By Elizabeth Lenhard
The weird, wonderful comic book bar, My Parents' Basement, is built on a foundation of shag-carpeted nostalgia. So it makes sense that the first time I tasted their star sandwich, it gave me a college flashback.
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Credit: Yvonne Zusel
Back in my very first off-campus apartment, I had a Michigander roommate with three-inch-tall bangs the color of cream soda. She was the one who taught me that if you fried a round of breakfast sausage, smeared it with grape jelly and tucked it into a folded slice of spongy white toast, it was kind of disgustingly sublime.
Much like the entire contents of my Biology 101 class, I forgot all about that jammy, porky combo—until I tasted the Toasted CBJB sandwich at My Parents’ Basement. Allow me to break it down for you:
The CB is cashew butter.
The J is strawberry jelly.
The B is bacon from the Basement’s Avondale Estates neighbor, Pine Street Market.
And the toast? It’s white – a soft, comforting white a couple rungs above Sunbeam but far below shmancy sourdough, because it’s essential that this sandwich have some squish to it.
The cashew butter is also a perfect choice. It’s silkier than a peanut puree, sweeter than almond butter, and it’s got a rich, fattiness to it that just begs for a salty, chewy-crisp counterpart.
Enter that Pine Street bacon, which is thick-cut and extremely flavorful, but not so smoky that it dominates the sandwich, especially with the help of that final slick-and-sweet accessory, the strawberry jam.
I can’t imagine any other fruit feeling at home on this sandwich. Grape jelly would be too gloppy and it would take the CBJB’s suburban kitsch too far. But apricot, raspberry or fig would be too highbrow; too after-dinner-cheese-plate. Strawberry, like that white toast, is just right.
The sandwich is served as it should be – smashed and oozy and over way too quick. It costs $9, which is a lot for a classed-up PBJ. But like the comic books My Parents’ Basement sells along with grub and beer, the Toasted CBJB is an unlikely work of art, and it’s worth it.
Toasted CBJB, $9. My Parents' Basement, 22 N. Avondale Rd, Avondale Estates. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays.404-292-4607, http://myparentsbasement.squarespace.com
More Dish of the Week picks:
Fish fliet from Wrecking Bar Brewpub
Kale pakoras from Chai Pani in Decatur
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