Peanut Butter ... Like You've Never Seen It Before

Remember peanut butter and jelly? The go-to snack of kids (and one semi-grown-up ) everywhere?

How about peanut butter and bacon?

Coming soon to Moorestown Mall, PBandU uses the peanut butter sandwich concept and takes it to another level.

How about peanut butter with apples and cheddar? Or peanut butter with bananas, bacon and honey? Or how about one of the the restaurant’s trademarks: peanut butter with bacon, cheddar and pickles?

If your immediate reaction to that last one is “<insert gagging sound here>,” PBandU owner Mercury Amodio understands how you feel.

But, she said, “Everyone I’ve ever seen try it has loved it … It tastes like a cheeseburger.”

The irony of that statement is that greasy fast food cheeseburgers (and fries, and chicken sandwiches, etc.) are exactly what Amodio was trying to get away from when she opened PBandU.

As a child, she and her siblings resisted the urge to indulge in junk food during long car rides, preferring instead the plastic-wrapped PB&Js they’d brought with them.  

“We didn’t want to eat greasy food and then get back in a crowded Volkswagen,” Amodio said. “We used to say we should open a restaurant where we’d serve peanut butter and jelly … Since we were kids we would joke about that.”

The joke’s on us now. After devoting five years to honing her musical talents in New York City, Amodio realized the music industry was not as fulfilling as she’d imagined. Luckily, hearkening back to those long car rides, she experienced another “creative calling” and in August of last year opened the first PBandU in Wayne, PA.

The concept struck a chord, drawing in customers of all ages, Amodio said: Stay-at-home moms and kids during the day, businesspeople during the lunch hour, and all kinds in the evening.

“The atmosphere is very welcoming and comfortable and familiar. Peanut butter is something people know,” she said, explaining the restaurant’s appeal. “It’s almost unavoidable; you can’t help but invoke the nostalgia.”

And while your mom may have raised you on Jif or Skippy, PBandU makes its own peanut butter fresh on-site using honey-roasted peanuts. In addition to its regular menu options, which are extensive, the restaurant also takes requests—no matter how odd the combination.

“People will say, ‘There’s no way they’re going to have … My mom used to make peanut butter and …,” said Amodio. “We try to have everything. We will never say ‘no’ to any combo.”

They occasionally can’t fulfill a request, like the person who came in and asked for peanut butter and scrambled egg.

And not everything works with peanut butter. There are some combos Amodio has tried and wouldn’t recommend: peanut butter and avocado, for example. The texture just wasn’t right, she said. “Two slimies don’t go together.”

PBandU will set up just outside the food court at the Moorestown Mall, across from . Amodio said she’s hoping to open before the end of the year, but expects it’ll happen sometime after the first of the year.

For more information on PBandU and to check out the menu, visit their website.