This holiday season, skip the eggnog, candy canes and gingerbread. There’s a new player in town — Edzo’s Burger Shop’s peanut butter and bacon sandwich.

The “PB & B” has been on the beloved burger joint’s menu since its opening but has gone unknown and unappreciated. But this year, The Daily has selected it as Evanston’s funkiest dish for the holidays. It’s time to spark a peanut butter-bacon resurgence and perhaps a new holiday tradition.

The PB&B, in an almost mythological way, contains no explanation or description on the menu. Instead, in the spot where each burger or sandwich is described, the word “seriously” appears.

Eddie Lakin, the owner of the Evanston eatery that has been churning out famous burgers and fries for a decade now, said despite its nonchalant name, Lakin has a thought-out reason for the dish.

“I put weird stuff on the menu every once in awhile just to get people to engage,” Lakin said. “The whole idea of putting it on the menu was to make people approach and be like, ‘What is it?’”

The genesis for the PB&B came from Lakin’s childhood, when a seemingly normal breakfast turned into a groundbreaking discovery.

“When I was a little kid I had pancakes and bacon,” Lakin said. “I would take peanut butter
and put it on my pancakes. And then I would take the bacon and lay it in there. And I would fold the pancake and make like a taco.”

But the edible ingenuity did not stop there.

“On the weekdays, when my mom wasn’t making pancakes, sometimes I wanted peanut butter and bacon. And I was like, ‘alright, I’ll just make toast, and then I’ll put a piece of bacon and peanut butter and all maple syrup.’ I started doing that regularly and it’s totally a great sandwich.”

George Callobre, a Skokie resident, said while people regard the kooky peanut-pork combination with hesitation, the initial skepticism quickly turns into flavor-town delight.

“It sounds odd, but it tastes good,” Callobre said. “It’s wonderful! It’s peanut butter and bacon!”

But Lakin says Callobre is in the minority. The sandwich is usually only ordered by parents wishing to appease their restless kids with something simple, but Lakin saves them the surprise.

“Hardly ever do people order it,” Lakin said. “They usually think that it’s peanut butter and banana. They’ll order it for a kid because there’s fussy kids once in a while, so they want a peanut butter sandwich. They’ll order it with no banana, and I’ll be like, ‘the B is not banana. Its bacon.’”

Don’t let the treat’s modestly-sized demand fool you. The sticky, savory sandwich has the potential to be a holiday treat. Beside a toasty fire, in boughs-of-holly-decked halls or even in the back of a winter sleigh, the gooey-yet-meaty chow is quirky enough to become a wintertime favorite.

“It’s not odd at all!” Carmie Callobre said. “This would go really good with a soft drink. The sweetness and the salty when you get a Coke and you just sip that up.”

Email: [email protected]