its own sources disagree on whether the cafe stood in Golden or in Lakewood, and Chowhound dates its closing to March 2022, after more than 30 years.

The Elvis sandwich at Graceland today

The fried banana sandwich survives at Graceland itself, though the tone is cautious. A Memphis magazine taste test found it at Rockabilly’s Burger Shop, where it was sold at $4.29 as peanut butter and sliced banana on Texas toast, grilled Elvis-style. The cook at the grill, Doushana Smith, said, “We go through probably eight bags of bread on a normal day.” The same article reports that Elvis Presley Enterprises insiders consider the idea that Presley loved peanut butter and banana on Texas toast more myth than fact. The article’s date was not shown in the fetched text, so the price may have changed. Food Republic, in 2024, places the Graceland version at Gladys’ Diner for $4.99 and says the Arcade Restaurant in Memphis sells a hybrid of the two sandwiches, with sliced banana and optional bacon fried in bacon grease. A 2011 post on the I Love Memphis blog also lists Gladys’ Diner and the Arcade as places to order it. The Memphis magazine piece and Food Republic name different Graceland outlets and prices, which may reflect different years.

The two sandwiches have drifted toward each other in restaurants. Atlas Obscura notes that tribute versions called “The Elvis” often add banana or grape jelly and come in smaller portions than the original Denver loaf.

Sources:

• Wikipedia, “Peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich” (used as a pointer only): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter,_banana_and_bacon_sandwich
• The Takeout, “The Chef Behind Elvis’ Iconic Peanut Butter And Banana Sandwiches”: https://www.thetakeout.com/2018887/elvis-presley-chef-peanut-butter-banana-sandwiches/
• Mental Floss, “Try Elvis Presley’s Famous Peanut Butter, Bacon, Banana Sandwich”: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/554774/try-elvis-presleys-famous-peanut-butter-bacon-banana-sandwich
• NPR, “Sandwich Monday: The (Sandwich That Helped Kill) Elvis”: https://www.npr.org/sections/waitwait/2010/09/27/130157016/sandwich-monday-the-sandwich-that-helped-kill-elvis
• Salon, “Hunka hunka burnin’ bacon”: https://salon.com/2007/08/14/elvis_food
• Associated Press obituary via New York Sun, “Pauline Nicholson, 76, Cooked Elvis’s Favorites”: https://www.nysun.com/article/obituaries-pauline-nicholson-76-cooked-elviss-favorites
• JOT101, “Elvis’s Cook”: https://jot101.com/2013/03/elviss-cook/
• Barry Popik, “Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich (The Elvis; Velvet Elvis; Elvis Sandwich)”: https://barrypopik.com/blog/peanut_butter_and_banana_sandwich_the_elvis_velvet_elvis
• Westword, Critic’s Notebook on the Fool’s Gold Loaf: https://www.westword.com/?p=40625175
• Westword, “Nick Andurlakis on Elvis’s beloved Fool’s Gold Loaf sandwich and how it was conceived”: https://www.westword.com/music/nick-andurlakis-on-elviss-beloved-fools-gold-loaf-sandwich-and-how-it-was-conceived-5686824
• Westword, “Elvis’s beloved Fool’s Gold Loaf sandwich was born in Denver”: https://www.westword.com/restaurants/elviss-beloved-fools-gold-loaf-sandwich-was-born-in-denver-5764529
• Westword, “Nick’s Cafe”: https://www.westword.com/restaurants/nicks-cafe-elvis-presley-favorite-sandwich-fools-11928871
• Denver Public Library, “Elvis Presley: Honorary Denver Cop and Eater of Strange Sandwiches”: https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/elvis-presley-honorary-denver-cop-and-eater-strange-sandwiches
• The Gazette (Colorado Springs), Nick’s Cafe and the Fool’s Gold sandwich: https://gazette.com/?p=1279281
• Katie Couric Media, “We Fact-Checked 5 Legendary Pieces of Elvis Lore”: https://katiecouric.com/entertainment/how-did-elvis-presley-die-myths-facts/
• Tasting Table, “Fool’s Gold Loaf Was The Ultra-Sweet Sandwich Elvis Presley Loved”: https://tastingtable.com/1557989/fools-gold-loaf-sandwich-elvis-presley
• Atlas Obscura, Fool’s Gold sandwich: https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/fools-gold-bacon-sandwich-elvis
• Colorado Public Radio, “Elvis Presley and the Sandwich”: https://cpr.org/show-episode/elvis-presley-and-the-sandwich
• Memphis magazine, “Taste Test: Elvis’ Favorite Sandwich at Graceland’s Rockabilly Burger Shop”: https://memphismagazine.com/food/taste-test-elvis-favorite-sandwich-at-gracelands-rockabilly-burger-shop
• Tasting Table, “12 Of Elvis Presley’s Favorite Foods And Drinks”: https://tastingtable.com/1552335/elvis-presley-favorite-foods-drinks
• Garden & Gun, “A Legend’s Late-Night Snack”: https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/a-legends-late-night-snack/
• Messy Nessy Chic, “Elvis Presley’s Legendary Midnight Sandwich Run on His Private Jet”: https://messynessychic.com/2015/09/15/elvis-presleys-legendary-midnight-sandwich-run-on-his-private-jet
• Joplin Globe, “Fool’s Gold Loaf: A sandwich fit for the king”: https://www.joplinglobe.com/news/lifestyles/fools-gold-loaf-a-sandwich-fit-for-the-king/article_67efbd64-1f99-5f77-b526-ea4f3a7b2449.html
• Chowhound, “Elvis Presley’s Real Favorite Sandwich Used An Entire Loaf Of Bread”: https://www.chowhound.com/1566007/elvis-presley-favorite-sandwich-bread
• Food Republic, “The Sandwich Elvis Presley Loved So Much, He Ate It By The Loaf”: https://www.foodrepublic.com/1568366/elvis-presley-favorite-sandwich/
• I Love Memphis, “Taste Test: Elvis’ Favorite Sandwich”: https://ilovememphisblog.com/2011/01/taste-test-elvis-favorite-sandwich
• For the Love of Elvis (YouTube), “Elvis’ Favorite! The Fool’s Gold Sandwich at Nick’s Cafe”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPZmpJTMjnY