A Sandwich Fit For A King

What do you get when you combine bacon, peanut butter and bananas? If you answered a stomachache then you may wish to stop reading this entry and go indulge in a rice cake or two. If not, then you probably know that those are the ingredients in one of Elvis Presley's favorite sandwiches.

For some ungodly reason Gothamist went to R.U.B. after the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party last Sunday and spotted a new item on the menu: the Elvis Crusher. Despite hours of feasting on such meaty treats as juicy, gargantuan beef ribs from Hill Country, we mustered up the appetite to order the pressed version of Presley's famous sandwich. Our hopes of a fat-induced heart attack were dashed when we heard that the sandwich press was out of commission that day.

Gothamist returned to R.U.B. this week and was glad to learn that the press was back in working order. And after a relatively fat-free week we felt a tad better about ordering one of the heart-stopping wonders. It should be noted that the King deep fried his sandwiches and had probably never heard of a panini press. Of course, he never had access to Scott Smith's house-cured Berkshire pork bacon either. The combination of the crsip deep-fried bacon, creamy peanut butter and sweet bananas, not to mention the lightly buttered bread, was so good that Gothamist had to physically leave the premises lest we found ourselves indulging in a five-sandwich orgy. As we strolled down 23rd Street, we deluded ourselves into thinking of this sandwich as a health food for humid summer days. Surely the potassium in the bananas and the salt in the bacon combine to make this an electrolyte replacement sandwich.

R.U.B.
208 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
(212) 524-4300